REPORT  ON 

INDIA  AND  PERSIA 


OF  THE 


Deputation  sent  by  the  Board 
of  Foreign  Missions  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
U*  S.  A.  to  visit  these  fields 
in  1921-22 


PRESENTED  BY  MR.  ROBERT  E.  SPEER  AND 
MR.  RUSSELL  CARTER 


The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  In  the 
U.  S.  A.,  156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City 

1922 


^ ^  

BV  3265  .S6  1922 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the 

U.S.A.  Board  of  Foreign 
Report  on  India  and  Persia 


T 


REPORT  ON 

INDIA  AND  PERSIA 


OF  THE 


Deputation  sent  by  the  Board  of  Foreign 

Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 

in  the  U.  S.  A.  to  visit  these 

fields  in  1921-22 


,/  PRESENTED  BY  y^ 

]\Ir.  Robert  E.  Speer  and  Mr.  Russell  Carter 


The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A. 
156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City 

19  2  2 


INTRODUCTION 

WE  submit  herewith  to  the  Board  the  report  of  the  visit 
which  Mr.  Carter  and  I  made  to  India  and  Persia 
in  the  fall  and  winter  of  1921-22.  Mr.  Carter  sailed 
from  Vancouver  on  the  "Empress  of  Russia"  July  21,  1921, 
and  spent  a  few  weeks  in  Japan,  Korea  and  Northern  China, 
joining  Mr.  Welles  and  me  in  Shanghai  on  September  2nd, 
on  our  arrival  on  the  "Empress  of  Asia,"  on  which  we  had 
left  Vancouver  on  August  18th.  We  met  with  the  China 
Council  in  Shanghai  on  September  3rd  to  8th  with  the  excep- 
tion of  one  day  which  we  spent  at  Nanking.  We  left  Shanghai 
on  the  S.  S.  "Dilwara"  on  September  9th  and  reached  Colombo 
on  September  27th.  The  following  three  months  were  spent 
in  attendance  on  the  three  India  Mission  Meetings  and  in 
visiting  all  the  stations  of  these  Missions.  We  sailed  from 
Bombay  for  Mesopotamia  on  December  28th  on  the  S.  S. 
"Varsova"  arriving  at  Busra  January  4,  1922,  and  after  visits 
to  Bagdad  and  Mosul  we  left  Irak  for  Persia  on  January  13th. 
Three  months,  from  January  13th  to  April  11th  we  spent  in 
visiting  all  stations  in  Persia,  including  Meshed,  but  omitting 
Urumia,  where  the  political  disturbances  of  the  region  and 
the  military  operations  which  were  under  way  made  it  im- 
possible for  us  to  go.  From  Tabriz  we  came  out  through  the 
Caucasus  without  difficulty  or  discomfort,  thanks  to  the  kind- 
ness of  the  Near  East  Relief,  and  reached  Tiflis  on  April  16th, 
Batoum  on  April  19th,  and  Constantinople  on  April  23rd. 
From  Constantinople,  on  April  25th,  we  sailed  for  home  direct 
on  the  old  North  German  Lloyd  boat  "Bremen,"  now  the  S.  S. 
"Constantinople."  of  the  International  Steam  Navigation 
Company  of  Greece,  touching  at  Piraeus,  Palermo  and  Algiers, 
landing  in  New  York  on  May  21,  1922.  It  was  a  difficult 
and  intense  visitation  but  very  happy  and  rewarding. 

Mr.  Henry  H.  Welles,  3rd,  who  was  graduated  from  Prince- 
ton University  last  June,  went  with  us  at  his  own  expense  as 
Secretary.  His  unselfish  and  cheerful  spirit  was  a  constant 
comfort,  and  without  his  help  we  could  not  have  done  our  work 
or  prepared  our  report. 

I  know  that  this  Report  is  formidable,  but  our  great  diffi- 
culty has  been  to  keep  out  interesting  material,  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Board  and  of  the  India  and  Persia  Missions  can 
read  what  sections  of  it  they  think  of  greatest  importance. 
Perhaps  it  would  be  well  to  add  that  through  the  kindness 

3 


of  some  ever  generous  friends,  the  Report  is  published  at 
very  muc)i  reduced  expense  to  the  Board. 

The  date  and  place  of  writing  of  the  different  chapters  of 
the  report  are  frequently  indicated  in  order  to  explain  occa- 
sional references  which  might  otherwise  be  less  clear.  The 
letters  about  the  separate  stations  in  China,  India  and  Persia 
were  sent  home  from  the  field  for  the  information  of  the 
Board  and  the  home  constituency.  They  are  included  in  the 
report  in  order  to  furnish  to  those  who  may  be  unfamiliar  with 
the  conditions  in  the  different  Missions  a  sympathetic  even 
though  inadequate  picture  of  the  living  work  which  is  going 
steadily  forward  in  the  midst  of  all  the  perplexing  questions 
which  are  here  discussed. 

I  am  responsible  for  all  the  Report,  except  the  chapter  on 
Property  and  Finance  which  was  written  by  Mr.  Carter,  whose 
association  in  this  visit  to  the  Missions  was  a  blessing  and 
joy  to  all.  We  have  both  gone  over  the  whole  Report  together, 
however,  and  are  of  one  mind  in  its  representations  as  we 
were  in  all  our  conferences  and  communications  with  the  Mis- 
sions and  the  Churches. 

We  are  grateful  for  the  privilege  of  this  visitation.  From 
first  to  last  we  have  been  with  the  men  and  women  who  most 
richly  embody  the  Christian  spirit  and  who  are  most  nearly 
reproducing  the  work  of  the  Apostolic  Church.  All  the  affec- 
tion which  we  already  felt  for  them  has  .been  deepened,  and 
our  one  desire  is  better  to  serve  them  and  better  with  them 
to  serve  our  common  Lord. 

New  York  City,  June  24,  1922.  R.  E.  S. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

I.  THE    SHIFTING    THOUGHTS    OF   JAPAN 7-16 

II.  CHINA    19-35 

1.  The  Confusion  and  Distress  of  China 19-26 

2.  The  Great  Gate  of  China   27-31 

3.  The  Forces  of  New  Life  in  Nanking 32-35 

III.  PAST  THE  CROSSROADS  OF  THE  WORLD 36-40 

IV.  INDIA. 
1.  History  of  Our  India 


Missions  43-53 


2.  Letters  from  the  Stations   54- 


113 

54 
57 
60 
63 
67 
70 


(1)  The  City  of  False  Gods 

(2)  The  Cradle  of  Christianity  in  the  Punjab 

(3)  The   Place  of   Serpents    

(4)  Kodoli  and  Islampur    

(5)  The  Two  Stations  of  the  Konkan    

(6)  Where  the  Kolhapur  Mission  Began    

(7)  Teaching   and    Healing    in    the     Southern     Marathi 

Country  73 

(8)  Lucknow  and  Cawnpore    76 

(9)  Fatehpur,  Etawah  and  Mainpuri    80 

(10)  On  Sacred  Ground  at  Fatehgarh 83 

(11)  By  the  Ganges  Canal  and  the  Great  Trunk  Road 87 

(12)  "Unto  the  Hills"   90 

(13)  The  City  of  St.  Haroun   93 

(14)  Ambala  and  Santokh  Majra 97 

(15)  Jullundur  and  Hoshiarpur    100 

(16)  The  Village  Work  in  India  104 

(17)  Lahore    107 

(18)  Gwalior  and  Jhansi    110 

3.  Some  Aspects  of  the  Present  Political  Environment  of  the 

Church  and  Missions  in  India    114-134 

4.  Some  Aspects  of  the  Present  Economic  and  Religious  En- 

vironment of  the  Church  in  India   135-170 

5.  Problems  of  the  Church  and  of  Evangelization 171-253 

(1)  Relations    between    the    Foreign    Missions    and    the 

Indian  Church    171 

A.  Early  History  of  the  Question  171 

B.  Correspondence  between  the  Four  Allahabad  Brethren 

and  the  Board   178 

C.  The  Saharanpur  Conference   179 

D.  Discussion  of  Saharanpur  Conference  Report 184-215 

a.  Expressions  of  Churches  and  Christian  Communities  184 

b.  Various  Group  Conferences   186 

c.  Actions  of  the  Missions,  the  Presbyteries  and  the 

India   Council    199 

E.  General  Observations  on  the  Situation   215-231 

(2)  The   Relation   of   the    Indian     Church     to     Political 

Problems   231 

(3)  The  Mass  Movement    235 

(4)  A  New  Aspect  of  the  Movement  toward  Church  Union  243 

(5)  The  Nationalistic  Ideal  of  the  Church 251 

6.  Some   Aspects   of  the   Problem   of   Missionary  Education 

in  India   254-303 

(1)  The  General  Situation   254 

(2)  The  Conscience   Clause    259 

(3)  The  Relation  of  Missions  to  Government 275 

(4)  The  Problems  of  our  Mission  Colleges 277 


IV.  INDIA    (Continued)  PAGE 

(5)  High   Schools    282 

(6)  Village   Schools    287 

(7)  Theological,  Agricultural  and  Industrial  Schools....  290 

(8)  The  Christian  Influence  of  our  Educational  Work..  292 

(9)  Non-Christian    Teachers    299 

(10)    Schools   for    Missionaries'    Children 302 

7.  Some  General  Observations  Regarding  our  India  Missions. 304-312 

V.  PERSIA 

1.  History  of  Our  Persia  Missions 315 

2.  Letters  from  the  Stations    327-356 

(1)  Basra  and  Bagdad    327 

(2)  The  Call  from  Nineveh   331 

(3)  A  Door  of  Access  to  the  Kurds   334 

(4)  By   the   Tomb   of    Mordecai    337 

(5)  The  Center  of  Persia's  Life  and  Death 340 

(6)  The  Great  Shrine  of  Persia   344 

(7)  The  Station  on  the  Caspian    347 

(8)  Tabriz    350 

(9)  The  Station  we  Could  not  Visit   353 

3.  The  Need  and  Destitution  of  Persia    357-371 

4.  The  Growth  of  Tolerance  and  Religious  Liberty  in  Persia .  .  372-387 

5.  Approaches  to  Persian   Mohammedanism    388-402 

6.  Talks  with  Mohammedan  Converts  in  Persia 403-425 

7.  From  Shah  Abdul  Azim  to  the  Shrine  of  Iman  Reza.  .  .  .426-450 

8.  Problems  of  the  Work  for  Moslems 451-460 

9.  The   Reoccupation    of    Urumia    and   our    Relations   to   the 

Assyrian  People  and  Church    461-484 

10.  The  Educational  Work   485-503 

11.  The  Medical  Work   504-508 

12.  The  Occupation  of  the  Field   509-531 

13.  The  Call  of  Mesopotamia   532-544 

14.  The  Relief  Work 545-564 

15.  Some  Miscellaneous  Points 565-576 

VI.  PROPERTY  AND   FINANCE    577-589 

VII.  SOME   CONCLUDING  GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS.  .  .590-620 

APPENDICES 

Appendix         I.     Report  of  the  Committee  on  the  Relation  of  the 
Mission  and  the  Indian  Church  and  vice  versa, 

Punjab  Mission  Meeting,  October  1917 623 

Appendix       II.     Letter  of  N.  K.  Murkerji,  June  15,  1920 628 

Appendix     III.     Letter  of  J.  M.  David,  A.  Ralla  Ram,  N.  C.  Mur- 
kerji and  N.  K.  Murkerji,  June  15,  1920 629 

Appendix      IV.     Letter  of  N.  K.  Murkerji,  July  8,  1920 649 

Appendix       V.     Letter  of  N.  K.  Murkerji,  July  22,  1920   649 

Appendix      VI.     Letter  of  Robert  E.  Speer  to  J.  M.  David,  et  al., 

Sept.  21,   1920    050 

Appendix    VII.     Letter  of  Robert  E.  Speer  to  N.  K.  Murkerji, 

July  18,   1921 658 

Appendix  VIII.     Letter  of  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  Feb.  26, 

1906    665 

Appendix      IX.     Letter  of  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  July  3,  1906        675 

Appendix       X.     Report  of  Saharanpur  Conference 680 

Appendix      XI.     Action  of  North  India  Mission,  Oct.  1921    684 

Appendix    XII.     Paper  by  Shivramji  Masoji  on  "Indian  Church 

and    India's    Crisis"    ^ 687 

Appendix  XIII.     "God,  the  Crown  and  the  Nation,"  from  "Nur 

Afshan,"   Nov.    15,    1921    690 

Appendix  XIV.     An  Indian  Christian  Manifesto  on  Church  Union        693 


I.     THE  SHIFTING  'THOUGHTS" 
OF  JAPAN 

We  had  intended  to  sail  from  San  Francisco  direct  for 
India  and  Persia  on  August  13th  on  the  S.  S.  "Creole  State," 
but  travelers  on  the  Shipping  Board  boats  have  been  subject 
to  many  vicissitudes,  and  we  discovered  on  reaching  San 
Francisco  that  the  sailing  had  been  cancelled  by  the  Pacific  Mail 
and  that  no  provision  had  been  made  for  the  disappointed 
passenger  list.  Happily  we  were  able  with  some  difficulty 
to  transfer  at  once  to  the  "Empress  of  Asia,"  of  the  Canadian 
Pacific  Ocean  Services,  w^hich  sailed  from  Vancouver  August 
18th.  It  is  easy  to  see  now  the  ample  providential  compensa- 
tions for  any  disappointment  of  our  first  plan.  We  lost  the 
visit  to  Manila,  but  gained  in  exchange  fresh  opportunities 
for  seeing  Japan  and  China  again,  a  full  week  of  conferences 
with  missionaries  and  missionary  committees  in  Shanghai 
and  Nanking,  and  the  privilege  of  crossing  the  Pacific  with 
perhaps  the  largest  number  of  missionaries  and  missionary 
supporters  which  ever  went  out  on  a  single  vessel  to  the 
mission  field. 

The  last  night  before  we  reached  Shanghai,  I  went  out 
alone  on  the  forward  deck  to  look  off  across  the  quiet  waters 
toward  China,  and  to  contrast  our  approach  with  Robert 
Morrison's  more  than  a  hundred  and  ten  years  ago.  He  came 
alone  in  the  face  of  the  opposition  of  the  greatest  commercial 
organization  in  the  world,  the  East  India  Company.  No  one 
was  waiting  for  him.  He  would  find  no  home  prepared  to 
welcome  him,  no  facilities  for  language  study,  no  readiness 
of  the  people  to  receive  him.  They  wanted  nothing  that  he 
had  to  offer.  They  had  awaked  as  yet  to  no  realization  of 
their  need  and  no  thought  that  the  outer  barbarian  world 
had  any  thing  to  give  to  them.  No  doubt  on  his  last  night 
as  he  drew  near  the  China  coast,  Morrison  had  gone  out  under 
the  stars  alone  to  reflect  on  his  mission.  Before  him,  as 
before  us,  the  Scorpion  stood  out  clear  and  sharp  in  the  south- 
western sky  with  the  Archer  over  against  it,  and  Vega  must 
have  shone  as  brightly  above  him  as  it  did  over  us  standing 
out  as  brilliant  and  almost  as  near  as  a  green  light  at  the 
masthead.  The  same  God  looked  down  from  the  same  heavens 
over  his  ship  and  ours.  But  how  immeasurably  different  our 
missionary  situation  from  his!  Thousands  of  missionaries 
were  settled  now  over  the  whole  of  China.    Missionary  agen- 


Alice  Meynell's  "Mary  the  Mother  of  Jesus,"  Sidney  and 
Beatrice  Webb's  "The  Break-up  of  the  Poor  Law,"  Harold 
Cox's  "Economic  Liberty,"  Lord  Askwith's  "Industrial  Prob- 
lems and  Disputes,"  Lansing's  "The  Peace  Negotiations," 
"The  Mirrors  of  Downing  Street"  (a  large  pile  of  them), 
Hamsun's  "Hunger"  and  "Growth  of  the  Soil,"  Jevons'  "Eco- 
nomics," Giorgio  Vasari's  "Lives  of  the  Most  Eminent  Paint- 
ers, Sculptors,  and  Architects,"  translated  by  Gaston  De  Vere 
in  ten  volumes,  Karl  Marx's  "Capital."  This  is  a  representa- 
tive list  of  the  stock  carried  by  this  little  shop.  The  Japanese 
titles  we  could  not,  of  course,  read,  but  I  looked  over  many  of 
the  books  and  the  magazines.  The  advertising  pictures  were 
crude  but  far  more  chaste  than  ours,  and  there  was  nothing 
of  the  salacious  and  decadent  character  which  defiles  the  news 
stands  and  book  stalls  in  Latin  America. 

New  economic  thoughts  are  troubling  Japan.  Although  the 
labor  unions  have  lost  from  thirty  to  fifty  per  cent  of  their 
members  as  a  result  of  the  collapse  of  business  and  the  hard 
times  following  the  war,  class  consciousness  and  class  struggle 
have  increased  in  tendency.  The  more  radical  spirit  of  labor 
was  shown  in  the  general  convention  of  the  Yu-ai-kai,  held 
in  October,  1920,  where  the  majority  of  the  gathering  "ridi- 
culed as  useless  the  agitation  for  universal  suffrage  and  advo- 
cated direct  action,  revolutionary  if  necessary."  At  the 
Yawata  Government  Steel  Works  twenty  thousand  strikers 
destroyed  sixteen  smelting  furnaces,  and  in  one  newspaper 
strike  in  Tokyo  the  strikers  destroyed  all  the  fonts  of  type. 
Sixty  discharged  workmen  at  the  Adachi  Machine  Factory 
in  Tokyo  in  January  destroyed  all  the  mechanical  instruments. 
Revolutionary  labor  songs  which  had  become  popular  have 
been  forbidden  by  the  government.  The  Japan  Chronicle 
recently  printed  an  English  translation  of  one  of  these  as 
follows : 

"The  devilish  hands  of  covetous  capitalists  with  insatiable 
desire  snatch  from  laborers  the  fruits  of  their  labors,  and  lo ! 
capitalism  is  now  deeply  entrenched. 

"Poor  laborers !  They  are  persecuted  by  capitalists  with 
tyranny,  which  cannot  be  tolerated  by  Heaven  and  Earth. 
Their  blood  runs  like  a  river  and  their  anger  will  be  ever- 
lasting. 

"Up !  laborers !  This  is  the  time  to  carry  the  fortress  of 
Capitalism  and  take  into  your  hands  the  fruits  of  your  own 
labors.    . 

"Up !  laborers,  up !  Sweep  away  the  incongruous  system 
which  has  reigned  long,  and  establish  the  new  society  of 
labor  autonomy." 

10 


Between  the  most  autocratic  economic  Bourbonism  on  one 
side  and  the  growing  forces  of  socialism,  syndicalism,  revolu- 
tion, and  anarchy  on  the  other  side,  the  men  and  movements, 
still  very  weak,  which  seek  a  just  and  constructive  reorgani- 
zation of  an  unsatisfactory  and  transitory  economic  order, 
seem  likely  to  have  an  even  harder  time  of  it  in  Japan  than 
in  the  West. 

New  social  thoughts  also  are  abroad.  "A  new  vocabulary 
of  social  and  industrial  terms  has  appeared,"  says  Mr.  Merle 
Davis,  "many  of  the  words  being  taken  bodily  from  English 
to  express  ideas  that  are  not  common  in  Japanese  thought, 
for  example,  'efficiency  test,'  'survey,'  'clinic,'  'settlement,' 
'welfare  work,'  'infant  mortality,'  'birth-rate,'  'turn-over,'  'in- 
dustrial democracy,'  'strike,'  'labor  union,'  'sabotage.'  Women 
have  come  to  a  new  place  in  business  and  in  public  life.  Mrs. 
Hiraoka,  the  banker,  and  Mrs.  Yajima,  the  teacher  and  re- 
former, have  been  followed  by  a  great  company.  The  business 
offices  are  full  of  girl  clerks  and  stenographers.  For  the 
first  time  women  have  been  admitted  as  special  students  into 
the  Tokyo  Imperial  University,  and  thirty-two  have  availed 
themselves  of  the  privilege.  A  mass  meeting  was  held  in 
Tokyo  on  July  18,  1920,  to  advocate  woman  suffrage,  and  sev- 
eral able  Japanese  women  spoke  in  behalf  of  their  political 
rights.  The  following  day  a  bill  to  extend  the  franchise  to 
women  was  introduced  into  the  Japanese  Diet.  The  galleries 
were  filled  with  capable  Japanese  women,  and  the  bill  was 
given  a  respectful  hearing  although  it  was  rejected.  The 
old  family  system  of  Japan  has  come  under  criticism,  and  no 
thoughts  which  ever  come  to  a  nation  are  more  difficult  and 
dangerous  than  those  which  affect  the  foundations  of  its 
family  life. 

And  the  rigid  political  thought  and  organization  of  Japan 
has  begun  to  be  troubled  by  new  questionings.  The  hand  of 
discipline  is  still  stiff  enough,  as  some  of  those  who  have  lost 
their  fathers'  faith  in  freedom  would  make  it  at  home.  Last 
November  the  government  sent  Prof.  Morito  of  the  Tokyo 
Imperial  University  to  prison  for  three  months  for  issuing 
an  article  on  Kropatkin's  "Studies  on  Socialism."  Some  sol- 
diers who  were  coming  home  from  military  service  were  met 
by  friends  with  a  banner  inscribed  "Congratulation  Upon 
Your  Release  From  Prison."  Beyond  all  doubt  this  was  a 
"dangerous  thought,"  and  the  banner  bearers  were  put  under 
arrest.  Nevertheless  the  democratic,  anti-militaristic  move- 
ment has  steadily  gathered  strength.  The  sensible,  industrial 
elements  of  the  nation  crowd  steadily  in  upon  the  militarists. 
So  strong  has  the  democratic  movement  become  that  the  con- 

11 


servative  spirit  has  been  forced  to  read  it  into  Japanese  politi- 
cal tradition.  "Democracy  is  said  to  be  a  very  old  idea  in 
Japan  practiced  by  the  very  earliest  emperors.  Even  the 
removal  of  the  trees  around  the  Imperial  Palace  is  given  a 
democratic  explanation"  now.  Each  year  new  voices  are 
raised  with  new  courage  and  strength  in  behalf  of  liberal  in- 
stitutions at  home  and  a  just  and  generous  policy  abroad.  Two 
million  school  children  made  a  contribution  to  relieve  the 
famine  suffering  in  China,  and  a  Japanese  paper,  the  Oriental 
Economist,  has  recently  attacked  the  idea  that  the  Japanese 
are  justified  in  a  desire  for  political  control  over  Manchuria 
and  Mongolia,  because  of  their  necessity  to  Japan  as  sources 
of  food-stuff  and  raw  materials.  It  has  sought  to  prove  that 
Japan  is  not  so  dependent,  and  that  even  if  she  were  it  would 
be  more  to  her  advantage  to  obtain  her  materials  by  the 
simple  process  of  trade  than  to  take  them  from  a  hostile 
people  under  Japanese  tutelage.  In  these  matters,  however, 
the  Japanese  press,  to  say  the  least,  is  not  better  than  our 
own,  and  on  any  day  that  a  visitor  may  be  in  the  country  he 
can  read  incendiary  material  in  abundance  on  both  sides  of 
the  Disarmament  Conference,  of  the  Anglo-Japanese  Alliance 
and  of  the  questions  of  relations  with  the  United  States  and 
China. 

Back  of  all  these  new  thoughts  of  which  I  have  been  speaking 
we  are  interested  most  of  all  in  the  forces  of  religion.  Of 
the  strong  and  probably  strengthened  grip  of  Shintoism,  there 
can  perhaps  be  little  question.  Six  years  ago  I  visited  the 
imperial  shrines  in  Ise  around  which  every  influence  which 
could  be  officially  controlled  was  throwing  the  glamor  and 
appeal  of  patriotism  and  national  devotion.  I  saw  also  the 
impressive  grave  of  the  late  emperor  which  had  just  been 
erected  in  Kioto  at  the  very  heart  of  the  national  life  of  Japan 
and  with  obvious  purpose  to  bind  together  its  political  and 
religious  significance.  And  now  on  this  visit  I  saw  the  great 
new  Meiji  shrine  which  had  been  erected  at  Tokyo  and  toward 
which  the  devotion  and  worship,  especially  of  the  youth  of 
Japan,  are  being  directed  with  the  highest  skill  and  authority. 
Surely  it  can  no  longer  be  maintained,  as  for  some  years  the 
Government  did  maintain,  that  Shinto  is  not  a  religion  in  its 
present  day  interpretation.  Powerful  forces  in  Japan  seem 
bent  on  making  it  as  pure  an  emperor-worship  as  the  religion 
of  Imperial  Rome.  One  recalls  the  letter  which  Baron  Motoda, 
the  most  trusted  friend  of  the  late  emperor,  wrote  to  Prince 
Iwakura  in  1873,  at  the  very  beginning  of  Japan's  modern 
life.  It  was  entitled  "Essentials  for  the  Guidance  of  Em- 
perors," and  this  was  the  way  it  began: 

12 


"In  these  days,  when  the  world  contains  a  whole  array  of 
powerful  nations,  we  naturally  ask  ourselves  how  it  is  that 
our  little  one-island  empire  has  so  far  escaped  insult  from 
each  and  all  of  the  unnumbered  principalities  whom  she  con- 
fronts alone.  Does  it  arise  from  the  greater  excellence  of 
our  methods  of  administration?  from  the  higher  level  of  our 
national  intelligence?  from  our  successful  competition  with 
them  in  the  arts  and  sciences?  from  the  military  strength 
we  can  pit  against  theirs?  Undoubtedly  not.  It  is  simply 
because  we  stand  absolutely  alone  in  the  world  in  our  posses- 
sion of  a  House  in  Whose  Sovereignty,  as  in  Their  Descent 
from  the  Gods,  there  has  been,  through  countless  generations, 
neither  change  nor  shadow  of  turning.  It  is  this  that  we 
Their  people,  Their  children,  must  never  for  an  instant  forget, 
nay,  rather,  shedding  tears  of  joy,  and  dancing  for  gladness 
before  Them,  lift  up  adoring  hearts  in  service  unending.  Fur- 
thermore, we  are  subjects  who  yield  a  faithful  allegiance, 
not  only  in  outward  seeming  but  in  very  truth,  not  a  lip  ser- 
vice but  one  which  reaches  down  into  the  very  roots  of  life. 

"Hence  it  follows  that  if  the  Imperial  Virtue  were  to  fall 
short  of  that  of  yore  but  by  the  tiniest  fraction,  the  myriads 
of  our  foes  who  stand  round  about  looking  upon  us,  strong 
in  their  many  inventions  and  o'erflowing  treasuries,  would 
ask  in  scorn,  'What  have  we  to  fear  from  them?'  What  we 
cherished  in  adoring  gladness  will  then  become  a  source  of 
terror.  Let  us  walk  warily,  taking  thought  betimes.  What 
was  the  great  foundation  stone  our  earliest  princes  laid?  What 
but  the  Imperial  Heart  Itself." 

Baron  Motoda  set  forth  this  same  view  in  a  series  of  lec- 
tures delivered  to  the  Emperor.  "Ever  since  the  opening 
and  development  of  the  visible  universe,"  said  he,  "a  sole  ruler, 
direct  descendant  of  the  unbroken  and  imperishable  lineage 
of  the  Heavenly  Ancestress,  has  ruled  over  the  people  of 
Japan.  The  chief  and  primary  duty  of  that  people  has  lain 
in  their  relation  to  their  Lord,  and  that  has  included  every 
other  conceivable  bond.  He  has  bent  upon  them  the  tender 
gaze  of  a  parent,  their  eyes  have  been  turned  up  to  him  as 
those  of  children."  Motoda  urged  the  adoption  of  a  definite 
program  of  education  to  maintain  and  develop  these  "im- 
memorial traditions."  On  the  whole  it  is  probably  true  that 
ever  since  Motoda's  day  and  now,  the  predominant  govern- 
mental influence  in  Japan  has  been  and  is  secularistic  and 
agnostic,  but  there  has  always  been  a  strong  party,  and  it  is 
especially  vigorous  today,  which  would  officially  direct  both 
education  and  Shintoism  to  the  strengthening  of  the  cult  of 
emperor-worship.     Dr.  Genchi  Kato  insists  upon  the  divine 

13 


nature  of  the  emperor  and  exalts  him  to  the  same  position 
as  the  Jewish  Jehovah.  He  and  Mr.  Yasuhara  charge  the  low 
state  of  national  morality  to  the  Government's  elimination  of 
religious  elements  from  Shinto  shrine  ceremonies.  But  surely 
the  Government  or  some  forces  which  act  with  its  authority 
are  in  the  most  deliberate  and  powerful  way  seeking  to  bind 
the  conscience  and  devotion  of  the  nation  to  the  religious 
veneration  of  the  Imperial  line  in  the  new  Meiji  Shrine,  whose 
beauty  and  simplicity  is  beyond  praise.  The  identification 
of  a  living  emperor,  however,  with  Jehovah  will  be  found  an 
impossible  task,  one  may  without  the  least  disrespect  say, 
in  the  face  of  such  an  official  announcement  as  was  recently 
made  to  the  effect  that  the  Emperor  would  have  to  diminish 
his  active  work.  "Glucosuria  has  been  observed,"  said  the 
official  bulletin,  "hip  gout,  nervous  trouble,  along  with  diffi- 
culty in  speech.  His  condition  has  improved  but  his  utterance 
is  not  clear.  Except  in  urgent  cases,  he  will  refrain  from 
formal  duties,  such  as  audiences  with  foreign  diplomats  and 
official  ceremonies." 

It  will  be  interesting  to  watch  the  effect  upon  Buddhism  of 
this  tremendous  development  of  Shintoism  for  politico- 
religious  purposes.  It  is  probably  true,  as  many  claim,  that 
Buddhism  retains  but  slight  influence  among  the  educated 
and  intelligent  classes.  Its  activities  among  the  people,  how- 
ever, are  greater  than  ever,  and  nowhere  in  the  world  is  a 
greater  tribute  paid  to  Christianity  and  the  methods  of  its 
propagation  than  by  their  unhesitating  imitation  on  the  part 
of  Japanese  Buddhism.  Its  claim  to  the  development  of  a 
great  network  of  Sunday  schools  has  been  subjected,  however, 
to  a  pretty  ruthless  criticism  by  Dr.  Reischauer,  and  the 
total  amount  of  philanthropic  and  social  service  work  claimed 
by  the  Buddhists  themselves  in  a  booklet  which  they  dis- 
tributed among  the  foreign  delegates  to  the  World's  Sunday 
School  Convention  in  Tokyo  cannot  compare,  though  it  seems 
to  include  the  work  of  forty-six  million  Buddhists,  with 
the  activities  of  any  one  of  a  dozen  of  our  home  denominations. 

How  can  either  Shintoism  or  Buddhism  really  meet  the 
needs  of  inquiring  human  spirits?  What  do  their  own  sym- 
bols confess?  All  over  the  world  the  three  monkeys  of  Nikko, 
one  with  his  hands  over  his  eyes,  a  second  with  his  hands  over 
his  mouth,  a  third  with  his  hands  over  his  ears,  are  supposed 
to  embody  the  moral  warning  of  Buddhism,  to  see  and  speak 
and  hear  nothing  that  we  ought  not,  but  what  they  really 
symbolize  is  the  doctrine  of  Buddhism  that  in  this  evil  and 
transitory  world  there  is  nothing  that  is  worth  man's  while 

14 


to  hear  or  say  or  see.  And  what  is  it  at  which  the  worshipper 
arrives  in  a  Shinto  shrine  when  he  has  come  up  the  long  and 
beautiful  passage  way  between  the  cryptomeria  trees,  past 
the  stone  foxes,  under  the  many  torii,  and  stands  at  last 
where  the  answer  to  his  long  quest  is  to  be  found?  Nothing 
but  a  mirror  meets  and  mocks  him  there.  Shintoism  turns 
the  seeker  back  upon  himself  and  shows  nothing  but  his  own 
longing.  It  is  not  strange  that  both  in  Buddhism  and  in 
Shintoism  sect  after  sect  has  arisen  seeking  some  new  way, 
and  it  is  not  surprising  that  in  Japan  today,  just  as  every- 
where else  in  the  world,  the  human  spirit,  foiled  in  its  search, 
turns  aside  into  oblique  ways.  Tenrikyo  and  Konkokyo  and 
now  Omotokyo  are  all  evidences  that  the  heart  of  Japan  is 
still  abroad  on  the  great  search.  All  three  of  these  religions 
were  started  by  ignorant  women,  and  the  last,  which  has  made 
a  deep  stir  in  Japan,  in  the  past  year  is  a  queer  mixture  of 
mysticism,  communism,  faith  healing,  and  other  of  the 
familiar  twists  and  turnings  of  the  human  spirit  untutored 
of  the  Truth. 

How  can  the  Christian  Churches  of  the  West  do  more  to 
help  the  Christian  Churches  of  Japan  to  do  their  work  in 
the  midst  of  all  these  new  thoughts  and  groping  movements 
in  present  day  Japan?  Whatever  these  Japanese  churches 
ask  of  us  we  ought  to  do.  Since  Baron  Motoda  wrote  to  Prince 
Iwakura,  the  Christian  Churches  have  grown  from  one  to 
twelve  hundred  and  the  membership  from  a  mere  handful  to 
one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  on  the  rolls  of  the  Protestant 
churches  alone.  These  churches  have  already  supplied  Japan 
with  scores  and  hundreds  of  its  ablest  and  most  useful  men. 
Uemura,  Ebina,  Kozaki,  Hiraiwa,  Hibiki,  Morimura,  Ebara, 
Yamamuro,  Ibuka,  Imai,  Miyagawa,  and  scores  of  others  are 
Christian  names,  the  peers  of  any  in  any  land.  I  should  like 
to  speak  at  length  of  many  of  these  and  others  like  Justice 
Watanabe  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Korea,  Judge  Mitsui 
who  deals  with  juvenile  delinquents  in  Tokyo,  Taro  Ando  and 
Sho  Nemoto,  the  reformers,  and  Mr.  Tagawa,  vice  mayor  of 
Tokyo  who  spoke  the  truth  though  it  meant  imprisonment. 
It  is  an  inspiration  to  see  the  strength  and  courage  and  com- 
petence of  these  Churches  in  Japan,  to  behold  their  order, 
their  friendly  federations,  and  their  sympathetic  cooperation 
with  the  foreign  missions.  The  present  is  the  day  of  all  days 
for  the  churches  at  home  to  support  these  Churches  and  Mis- 
sions in  Japan  by  enabling  them  to  put  forth  the  maximum 
of  direct  evangelistic  effort  and  to  use  to  the  limit  every  oppor- 
tunity of  press  and  school.    The  new  Woman's  Union  College 

15 


in  Tokyo  should  receive  in  America  and  in  Japan  all  it  needs. 
The  more  liberal  attitude  of  the  Government  towards  Chris- 
tian schools  should  be  unstintedly  utilized.  The  signs  of  a 
freer  day  are  found  on  every  side.  At  Shimonoseki,  where 
for  many  years  the  Mission  Girls'  School  had  been  accustomed 
to  annual  threats  of  violence,  this  year  honor  has  descended 
upon  it  at  the  hands  both  of  governor  and  of  mayor.  The 
governor  caused  a  celebration  in  memory  of  the  thirtieth  anni- 
versary of  the  introduction  of  the  Imperial  Rescript  on  Edu- 
cation, and  with  due  ceremony  presented  to  all  those  who 
had  taught  in  Yamaguchi  over  thirty  years  a  beautiful  page 
of  language  and  a  splendid  box  made  of  the  original  Yama- 
guchi lacquer.  Miss  Bigelow  came  second  in  the  list  of  five. 
At  Commencement  time  the  mayor  used  Miss  Bigelow,  her 
"great  age"  and  marvelous  energy,  as  a  theme  for  an  address 
in  one  of  the  public  schools,  holding  her  up  as  an  example 
for  the  youth  of  this  district  to  follow.  In  Fukui  at  a  recent 
exhibit  at  the  Girl's  High  School  there  were  found  among 
the  pictures  made  by  the  girls  an  unusual  number  of  Christian 
subjects — copies  of  Madonnas,  the  Nativity,  the  Crucifixion, 
the  Resurrection,  the  infant  Samuel ;  pictures  not  only  of 
Westminster  Abbey  and  Rheims  Cathedral,  but  also  one  of  a 
humble  country  church  with  the  caption  "Religion  is  the  Basis 
of  Civilization."  The  place  of  honor  in  this  same  room  was 
given  to  the  three  large  pictures  of  the  world's  great  religious 
leaders,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  occupying  the  central,  most 
conspicuous  position.  Shall  Christ  have  this  place  not  in  the 
Fukui  High  School  exhibit  only  but  in  all  the  life  of  Japan? 
S.  S.  Dilwara, 

China  Sea,  Sept.  15,  1921. 


16 


II.  CHINA 


PAGE 

1.  The  Confusion  and  Distress  of  China 19-26 

2.  The  Great  Gate  of  China  27-31 

3.  The  Forces  of  New  Life  in  Nanking 32-35 


17 


II.     CHINA 

I.  THE  CONFUSION  AND  DISTRESS  OF  CHINA 
We  had  unusual  opportunity  in  crossing  the  Pacific  on  the 
"Empress  of  Asia"  to  hear  statements  of  fact  and  expressions 
of  judgment  with  regard  to  present  conditions  in  China  from 
many  of  the  men  at  work  there,  both  in  missionary  service 
and  in  other  capacities,  who  have  the  most  authoritative 
knowledge  of  the  situation  and  who  are  most  competent  to 
express  opinions  regarding  it.  Their  general  attitude  of  mind 
was  one  of  unlimited  confidence  and  respect  with  regard  to 
the  Chinese  people  and  of  unqualified  hopelessness  regarding 
the  present  national  government  in  Peking.  This  they  repre- 
sented to  be  financially,  politically  and  morally  bankrupt. 
Those  who  knew  the  facts  authoritatively  stated  that  the 
central  government  was  now  receiving  no  revenues  whatever 
from  the  provinces.  During  the  Taiping  Rebellion  seventy 
years  ago  the  revenues  from  the  Yangtse  valley  and  Southern 
China  had  been  cut  off,  but  now  Peking  was  receiving  practi- 
cally nothing  from  anywhere.  The  government  schools,  in- 
cluding the  ambitious  and  hopeful  university  in  Peking,  were 
all  closed,  the  teachers  had  received  no  pay  since  last  October. 
No  money  was  going  to  the  Chinese  ministers  abroad  who 
were  in  consequence  obliged  to  support  themselves  and  one  of 
whom  had  had  to  mortgage  his  home  in  Tien  Tsin  in  order  to 
maintain  his  legation.  The  receipts  from  foreign  customs 
and  the  salt  gabelle  were  all  mortgaged  to  pay  the  interest 
on  the  foreign  debt,  and  much  of  this  is  now  in  arrears.  In 
1918  China  borrowed  from  Japan  $150,000,000  gold,  all  of  it 
ostensibly  under  government  obligations  which  cannot  be  re- 
pudiated. One-half  of  this,  however,  was  unsecured  and  is 
now  long  overdue,  both  capital  and  interest,  to  Japanese 
banks.  None  of  this  money  had  been  a  benefit  to  China.  Much 
of  it  had  been  stolen  by  the  three  members  of  the  cabinet 
who  were  forced  out  by  the  uprising  of  the  students  supported 
by  Chinese  public  opinion,  but  the  thieves  carried  their  plunder 
with  them  and  were  now  building  great  harems  in  Peking. 
And  there  was  no  public  sentiment  to  recover  their  loot  and 
to  enforce  their  punishment.  On  the  other  hand,  corruption 
in  oflflce  was  more  flagrant  and  more  excessive  than  it  had 
ever  been,  even  under  the  Manchus. 

The  real  government  of  the  nation,  it  was  recognized  in 
these  conferences  on  the  "Empress,"  was  in  the  hands  of 

19 


the  three  great  military  lords  who  in  spite  of  the  presence  in 
the  cabinet  of  a  few  good  men  like  Dr.  Yen,  the  minister  of 
foreign  affairs,  gave  orders  to  the  President  and  the  Governors 
and  were  obeyed.  A  good  part  of  the  money  which  Peking 
had  borrowed  and  what  revenues  it  might  now  expect  from 
Northern  China  were  absorbed  by  these  three  men  for  their 
own  profit  or  for  the  support  of  their  harmful  armies.  Only 
a  few  weeks  ago  these  three,  Chang  tso  lin,  the  high  commis- 
sioner of  Manchuria,  Tsao  kun,  the  military  governor  of 
Chih-li  province,  and  Wang  chan  yuan,  military  governor  of 
Hupeh  province  summoned  the  Prime  Minister  to  Tien  Tsin 
and  gave  him  their  orders  as  though  they  were  China.  While 
we  were  in  China,  it  was  reported  that  Chang  tso  lin,  after 
having  received  more  than  four  million  dollars  for  work  that 
he  was  appointed  to  do  as  high  commissioner  of  Mongolia, 
had  coolly  pocketed  the  money  and  resigned  the  commission. 
No  one  had  a  good  word  to  say  for  any  member  of  this  trium- 
virate. Though  they  held  China  in  their  control,  they  were 
believed  to  be  destitute  of  any  idea  of  patriotism  or  any  ideal 
of  true  progress  for  China. 

Men  from  many  different  provinces  who  were  on  board  the 
"Empress"  lamented  that  they  could  say  nothing  more  hopeful 
regarding  their  own  provinces,  even  such  great  and  self- 
contained  provinces  as  Szechuen,  than  had  been  said  of  the 
national  government.  There  were  a  few  exceptions.  From  this 
black  plight  of  China  the  man  who  knew  the  national  situation 
best  and  who  was  not  a  missionary  said  that  he  saw  only 
three  paths  of  escape.  The  first  is  international  intervention, 
which  some  allege  Japan  is  seeking  secretly  to  bring  about  in 
the  conviction  that  America  might  be  brought  to  assent  to  it, 
and  then  in  accordance  with  her  policy  of  self-absorption 
would  leave  the  actual  control  of  affairs  in  China  to  Japan. 
We  were  surprised  to  discover  in  Japan,  however,  that  the 
Japanese  papers  were  attributing  this  policy  to  America  and 
especially  to  Mr.  Hoover,  and  were  strongly  opposing  it,  as 
assuredly  the  intelligent  and  patriotic  men  of  China  would 
oppose  it.  The  second  solution  would  be  the  emergence  of  a 
strong,  ruthless,  courageous,  patriotic,  unselfish,  and  righteous 
dictator,  but  all  agreed  that  there  is  no  such  man,  and  that 
a  dictatorship  is  not  a  good  democratic  school.  The  third 
solution,  said  this  competent  observer,  was  the  slow  regenera- 
tion of  China  or  the  development  of  enough  honest  and  un- 
selfish men  to  lead  the  country,  by  the  transforming  influences 
of  the  Gospel. 

This  was  the  dark  diagnosis  of  China's  present  condition, 

20 


which  was  given  to  us  in  advance.  In  China,  however,  in  con- 
tact with  the  swiftly  moving  forces  which  are  now  at  work, 
and  feeling  all  the  while  beneath  us  the  great  solid  mass  of 
the  Chinese  people,  brighter  views  soon  emerged. 

Economically  China  has  been  on  the  verge  of  ruin  many 
times  before.  In  1909  the  London  Graphic  declared  that  China 
was   "steadily   drifting  toward   bankruptcy"   and   that   only 
superhuman  efforts  could  save  her.    The  present  financial  con- 
ditions of  the  national  government  are  disgraceful,  but  they 
are  due  wholly  to  corruption  and  incompetence  and  not  to  the 
poverty  or  lack  of  resources  of  a  nation  whose  wealth  has 
hardly  begun  to  be  developed.    If  China  has  been  able  to  main- 
tain four  hundred  million  people  on  vegetables  and  grains, 
what  will  she  not  be  able  to  do  when  she  develops  the  possi- 
bilities of  animal  and  mineral  wealth  and  introduces  manu- 
factures  and   roads?     Roads   alone,   which   she   has   wholly 
lacked  in  the  past,  would  go  a  long  way  to  unifying  China  and 
setting  in  living  motion  her  sluggish  blood.    Already  the  rail- 
roads are  coming  and  in  city  after  city  one  can  now  hear  the 
wheels  of  that  vast  latent  industry  of  China  begin  to  stir 
whose  thunder  will  some  day  fill  the  whole  world.     When  I 
first  saw  Shanghai,  I  doubt  whether  a  cotton  factory  or  silk 
filature  had  yet  been  built.     Six  years  ago  when  we  were 
here  the  cotton  mills  stretched  in  a  long  line  along  the  Whang 
Poo  river.    Now  mill  after  mill  with  the  most  modern  machi- 
nery has  been  added  and  great  silk  filatures  have  gone  up. 
Alas,  they  are  not  providing  rational  employment  for  men 
and  women  only  but  are  sucking  the  life  blood  of  China's 
children.    There  is  no  more  vivid  illustration  of  these  bound- 
less economic  possibilities  of  China  which  banish  the  idea  of 
a  real  national  bankruptcy  than  the  city  of  Nantungchow, 
whose  Natoon  Embroidery,  Lace  and  Needlework  Shop  has 
been  opened  on  Fifth  Avenue  in  New  York  City.     Here  in  a 
city  of  150,000,  a  hundred  miles  from  Shanghai,  and  in  a  dis- 
trict of  a  million  and  a  half  people,  Chinese  enterprise  and 
integrity  alone  are  no^y  producing  annually  a  million  bales 
of  the  best  grade  of  cotton  in  China;  have  built  more  than 
fifty  miles  of  modern  roads,  two  modern  cotton  mills  with 
sixty  thousand  spindles,  five  hundred  looms  and  three  thousand 
operators,  a  modern  cotton  seed  oil  mill,  a  match  factory,  a 
flour  mill,  a  silk  filature,  an  iron  foundry,  an  electric  light 
plant,  and  a  modern  agricultural  college;   have  established 
cotton  and  sericulture  experiment  stations  and  schools  of  in- 
struction, five  modern  banks,  three  hundred  and  thirty-four 
schools  of  more  than  twenty  thousand  students,  and  a  direct 

21 


steamer  line  to  Shanghai;  and  are  projecting  hundreds  of 
miles  of  new  roads,  seven  new  cotton  mills,  coal  mines,  and 
the  reclamation  of  thousands  of  acres  of  flooded  lands  along 
the  Yangtse.  These  are  but  the  beginnings  of  what  is  coming. 
The  economic  peril  of  China  is  not  bankruptcy  but  commer- 
cialism. 

The  political  situation  also  takes  on  a  more  hopeful  aspect 
as  one  feels  the  swelling  forces  of  the  nation  at  a  distance 
from  the  corruption  and  despair  of  Peking.  A  most  interest- 
ing movement  is  going  on.  It  is  the  deliberate  purpose  and 
endeavor  of  the  men  who  are  controlling  the  local  and  provin- 
cial life  of  China  to  break  up  or  to  ignore  the  present  national 
government  in  Peking  and  also  the  rival  southern  government 
in  Canton,  which  is  not  acknowledged  beyond  Kwangtung 
province  and  which  has  not  displaced  the  separate  provincial 
government.  These  leaders  are  bent  upon  setting  up  in  each 
province  a  separate  and  independent  provincial  government 
with  its  own  constitution  and  civil  officials  duly  elected  by  the 
people,  and  then  to  federate  these  provincial  governments  in 
one  national  federal  government.  This  is  not  a  new  ideal. 
This  very  issue  arose  at  the  beginning  of  the  Republic  in  1911. 
It  was  fought  over  in  the  first  parliament  in  1913  between 
the  Peiyang  military  party  which  looked  up  to  Yuan  Shih 
Kai,  and  the  revolutionary  party,  later  transformed  into 
Kuomintang,  headed  by  Sun  Yat  Sen.  Thanks  to  the  Tuchuns 
or  military  governors  established  in  each  province  by  Yuan 
Shih  Kai,  side  by  side  with  and  always  checking  the  civil  gov- 
ernors, the  policy  of  the  military  centralizationists  has  thus 
far  prevailed.  There  has  now  appeared,  however,  a  group 
of  Tuchuns  like  General  Wu,  General  Feng,  known  as  the 
Christian  general  because  of  his  outspoken  Christian  char- 
acter and  enthusiastic  evangelism.  General  Chow,  and  General 
Chen,  who  appear  to  be  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  idea  of 
provincial  civil  self-government.  Within  the  last  few  weeks 
they  appear  to  have  disposed  of  General  Wang,  one  of  the 
three  unprincipled  war  lords,  and  the  Federationists  now 
claim  that  their  cause  has  prevailed  and  that  they  have  per- 
fected their  political  organization,  at  least  in  its  incipiency, 
in  Hunan,  Szechuen,  Kweichow  and  Chekiang,  and  that 
Kwangsei  and  Hupeh  are  now  preparing  their  constitutions 
in  their  provincial  legislatures  and  will  soon  join  the  ranks 
of  the  self-governing  provinces.  The  aims  of  the  whole  move- 
ment have  been  distinctly  stated  by  one  of  its  advocates  as 
follows : 

"The  provincial  self-government  movement  in  the  present 

22 


form  may  be  defined  as  an  endeavor  on  the  part  of  each 
province  to  substitute  constitutional  government  for  arbitrary- 
military  rule  with  the  ultimate  aim  of  uniting  China  into  a 
Federation  of  self-governing  provinces,  independent  of  and 
supplanting  the  activities  of  Peking  and  Canton.  Its  scope 
can  be  said  to  include  the  following:  (1)  compilation  of  a 
provincial  constitution;  (2)  abolition  of  tuchun  system;  (3) 
abstention  from  entanglement  with  the  policy  of  unification 
adopted  by  Peking  and  the  cause  of  the  constitution  upheld 
by  Canton;  (4)  promotion  of  self-government  in  provinces 
that  are  still  under  military  control;  (5)  a  temporary,  in- 
formal alliance  of  self-governing  provinces  for  mutual  pro- 
tection; (6)  federation  of  self-governing  provinces  in  the 
end 

"The  ultimate  aim  is,  a  federation  of  self-government 
provinces.  As  to  the  advisability  of  making  China  into  a 
federal  state,  the  federalists  argue  that  the  unwieldly  size  of 
the  country,  the  historical  positions  of  the  provinces,  the  wide 
differences  in  geography,  climate,  the  temperament  of  the 
people  and  local  interests,  and  the  futility  of  uniting  China 
with  force,  all  tend  to  show  that  union  is  possible  only  through 
federation.  At  present  a  federation  is  gradually  becoming 
a  reality  and  under  the  existing  conditions  there  is  possibly 
no  better  way  of  uniting  the  country  than  through  a  federa- 
tion of  self-governing  provinces." 

Whether  in  this  or  in  some  other  way  it  may  be  possible 
to  forestall  the  impending  ruin  and  disintegration  of  China 
as  a  nation  is  a  question  which  hangs  on  other  questions. 

Can  the  abysmal  corruption  of  China  be  cured?  The  Chinese 
Classics  declare  that  man  is  born  virtuous,  and  probably  no 
other  people  have  ever  been  educated  for  so  many  centuries 
under  a  high  theoretical  morality,  and  yet  a  foreigner  who 
lived  for  a  generation  in  China  and  who  had  the  greatest  affec- 
tion and  respect  for  the  noble  qualities  of  the  people,  in  a 
series  of  articles  which  he  wrote  several  years  ago  for  the 
National  Revietv  of  China  did  not  hesitate  to  speak  of  the 
stern  realities  of  their  life  as  "so  vicious,  so  falsehearted,  and 
so  corrupt  as  never  to  have  been  surpassed  in  the  whole  human 
record.  .  .  .  Chicanery,  subtlety,  cunning,  sharp  practice, 
knavery,  artfulness,  intrigue  ...  all  these  have  become  an 
integral  part  of  the  nature  of  countless  millions  of  Chinese 
and  this  in  spite  of  the  teaching  of  the  sages.  .  .  .  Duplicity 
and  hypocrisy  march  hand  in  hand,  lying  and  deceit  become 
virtues,  and  bribery  and  corruption  as  inevitable  as  the 
handling  of  pitch."  These  are  the  judgments  of  the  kindly  spir- 

23 


ited  George  Lanning,  for  many  years  principal  of  the  Shang- 
hai PubHc  School.  He  would  offset  them  by  many  admiring 
judgments  of  the  strength  and  industry  and  worth  of  the 
Chinese,  but  he  would  qualify  them  little  if  at  all  in  their 
application  to  Chinese  official  life.  Bad  as  other  nations  have 
been,  China  seems  to  surpass  them  all  in  graft  and  official 
corruption.  It  has  been  estimated  that  not  more  than  ten 
or  fifteen  per  cent  of  the  native  collection  of  revenue  ever 
reached  the  Imperial  treasury.  The  last  ten  years  of  the  Re- 
public have  offered  even  greater  opportunities  than  the  offi- 
cials enjoyed  under  the  Manchus.  The  money  which  China 
has  borrowed  from  other  nations  has  been  filched  by"  her  own 
public  servants,  and  as  yet  no  public  opinion  has  been  devel- 
oped which  would  call  the  thieves  to  judgment.  It  is  even 
alleged,  although  I  do  not  know  with  what  truth,  that  of 
twenty  million  dollars  collected  from  the  heavy  tax  imposed 
on  telegrams,  railroad  tickets,  etc.,  to  be  applied  to  famine 
relief,  only  four  million  dollars  have  ever  been  paid  over  to 
help  the  starving,  and  the  tax  is  still  being  collected.  The 
Shanghai  Weekly  Review,  in  its  issue  of  August  20th,  charged 
openly,  that  Mr.  Yen  of  Kalgan  had  promised  to  pay  the  min- 
istry of  finance  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year  for  dues 
to  be  levied  as  transit  taxes  on  goods  on  the  Peking-Suiyuan 
Railway,  in  return  for  which  he  would  get,  as  director  of 
customs  at  Kalgan,  a  profit  of  more  than  one  hundred  times 
that  much.  The  collectors  of  this  tax  who  were  ostensibly 
receiving  twelve  dollars  a  month  salary  were  actually  making 
more  than  twenty  thousand  dollars  a  year.  On  such  rotten- 
ness no  new  China  can  be  built  up.  Can  this  corruption  be 
cured  ? 

The  second  question  follows  obviously.  Can  the  character 
of  the  Chinese  people  sustain  an  honest  and  righteous  national 
life?  Have  they  become  under  centuries  of  impotent,  moral- 
istic teaching  and  the  pressure  of  a  struggle  for  existence  un- 
checked by  adequate  spiritual  sympathies  and  by  a  sense  of 
social  duty,  and  pulled  downward  by  sin  and  upward  by  no 
sufficient  saving  power,  so  weak,  so  incapable  of  common  trust 
and  unselfish  co-operation  that  they  are  beyond  all  hope? 
Those  who  know  them  best  and  who  realize  most  clearly  their 
weaknesses  would  be  the  last  to  admit  this.  In  spite  of  the 
dishonesty  and  corruption  of  the  tens  of  millions  of  the  idlers 
and  drones  whose  indolence  is  as  conspicuous  in  China  as  the 
industry  of  its  toilers,  in  spite  of  the  fiction  at  the  roots  of 
Chinese  family  life  which  exalts  filial  piety  but  performs  its 
duties  only  to  the  dead,  in  spite  of  all  that  is  hopeless  and 

24 


degrading,  those  who  know  the  Chinese  believe  that  there  is 
in  them  still  the  best  raw  material  to  be  found  in  the  world 
to  subject  to  the  regenerating  and  transforming  power  of 
Christ.  ;  «  — 

In  the  third  place,  can  a  body  of  new  leaders  be  raised  up 
in  China  who  will  have  the  character,  power,  courage,  and 
the  readiness  for  sacrifice  which  will  be  required  in  them? 
It  was  at  first  hoped  that  the  young  Chinese  educated  abroad, 
now  forming  a  distinct  group  known  as  returned  students, 
might  form  this  leadership.  Some  real  leaders  have  indeed 
come  from  them,  but  most  of  these  young  have  been  separated 
too  far  from  the  body  of  the  nation.  They  lack  experience 
of  life,  especially  Chinese  life,  which  is  the  condition  of  in- 
fluence. And  too  many  of  them  have  been  silenced  by  the 
easy  device  of  small  official  position.  Still  in  the  little  group 
of  such  men  on  the  "Empress  of  Asia,"  one  could  not  doubt 
that  there  were  some  whose  Christian  character  and  un- 
doubted abilities  would  make  them  useful  servants  of  China 
and  of  the  Christian  Church.  But  as  in  every  other  nation, 
the  real  leaders  of  China  must  be  trained  in  schools  on  its 
own  soil.  The  national  schools  are  just  now  closed,  but  the 
provinces  are  projecting  modern  education  on  a  new  scale. 
Kwangtung  province  is  specially  enterprising,  and  its  educa- 
tional commission  has  adopted  a  scheme  of  compulsory  educa- 
tion for  the  province,  and  the  governor  has  authorized  co- 
education at  the  request  of  the  Canton  Women's  Union,  an 
organization  which  has  procured  for  women  "equal  privilege 
in  getting  appointments  as  clerks,  inspectors,  and  to  other 
positions  in  the  national  (i.  e.  provincial)  assembly  as  well  as 
in  the  railroad  and  other  offices  in  Canton."  The  first  provin- 
cial election  in  this  province  was  held  last  August  when  women 
who  desired  to  vote  were  not  excluded  and  at  least  one  of 
them  will  occupy  a  seat  in  the  district  council  of  Huengshan. 
However  great  the  extension  of  government  schools  in  China, 
however,  the  Chinese  will  not  be  able  financially  nor,  it  is 
believed,  will  they  be  willing  on  principle,  to  attempt  to  make 
of  education  a  government  monopoly.  If  Japan  has  found  it 
necessary  and  desirable  to  relax  its  bureaucratic  educational 
system  and  to  allow  a  far  wider  range  of  liberty  to  private 
education,  it  is  certain  that  China  will  be  willing  to  do  so, 
and  the  recent  experience  and  investigation  of  some  of  the 
higher  Christian  schools  seems  to  indicate  that  there  is  no 
necessity  and  no  advantage  in  the  registration  now  of  mis- 
sion educational  institutions  in  the  government  system.  It  is 
a  question  whether  there  is  any  government  system  as  yet, 

25 


and  the  present  hold  of  the  mission  schools  on  the  confidence 
and  support  of  the  people  is  so  great  that  all  over  China  they 
are  crowded  to  their  fullest  capacity.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
exaggerate  their  present  opportunity  or  the  great  service 
which  may  be  rendered  in  the  increase  of  their  efficiency  and 
adaptiveness  by  the  judicious  and  sympathetic  council  and 
support  of  the  Educational  Commission  which  the  Foreign 
Missions  Council  of  North  America  has  sent  out. 

The  fourth  question  which  to  the  missionary  faith  is  no 
open  question  at  all  relates  to  the  power  of  the  missionary 
enterprise  under  God's  blessing  to  plant  here  in  China  the 
tree  "whose  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations."    Some 
foolish  and  careless  words  regarding  the  missionary  body  in 
China  have  been  spoken  recently  by  visitors  from  whom  they 
might  least  have  been  expected.     Mr.  Lanning's  judgment  is 
far  more  reliable:    "The  missionary  body   (in  China)    as  a 
whole  stands  out  in  bold  relief  as  the  noblest,  bravest,  most 
altruistic,  and  best  of  all  bodies  of  men  that  exist  or  ever  did 
exist.  .   .   .  The  Christian  religion  has  been  brought  to  China 
by  a  body  of  men  and  women  never  before  surpassed  for  no- 
bility of  character  or  greatness  of  aim.  .  .  .  It  is  quite  as  much 
due  to  them  as  to  any  other  single  cause  that  China  today  is 
thoroughly  awake.    To  them  is  due  that  new  desire  which  is 
already  re-energizing  the  old  forces.     To  them  and  to  their 
native  successors   .    .    .  will  be  given  more  and  more  of  the 
power  that  will  shape  the  future  of  China."    Everywhere  one 
sees  today  evidences  of  the  way  Christian  faith  and  truth  are 
striking  down  and  striking  out  through  Chinese  life.     The 
very  terms  in  which  the  Christian  ideas  are  expressed,  which 
at  first  of  necessity  were  so  crude  and  inadequate,  are  being 
transformed   or   replaced   by   expressions   which   more   ade- 
quately utter  the  Gospel.    The  Chinese  Church  is  full  of  a  new 
life  and  vigor  of  its  own.     There  is  no  barrier  that  we  need 
to  fear  anywhere  in  the  way  of  the  immediate  evangelization 
of  China.    The  evangelistic  opportunity  which  the  two  great- 
est department  stores,  the  Sincere  Company  and  the  Wing  On 
Company,  allow  their  employees  every  Sunday  morning  while 
business  is  suspended  and  a  preaching  service  is  held,  are 
only  a  symbol  of  the  wide-open  door  everywhere. 

There  remains  the  last  question — will  the  nations  allow 
China  time?  And  as  to  the  Church,  has  she  waited  too  long? 
Does  she  intend  longer  to  wait?  Once  again  the  summons 
which  the  Chinese  Christians  brought  to  Archdeacon  Moule  in 
the  days  of  the  Taipings  sounds  forth  as  clear  as  the  call  of 
God,  "Now  is  the  opportunity,  strike  while  the  iron  is  hot." 
S.  S.  Dilwara, 

China  Sea,  September  10,  1921. 

26 


2.  THE  GREAT  GATE  OF  CHINA 

For  the  past  week  we  have  been  watching  with  fascinated 
interest  the  huge  tides  of  various  race  and  diverse  purpose 
which  flow  in  and  out  through  Shanghai,  the  great  gate  of 
China.  It  is  China's  commercial  gateway.  In  1920  the  trade 
of  the  United  States  with  China  amounted  to  $357,000,000, 
and  49';,'  of  it  was  with  Shanghai.  Here  are  the  headquarters 
of  almost  all  the  great  trading  companies  and  banks.  Hong 
Kong  is  the  head  office  of  the  greatest  of  the  banks,  the  Hong 
Kong  and  Shanghai,  with  branches  all  over  the  East,  but  the 
business  of  the  Shanghai  branch  far  exceeds  that  of  any  of 
the  rest,  and  it  is  erecting  now  one  of  the  greatest  bank  build- 
ings in  the  world.  It  is  not  trade  and  wealth  alone  that  pass 
in  and  out  of  Shanghai.  This  is  the  gate  also  of  new  ideas 
good  and  bad,  and  through  it,  I  suppose,  pass  nine-tenths  of 
the  missionaries  who  are  bearing  in  with  them  upon  China's 
life  through  ail  her  eighteen  provinces,  what  almost  every 
one  whom  we  meet,  whether  foreigner  or  Chinese,  now  con- 
cedes to  be  China's  only  hope,  the  regenerating  power  of  the 
Christian  Gospel. 

Shanghai  now  has  a  population  of  over  a  million  and  a  half. 
It  is  a  city  of  complicated  municipal  organizations.  One-half 
of  the  population  lives  in  the  International  Settlement  gov- 
erned neither  by  China  nor  by  any  foreign  nation  but  by  its 
own  municipal  council,  largely  British  and  American.  A 
quarter  of  a  million  of  people  live  in  the  French  Settlement 
wholly  under  French  control  and  municipal  administration. 
The  remaining  three  hundred  thousand  live  in  the  old  Chinese 
city  under  Chinese  government.  The  security  and  equal  jus- 
tice of  the  foreign  settlements  have  drawn  thither  from  all 
over  China  much  of  the  enterprise  and  wealth  of  the  country, 
driven  away  by  local  rapacity  and  misgovernment.  In  the 
five  years  between  the  two  last  census  returns  the  population 
of  Shanghai  increased  35'/.  When  we  first  visited  the  city 
in  1897  and  stayed  with  the  late  Dr.  Farnham,  his  home  at 
the  corner  of  Szechuen  and  Range  Roads  was  on  the  very  last 
outskirts  of  the  city.  Now  it  has  grown  miles  beyond  his  old 
home.  Houses  and  gardens  equaling  any  in  the  world  have 
been  built  for  foreigners  and  for  Chinese  and  notably  for  some 
of  the  southern  Asiatic  Jews  who  acquired  immense  wealth 
from  the  opium  traflfic,  and  extend  now  far  out  into  the  coun- 
try over  what  I  remember  as  graveyards  and  rice  fields  only 

27 


a  few  years  ago.  Even  the  great  wall  around  the  native  city 
has  been  pulled  down,  and  a  wide  avenue  with  tramways  has 
taken  its  place.  In  spite  of  its  many  unfavorable  physical 
features  it  seems  clear  that  Shanghai  will  be  more  and  more 
the  great  gate  of  China,  the  doorway  into  the  thought  and 
life  of  more  people  than  lie  behind  any  other  door  through 
which  the  ships  of  the  world  and  the  feet  of  men  can  pass. 

The  foundations  of  our  Presbyterian  Missionary  work  in 
Shanghai  were  laid  down  as  soon  as  the  city  was  opened  to 
foreign  residents,  and  we  are  carrying  on  work  still  on  the 
same  site  and  in  the  same  buildings  where  the  missionaries 
began.  The  Mary  Farnham  School  for  girls  and  the  Lowrie 
High  School  for  boys  at  the  South  Gate  are  among  the  oldest 
educational  institutions  of  the  Christian  Missions  in  China, 
and  their  graduates  like  Dr.  T.  W.  Kwo,  president  of  the 
Southeastern  University  of  China,  and  Mr.  Bao,  head  of  the 
Commercial  Press,  are  among  the  foremost  leaders  in  educa- 
tion and  business.  The  graduates  of  the  two  schools  have 
shown  their  loyalty  in  the  contributions  which  they  have  made 
for  new  buildings  for  both  the  schools  and  for  the  beautiful 
brick  church  erected  by  their  own  gifts  on  plans  drawn  by 
one  of  their  own  elders  who  was  a  representative  of  the  Chi- 
nese Church  at  the  Edinburgh  Missionary  Conference  in  1910. 
We  attended  service  in  the  South  Gate  Church  last  Sunday 
morning.  It  was  communion  service,  and  the  large  church 
was  well  filled.  The  choir  was  dressed  in  white  vestments, 
and  the  elders  wore  white  robes  as  they  distributed  the  bread 
and  the  wine.  Little  children  were  baptized,  and  new  members 
were  received  with  careful  counsel  and  examination  before 
the  congregation.  We  were  glad  to  see  and  feel  the  entire 
independence  of  the  church.  The  pastor  asked  no  foreign 
participation.  All  was  in  Chinese  of  course,  but  the  choir 
sang  as  an  offertory  the  Twenty-third  Psalm  in  anthem  in 
English  with  reverence  and  good  taste. 

Around  this  South  Gate  Church  are  grouped  four  of  the 
most  useful  institutions  of  the  Mission,  the  two  schools  al- 
ready mentioned  with  their  lower  departments  and  practice 
primary  schools,  the  training  school  for  Bible  women,  and  the 
Nantao  Institute,  an  institutional  center  nearby  in  the  most 
crowded  and  neglected  section  of  the  Chinese  city  where  the 
workers  can  be  provided  from  the  two  schools  and  from  this 
independent  and  self-supporting  South  Gate  Church,  under 
the  able  pastorate  of  Mr.  Li,  who  resigned  a  profitable  business 
position  for  the  sake  of  the  Christian  ministry.  Many  visi- 
tors to  Shanghai  after  seeing  other  mission  compounds,  pro- 

28 


tected  by  lawns  and  walls  from  the  noise  and  stench  about 
them,  have  criticised  our  Presbyterian  Mission  at  the  feouth 
Gate,  where  the  odors  from  the  canal  and  the  boats  which  bear 
away  the  night  soil,  and  from  the  pitiful  poverty  of  Chinese 
life  all  around,  compel  new  visitors  from  America  to  take  their 
lives  and  their  noses  in  their  hands  when  they  visit  the  South 
Gate.  But  where  else  should  mission  work  be  done  except 
among  the  people  where  the  masses  are  densest  and  their 
need  deepest?  I  am  glad  that  our  missionaries  have  never 
allowed  themselves  to  be  driven  away,  but  have  both  held  fast 
all  that  they  inherited  and  have  built  up  a  yet  greater  work 
for  the  body  and  soul  of  China  where  the  need  is  greatest. 

One  rejoices  to  see  how  all  of  our  work  in  Shanghai  has  ful- 
filled Christ's  law  of  the  grain  of  corn  dying  to  live.  From 
the  work  at  the  South  Gate,  which  most  foreigners  who  visit 
Shanghai  never  see,  hundreds  of  men  and  women  have  gone 
out  to  be  themselves  regenerative  forces  wherever  they  have 
gone.  The  Presbyterian  Missionary  Press,  the  oldest  and  best 
mission  press  in  China  has  done  the  same  kind  of  service. 
It  trained  the  men  who  built  and  are  conducting  the  Com- 
mercial Press  which  is  now  the  greatest  printing  establish- 
ment in  Asia  and  which,  in  the  range  of  its  work,  exceeds  any 
other  printing  establishment  in  the  world.  It  is  not  only  a 
printing  plant  but  it  has  a  great  editorial  department  produc- 
ing text  books  and  periodicals,  departments  of  book-binding, 
orthography,  engraving,  the  manufacture  of  school  furniture, 
equipment  and  apparatus  of  every  kind.  It  has  the  second 
largest  camera  in  the  world  and  is  now  turning  out  excellent 
moving  pictures.  It  employs  three  thousand  workers,  with 
a  turnover  of  six  million  dollars  last  year,  and  maintains  for 
its  workers  many  welfare  enterprises  and  has  associated  with 
it  one  of  the  strongest  and  most  active  churches  in  Shanghai. 
The  growth  of  many  new  presses,  however,  has  not  diminished 
the  need  for  the  old  Mission  Press,  upon  which  the  Missions 
throughout  China  still  rely  for  an  increasing  volume  of  work 
which  no  commercial  press  will  or  can  do.  And  China  needs 
also  the  illustration  which  the  Mission  Press  will  always  give 
and  is  giving  now  of  Christian  principles  applied  to  business 
and  to  the  relations  of  men. 

If  ever  nations  needed  help  in  the  right  solution  of  indus- 
trial problems,  Japan  and  China  need  that  help  today.  The 
factory  conditions  in  the  West  are  still  far  from  what  they 
ought  to  be,  but  many  of  them  are  beyond  praise  in  compari- 
son with  what  one  sees  in  many  of  the  mills  here,  where  little 
children  as  young  as  six  work  in  twelve  hour  shifts  day  and 

29 


night  for  a  wage  of  ten  cents  gold,  and  for  seven  days  a  week. 
Modern  factory  developments,  it  must  be  remembered,  also, 
are  just  beginning  in  the  Far  East.  China  manufactures 
as  yet  only  between  a  half  and  two-thirds  of  the  cotton  goods 
which  she  consumes  and  her  consumption  is  only  a  fraction 
of  what  it  is  to  be,  while  in  the  case  of  many  other  articles 
for  which  she  is  still  dependent  on  foreign  nations,  she  is  sure 
to  develop  before  long  her  own  manufactories.  Where  the 
poverty  is  so  deep  and  the  struggle  for  life  is  so  fierce,  where 
the  economic  forces  are  working  with  such  crudity,  and  where 
even  such  inadequate  pities  and  restraints  as  we  know  in  the 
West  are  undeveloped,  the  tragedies  of  the  present  situation 
are  inevitable,  and  it  is  inevitable  also  that  they  should  deepen 
the  conviction  of  any  one  who  studies  them  with  regard  to 
the  necessity  of  our  finding  some  new  and  better  order  which 
will  not  so  openly  flaunt  the  justice  and  the  love  of  God. 

Shanghai  is  not  only  a  power  house  where  energies  of  all 
nations  are  pouring  in,  it  is  also  a  city  of  refuge.  Last  Sunday 
afternoon  on  our  way  from  the  South  Gate  Church  and 
Schools  to  a  large  meeting  of  the  most  virile  life  of  China  in 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  the  Martyr's  Hall,  built  to  commemorate 
the  missionaries  who  fell  in  the  Boxer  uprising,  we  stopped 
at  the  Korean  Church.  Half  a  dozen  of  the  Korean  pastors 
including  one  of  the  signers  of  the  independence  proclamation 
have  fled  to  Shanghai  with  some  hundreds  of  simple  Christian 
believers.  One's  heart  went  out  to  the  little  flock  which  packed 
the  Korean  church  building  far  away  from  their  homes  and 
finding  freedom  and  security  behind  the  generous  gate  of 
China.  A  great  community  of  Russian  refugees  has  also 
grown  up  which  suffered  much  hardship  at  first  but  has  man- 
fully fitted  itself  to  the  new  necessities.  A  bookkeeper  em- 
ployed by  one  of  the  mission  schools  turned  out  to  be  a  Russian 
Vice-Admiral. 

The  total  number  of  Europeans  and  Americans  in  Shanghai 
is  18,000.  A  foreign  community  like  this  can  be  a  great  bless- 
ing or  a  great  curse  to  the  land  where  it  is  found.  Out  of 
this  community  a  great  deal  of  what  is  strongest  and  best 
today  is  proceeding,  and  there  are  many  who  are  seeking  to 
make  the  influence  of  these  foreign  elements  still  more  helpful 
and  wholesome.  The  American  community  now  numbering 
two  thousand  or  more  has  established  its  own  community 
church  and  is  seeking  funds  for  adequate  equipment.  We  at- 
tended the  service  last  Sunday  afternoon  which  opened  the 
autumn's  work  and  which  packed  every  seat  and  all  the  stand- 
ing room  in  the  Masonic  Hall.    The  American  merchants  and 

30 


missionaries  have  combined  also  in  establishing  for  their  chil- 
dren one  of  the  best  schools  in  the  Far  East,  and  have  bought 
a  site  of  seventeen  acres  in  the  best  new  section  of  the  city 
and  are  seeking  to  raise  now  in  China  and  America  between 
one  and  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  gold  with  which  to 
complete  the  erection  of  the  first  group  of  buildings.  One 
cannot  look  upon  the  American  boys  and  girls  gathered  in 
this  school  representing  the  finest  types  of  American  life  with- 
out longing  to  have  the  very  best  facilities  provided.  Out  of 
this  group  ought  to  come  the  strongest  leaders  of  the  Ameri- 
can forces  which  in  the  future  are  to  help  China  to  reach  her 
own  right  place  among  the  nations.  One  thanks  God  for  all 
the  forces  that  are  at  work  to  ofl'set  and  annul  what  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Pacific  Association  in  Shanghai  recently  declared 
to  be  the  "indisputable  fact  that  the  low  moral  life  which  so 
many  foreigners  are  led  into  usually  against  their  own  better 
judgments  and  wills  after  arriving  in  China,  is  a  reproach 
to  the  nations  they  represent  and  a  hindrance  to  the  progress 
of  Western  civilization  in  the  East."  It  need  not  be  added 
that  it  is  a  hindrance  to  the  Gospel. 

But  it  is  inspiring  to  see  in  Shanghai  the  helpful  influences, 
the  great  mission  schools  like  St.  John's  University  and  the 
Baptist  College  and  the  McTeyre  (Southern  Methodist)  School 
for  Girls  with  their  beautiful  grounds  and  buildings,  and  the 
co-operative  undertakings  of  the  Missions  in  their  common 
work  of  translation  and  of  publication  through  the  Bible 
societies  and  the  Christian  Literary  Society,  and  the  Mission 
Book  Company.  Many  of  them  have  now  combined  their 
treasury  and  purchasing  work  and  are  uniting  their  archi- 
tectural and  building  work.  Shanghai  is  the  inevitable  center 
of  co-operation,  as  necessary  as  it  is  desirable,  of  all  the  mis- 
sion forces  in  China.  It  is  a  mistake  to  think  that  all  this 
institutional  work  has  displaced  evangelization.  At  least  thirty- 
four  missionaries  are  given  wholly  to  evangelistic  work  in 
Shanghai,  and  the  work  of  the  rest  is  indispensable  to  evan- 
gelism. Let  the  Church  at  home  pray  that  it  may  fulfill  its 
functions,  and  that  into  all  this  machinery  so  admirably  pre- 
pared there  may  come  pouring  from  on  high  through  the 
great  gate  of  China  the  unmeasured  and  resistless  tides  of 
the  Spirit  of  the  living  God. 

S.  S.  Dilwara, 

China  Sea,  September  10,  1921. 


31 


3.     THE  FORCES  OF  NEW  LIFE  IN  NANKING 

The  city  of  Nanking  fulfills  in  one  respect  at  least  Mr. 
Ralph  Cram's  dream  of  the  ideal  unit  in  the  organization  of 
a  happy  and  beautiful  human  society.  It  is  a  walled  town. 
For  nearly  thirty  miles,  along  the  south  shore  of  the  Yangtse 
river,  over  the  slopes  of  Purple  Mountain  and  up  and  down 
across  a  wide  range  of  broken  and  now  half  wild  country, 
stretch  the  huge  walls  of  the  city.  There  are  those  who  be- 
lieve that  once  the  whole  vast  space  inclosed  within  the  walls 
was  a  settled  city,  and  that  the  great  waste  of  uninhabited 
land  between  the  present  city  and  the  encompassing  walls  is 
the  monument  of  the  havoc  and  ruin  wrought  by  the  Taiping 
rebels  who  for  a  dozen  years,  two  generations  ago,  occupied 
Nanking  as  their  capital.  There  are  others  who  find  it  hard 
to  credit  this  view  and  who  discover  no  sufficient  evidence  that 
any  such  enormous  population  ever  filled  this  ancient  capital 
of  China.  More  probably  it  was  meant  to  be,  according  to 
Mr.  Cram's  dream,  a  self  containing  city,  able  to  shut  itself 
behind  its  own  gates  and  to  sustain  itself  within  its  own  walls. 

These  are  the  only  two  respects,  however,  in  which  Nanking 
can  be  thought  to  fulfill  the  ideal  of  the  walled  city.  As  one 
looks  abroad  over  it  now  from  the  picturesque  beauty  of  the 
old,  red-brick,  arched  Drum  Tower,  he  sees  within  the  far- 
circling  walls  thousands  of  acres  of  waste  land  occupied  only 
by  the  huge  mounds  which  the  Chinese  extravagantly  set  aside 
from  their  best  soil  for  the  graves  of  the  dead.  In  the  north- 
west corner  of  the  walled  space  stands  the  city,  not  comparable 
now  in  wealth  and  prosperity  with  the  two  heavenly  cities, 
as  the  Chinese  regard  them,  of  Hangchow  and  Soochow.  The 
shops  are  poor,  and  the  homes  of  the  wealthy  were  in  large 
part  forsaken  on  the  two  occasions,  during  the  struggles  which 
set  up  the  Republic,  when  Nanking  bore  the  brunt  of  the 
fighting.  As  we  saw  the  city  last  week,  moreover,  the  heavy 
floods,  which  had  devastated  the  country  to  the  north  and 
produced  a  new  inland  sea  of  thousands  of  square  miles  over 
flourishing  villages  and  prosperous  farms,  had  overflowed  the 
ponds  and  canals  of  Nanking,  and  the  swamps  accentuated 
the  city's  need  and  misfortune. 

In  spite  of  the  sufferings  of  its  past,  however,  Nanking 
holds  still  a  central  place  in  Chinese  affections,  and  the  pro- 
posal will  recur  which  has  been  made  again  and  again  in 
recent  years,  to  remove  the  capital  even  from  the  great  splen- 

42 


dors  of  Peking  and  to  re-establish  it  again  in  the  heart  of 
the  country  on  the  Yangtse  river,  the  rich  artery  of  the  life 
of  China.  Even  now  the  city  is  the  terminus  of  the  railroads 
west  from  Shanghai  and  south  from  Peking  through  Tsi- 
nanfu  and  the  province  of  Shantung.  It  will  be  the  center 
of  other  trunk  lines  south  and  west  and  into  the  great  north- 
west. Ocean-going  ships  can  ascend  the  Yangtse  and  tie 
up  at  its  docks.  The  most  conspicuous  buildings  now,  outside 
the  walls  as  one  approaches,  whether  on  the  river  or  by  rail, 
are  the  high  concrete  factories  of  a  British  trading  company 
which  buys  millions  of  eggs  and  ships  the  separated  yokes 
and  whites  abroad,  and  which  freezes  and  exports  vast  quan- 
tities of  poultry  and  meats,  so  teaching  the  Chinese,  who  in 
the  past  have  drawn  all  their  wealth  from  the  vegetable  king- 
dom alone,  to  turn  also  to  their  unlimited  possibilities  of  ani- 
mal wealth.  And  as  a  center  for  the  life-giving  influences 
of  Christian  Missions,  the  city  offers  an  unsurpassed  oppor- 
tunity. 

The  Christian  Church  has  not  neglected  this  ODportunity. 
I  have  visited  Nanking  three  times,  first  in  1897,  again  in 
1915,  and  now  this  past  week,  and  nothing  could  be  more 
wonderful  and  inspiring  than  the  growth  of  the  missions  of 
our  own  and  other  churches  in  all  departments  of  their  work 
in  these  years.  On  the  most  beautiful  site  within  the  city, 
the  high  hill  crowned  by  the  Drum  Tower,  stand  the  new 
buildings  of  the  University  in  whose  various  departments 
the  Methodist,  Presbyterian,  Christian  and  Baptist  Churches 
are  cooperating.  Nowhere  in  China  are  there  more  beautiful, 
and  yet  substantial  and  simple  buildings.  The  central  admin- 
istration building  was  given  by  Mr.  John  L.  Severance  and 
his  sister,  Mrs.  Prentiss,  in  memory  of  their  father,  the  sci- 
ence building  by  Mr.  Ambrose  Swazey,  the  dormitories  by 
Mrs.  McCormick,  and  the  chapel  by  the  Sage  bequest  and  Mr. 
Day.  The  buildings  are  ideally  adapted  for  their  uses,  solidly 
built  of  the  great  bricks  which  had  been  brought  from  all  over 
China  for  the  walls  of  the  Manchu  city  inside  Nanking,  and 
preserve  the  roof  lines  of  Chinese  architecture.  The  chapel 
was  also  decorated  by  Chinese  artists,  and  a  beginning  has 
been  made  at  least  of  transfusing  old  Chinese  symbolism 
with  Christian  meaning,  even  as  the  Christian  Church  in 
Europe  strove  to  bring  the  old  life  under  the  regenerative 
power  of  Christ. 

The  University  conducts  one  of  the  two  best  schools  in 
China  for  the  teaching  of  the  language  to  new  missionaries. 
It  brings  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  in  daily  chapel  and  regular 

33 

3 — India   and   Persia 


Bible  classes  to  bear  upon  the  lives  of  all  its  six  hundred 
students.  It  has  perhaps  the  very  best  forestry  and  agri- 
cultural school  in  China  to  which  the  Government  has  offered 
official  registration.  It  is  helping  the  people  to  fight  the 
enemies  of  their  cotton  and  silk  worms  and  to  improve  the 
quality  and  quantity  of  their  product.  It  has  excellent  pre- 
theological  and  pre-medical  courses,  and  one  of  the  best  organ- 
ized and  equipped  libraries  in  English  and  Chinese  of  any  of 
the  Christian  institutions  in  China.  It  is  developing  a  school 
of  commerce  supported  by  the  Chinese,  and  conducts  a  large 
hospital  whose  superintendent  has  just  been  invited  to  Peking 
to  become  superintendent  of  the  hospital  of  the  China  Medical 
Board's  School.  It  enjoys  in  a  special  degree  the  good  will 
of  the  Chinese  Christians,  some  of  whose  ablest  leaders  are 
on  its  board  of  managers.  It  has  furnished  many  of  the  best 
teachers  for  the  new  Southeastern  Chinese  University. 

A  short  distance  away  on  the  rolling  hills  is  the  new  site 
of  Ginling  College  for  women,  the  first  and  as  yet  the  largest 
Christian  college  for  women  in  China,  maintained  by  five 
mission  boards  with  the  co-operation  of  Smith  College.  The 
ground  has  already  been  broken  for  the  first  buildings,  the 
college  meanwhile  going  on  with  its  work  with  overcrowded 
rooms  in  an  old  Chinese  residence  belonging  to  the  family 
of  Li  Hung  Chang.  Double  the  present  capacitv  could  be 
filled  with  Chinese  girls.  Indeed  everywhere  in  China  today 
the  Christian  schools  are  packed  to  their  fullest  capacity.  The 
women  in  Ginling  are  going  ahead  with  their  enterprise  in 
faith,  believing  that  the  balance  needed  to  complete  the  first 
necessary  group  of  buildings  will  be  provided  as  the  work 
goes  on. 

From  the  tower  of  Severance  Hall  which  the  Chinese  re- 
joice to  see  closely  adjoining  the  Drum  Tower  and  overtopping 
the  Japanese  consulate  on  the  neighboring  hill,  one  can  look 
out  over  the  whole  of  Nanking  city  and  see  the  yellow  flow  of 
the  Yangtse  and  the  slopes  of  Purple  .Mountain  with  a  new 
forest  growing  up  which  was  set  out  by  the  University  as 
part  of  the  relief  work  of  revolutionary  days.  It  is  amazing 
to  see  the  growth  and  the  present  splendid  equipment  in 
churches,  evangelistic  halls,  and  schools  of  the  different  mis- 
sions. And  it  is  inspiring  to  go  down  into  the  city  and  see 
their  work  and  the  work  of  the  Chinese  Christian  forces :  the 
Union  Theological  Seminary  supported  by  the  Christians  and 
by  the  Methodists  and  Presbyterians,  North  and  South;  the 
united  evangelistic  work  under  Dr.  Price ;  the  great  industrial 
orphanage  conducted  single-handed  by  a  quiet  little  Chinese 

34 


woman,  Mrs.  Cho;  the  beautiful  schools,  denominational  and 
inter-denominational,  for  the  training  of  Bible  women.  The 
leading  Chinese  educator  of  the  city  and  one  of  the  leaders  of 
the  nation  is  a  Christian  man,  educated  in  the  Lowrie  High 
School  at  the  South  Gate,  Shanghai,  and  at  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, Dr.  P.  W.  Kwo,  who  is  head  of  the  government  nor- 
mal school  and  of  the  new  Southeastern  University. 

No  one  can  doubt  that  the  forces  of  a  new  life  have  been 
released  in  Nanking.  The  sight  of  what  has  been  done  there 
gives  one  a  new  conception  of  the  power  of  motive  and  of 
the  power  of  achievement  which  are  found  in  Christ. 

S.  S.  Dilwara, 

China  Sea,  Sept.  14,  1921. 


35 


III.    PAST  THE  CROSSROADS  OF 
THE  WORLD 

We  left  Shanghai  on  September  9th  on  an  old  faithful  ship 
of  the  P.  and  0.  For  nearly  forty  years  it  had  been  plying 
in  the  waters  of  Asia,  and  it  was  redolent  of  the  East.  The 
smells  of  garlic  and  ghee;  the  Goanese  stewards;  the  Lascar 
firemen  and  crew;  the  Chinese  ship's  carpenters;  the  little 
group  of  passengers  so  diverse  in  character  and  nationality, 
Japanese  cotton  buyers  bound  for  Bombay,  an  English  actress, 
two  Indian  silk  and  jewel  merchants  returning  from  Manila 
to  Hyderabad  in  Sind,  a  little  Eurasian  girl  going  home  to 
Singapore  from  a  convent  in  Shanghai,  British  business  men, 
a  Spanish  Dominican  priest;  the  languor  of  the  air;  the  junks 
and  fishing  boats;  and  the  very  stars  above  us  were  all  part 
of  this  far-oflf  Eastern  life  whose  memories  cling  forever  to 
those  who  have  felt  its  spell. 

Day  after  day  we  slipped  down  across  the  quiet  waters  of 
the  China  Sea  resembling  nothing  so  much  as  the  slumber 
of  a  little  child,  moving  scarcely  more  than  a  little  child  stirs 
in  its  sleep.  The  flying  fish  played  across  the  surface  of  the 
sea.  The  burning  sun  shone  down  each  day  through  thin, 
filmy  clouds  which  neither  hid  its  brightness  nor  checked  its 
heat.  As  the  sun  went  down  in  crimson  and  opal,  pale  green 
and  brown,  behind  the  China  coastline,  dimly  seen,  with  great 
junks  silhouetted  against  its  red  eye,  while  other  junks  like 
huge,  gray  moths  flitted  past  in  the  whitish  blackness  of  the 
coming  night,  one  could  almost  feel  the  heaving  pulse-beat  of 
the  world.  "Father,"  I  said  to  the  Dominican  priest  as  we 
leaned  over  the  rail  watching  the  sunset,  "that  is  argument 
enough  for  God."  "Yes,"  he  replied,  "no  man  could  ever  paint 
like  that."  The  Lascar  sailors  would  be  ranged  in  two  rows 
on  the  after  hatches  each  evening  with  an  old  gray-bearded 
leader  before  them,  saying  their  prayers  toward  Mecca.  And 
day  by  day  we  dropped  down  toward  the  ports  where  the  ships 
of  the  world  meet  and  pass  at  the  crossing  highways  of  the 
seas. 

We  spent  our  two  days  while  the  ship  lay  at  Hong  Kong 
in  conference  with  missionaries  from  the  Philippines  and 
Canton.  General  Wood  had  just  come  in  from  Manila  where 
he  Jiad  had  a  hearty  welcome  and  where  we  were  told  there 
was  the  most  cordial  satisfaction  at  his  appointment  as  gov- 

36 


ernor  of  the  Islands.  The  Philippine  missionaries  are  already- 
carrying  on  in  Manila  a  successful  Union  Theological  Training 
School,  and  are  considering,  in  the  hope  that  the  home  boards 
may  be  able  to  approve,  a  plan  for  the  establishment  of  a  union 
Christian  college  in  Manila.  The  problems  of  the  Canton 
missionaries  were  the  problems  also  of  expansion  and  growth. 
Nowhere  else  in  China  perhaps  or  in  the  Far  East  have  the 
people  themselves  been  so  willing  to  give  both  equipment  and 
support  for  Christian  enterprises  as  the  Chinese  in  Canton, 
and  the  city  is  full  now  of  new  life  and  enterprise,  and  of 
eagerness  to  establish  and  to  carry  forward  the  undertakings 
required  for  the  new  day  in  China.  The  linguistic  and  tem- 
peramental differences  of  South  China  make  many  of  its  prob- 
lems distinct.  It  is  exhilarating  to  any  one  who  remembers 
the  Canton  of  a  generation  ago  to  note  the  place  which  the 
Christian  forces  are  occupying  in  its  life  today. 

Our  ship  took  on  two  thousand  tons  of  rice  in  Singapore 
which  had  come  down  from  Siam  and  which  was  to  be  de- 
livered in  Ceylon  where  a  rice  shortage  which  had  required 
careful  rationing  was  just  coming  to  an  end.  The  four  days 
necessary  for  this  gave  us  good  opportunities  to  visit  again 
the  faithful  and  difficult  and  fruitful  work  of  the  American 
Methodist  Missions,  their  admirable  press  and  book  room, 
the  best  in  Singapore,  the  Anglo-Chinese  School  with  two 
thousand  boys,  corresponding  schools  for  girls,  a  training 
school  for  evangelists  and  preachers.  On  the  highest  hills 
overlooking  Singapore  and  the  Strait  the  Methodists  have 
acquired  a  site  of  eighty  acres  for  their  projected  college  and 
university.  The  site  commands  a  noble  view  in  every  direc- 
tion. Eastward  one  looks  down  on  the  whole  of  Singapore 
and  its  great  harbor  of  ships  scarcely  less  numerous  than 
those  of  Hong  Kong.  Northward  are  the  hills  of  Johore  and 
the  far  stretches  of  the  Malay  Peninsula.  Westward  across 
the  Strait  of  Malacca  lies  the  long  island  of  Sumatra  with  its 
rich  resources  and  its  high  mountains  rising  up  9,000  feet. 
The  college  plans  are  in  abeyance  now  as  some  of  the  most 
generous  of  the  Straits  Chinese  contributors  are  affected 
by  the  slump  in  rubber  and  tin  which  has  brought  economic 
depression  to  the  whole  colony  and  to  the  Malay  Federated 
States.  As  in  so  many  other  mission  stations  so  in  Singapore, 
men  and  women  are  trying  to  carry  double  and  treble  loads, 
and  especially  in  the  problem  of  the  evangelization  of  the 
Mohammedan  Malays  they  are  certainly  dealing  with  one  of 
the  hardest  of  all  the  missionary  tasks  of  the  world. 

We  sailed  into  Colombo  harbor  within  the  shelters  of  the 

37 


breakwaters  just  as  the  sun  was  going  down.  It  was  good 
to  see  a  Christian  Church  spire  standing  up  as  one  of  the 
most  conspicuous  landmarks  of  the  city.  The  delay  in  Singa- 
pore cost  us  all  the  visit  that  we  had  planned  in  Ceylon,  and 
we  left  our  boat,  to  unload  the  two  thousand  tons  of  rice  and 
to  carry  on  to  Bombay  a  million  ounces  of  silver,  which  it 
had  brought  from  Shanghai  to  add  to  the  millions  of  dollars 
worth  of  silver  and  gold  which  are  buried  in  crocks  or  treas- 
ure houses  or  anklets  and  bracelets  and  Indian  jewelry. 
Within  an  hour  we  were  on  our  way  northward  for  the  ferry 
which  after  the  night's  ride  carried  us  over  in  the  early 
morning  to  India.  I  clipped  from  the  Times  of  Ceylon  the 
day  of  our  arrival,  September  27th,  the  account  of  a  social 
service  at  Moratuwa,  near  Colombo,  where  the  Korallawella 
Literary  and  Improvement  Society  had  just  held  its  first  anni- 
versary. Protestants,  Roman  Catholics  and  Buddhists  had 
attended.  "The  Rev.  Pandit  Malalankara  spoke,"  so  the  news- 
paper account  stated,  "and  paid  a  high  tribute  to  the  Chris- 
tians of  the  town  who,  he  said,  were  far  more  advanced  and 
enlightened  than  those  of  his  own  creed.  The  lower  strata 
of  people,  he  said,  were  mostly  composed  of  Buddhists  and 
were  very  strongly  addicted  to  drink  and  consequent  evils. 
He  appealed  to  his  Christian  friends  to  make  a  common  fight 
and  abolish  two  taverns  which  were  entirely  responsible  for 
crime,  litigation  and  misery." 

We  landed  on  the  sandy,  barren  point  of  the  Indian  penin- 
sula. It  was  interesting  to  see  Christian  churches  almost  as 
soon  and  as  numerous  as  the  Hindu  temples  or  shrines  in  the 
little  villages  to  which  we  came.  The  churches  were  the  fruit- 
age of  the  work  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Missions,  and  even 
those  who  criticised  the  work  and  its  methods  for  their  com- 
promises with  caste  and  other  evils  were  nevertheless  clear  in 
their  opinion  that,  just  as  Pandit  Malalankara  had  testified  in 
Ceylon,  the  Christian  communities  were  on  a  distinctly  higher 
level  than  the  non-Christian  communities  from  which  they 
had  been  drawn.  We  came  soon  upon  very  attractive  little 
substations  bearing  the  sign  of  an  elephant  and  the  name 
of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  trim  and  neat  and  cleanly 
painted  as  are  such  Standard  Oil  outposts  the  world  over, 
but  we  were  glad  that  we  had  come  first  on  Christian  churches 
and  to  remember  that  they  had  been  there  long  in  advance 
of  the  coming  of  any  commercial  agency. 

There  are  types  of  Hindu  religious  life  and  of  Dravidian 
temple  art  and  architecture  in  Southern  India  which  are  not 
to  be  found  elsewhere.     And  some  of  the  oldest  and  most 

38 


fruitful  mission  work  in  India  is  found  in  the  extreme  south. 
Our  chief  purpose  in  going  into  India  in  this  way,  however, 
was  to  visit  the  school  for  missionary  children  at  Kodaikanal, 
and  one  is  tempted  to  say  that  it  would  be  worthwhile  to  go 
to  India  for  such  a  visit  alone.  Leaving  the  railroad  an  hour 
north  of  Madura  by  motor,  we  had  a  twenty  mile  ride  across 
a  hot  plain  over  a  red  road  shaded,  however,  as  so  many  of 
the  Indian  roads  are,  by  the  overarching  foliage  of  great  trees 
in  which  the  monkeys  were  playing.  The  village  folk  were 
just  coming  home  from  the  fields  in  the  evening  time.  The 
village  wells  were  surrounded  with  the  women  and  girls  with 
their  water  jars.  The  bullocks  and  buffaloes  were  resting 
after  the  day's  toil.  The  smoke  of  the  little  wood  or  weed  or 
cow-dung  fires  filled  the  air.  At  Battalunda  we  passed  the 
neat  little  church  and  bungalow  of  the  American  Board  sta- 
tion. Just  as  darkness  fell,  we  began  the  thirty-mile  climb 
from  Madura  plain  seven  thousand  feet  up  the  Palni  Hills. 
The  next  morning  from  Coaker's  Walk,  without  a  cloud  hid- 
ing our  view,  we  looked  down  six  thousand  feet  upon  the 
whole  southern  end  of  India.  Just  below  us,  rich  in  vegeta- 
tion and  fruitfulness,  lay  the  hundreds  of  square  miles  once 
arid  and  bare,  now  watered  by  the  Peryar  Project  which 
brought  a  useless  river,  which  from  time  immemorial  had  run 
westward  into  the  Arabian  Sea,  through  a  great  tunnel  in 
the  ghats,  stored  it  in  a  huge  reservoir,  and  spread  it  out  with 
its  life  giving  fertility  over  the  plain.  More  appealing  even 
than  the  Peryar  Project,  however,  was  the  school  where  in 
this  health  giving  place  nearly  a  hundred  American  children 
were  receiving  the  sort  of  training  both  of  mind  and  body 
which  would  prepare  them  for  college  life  at  home,  and  receiv- 
ing it  under  influences  designed  to  strengthen  in  them  the 
purpose  and  desire  to  come  back  to  give  their  lives  to  mis- 
sionary service  in  India.  It  is  hard  to  conceive  of  any  piece 
of  work  more  necessary,  more  appealing,  and  more  fruitful 
than  this  Kodaikanal  School. 

After  the  bracing  tonic  air  of  Kodaikanal,  the  September 
weather  of  Madras  is  a  depressing  let-down,  and  we  found 
the  colleges  closed  for  a  fortnight's  holiday  because  of  the 
Hindu  religious  festival  of  Durga  Puja.  Madras  Christian 
College,  associated  with  the  great  name  of  William  Miller,  still 
living  in  an  honored  old  age  in  Edinburgh,  has  been  for  a 
generation  a  lighthouse  of  Christian  influence  and  teaching, 
and  the  new  Union  Christian  College  for  women  gives  every 
promise  of  filling  a  place  of  equal  honor  and  usefulness.  It 
is  a  beautiful  compound,  on  the  bank  of  a  little  river  in  a 

39 


lovely  section  of  Madras,  which  the  women  of  the  British  and 
American  missionary  societies  co-operating  have  secured.  The 
whole  student  body  is  Christian,  and  Miss  McDougal  and 
Miss  Coons  and  their  associates  are  seeking  to  stamp  the 
college  from  the  beginning  with  the  right  spirit  and  the  true 
ideals.  Some  of  the  oldest  churches  in  India  are  in  Madras. 
The  church  in  the  fort  is  the  oldest  Protestant  church  building 
in  the  country,  and  it  bears  on  its  wall  the  magnificent  tribute 
to  the  old  missionary,  Schwartz,  placed  there  by  the  East 
India  Company.  In  the  Roman  Catholic  Cathedral  of  St. 
Thome  is  the  reputed  grave  of  St.  Thomas,  the  Apostle,  and 
on  the  wall  is  a  marble  tablet  containing  the  names  of  the 
priests  who  in  succession  have  said  mass  on  the  spot  for  three 
hundred  years.  On  the  Esplanade  opposite  the  High  Court 
buildings  is  the  handsome  brownstone  building  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  which  stands  as  a  monument  to 
the  energy  of  Mr.  David  McConaughy,  its  first  secretary. 

It  is  a  long,  tedious  ride  over  the  low  plains  from  Madras 
to  Calcutta.  I  looked  out  with  most  interest  for  the  Godavary 
river  which  brings  down  to  the  sea  the  waters  of  the  Wain- 
gunga,  where  Mowgli  lived  and  the  scenes  of  the  Jungle  Books 
were  set,  where  Mowgli  and  Akela's  wolves  fought  their  Ho- 
meric battle  with  the  red  dogs  of  the  Dekkan,  where  Shere 
Khan  met  his  merited  fate  under  the  hoofs  of  the  buffaloes, 
and  where  Messua  dwelt. 

There  is  much  in  Calcutta  to  remind  one  of  Shanghai,  and 
strong  missions  both  of  the  British  and  American  churches 
are  carrying  on  some  of  the  best  educational  and  evangelistic 
work  in  India.  Our  greatest  interest,  however,  was  to  make 
another  pilgrimage  to  Serampore  to  see  again  the  founda- 
tions which  William  Carey  had  laid  with  a  faith  and  courage 
which  could  be  the  gift  of  God  alone,  and  to  stand  with  bared 
heads  by  the  graves  of  Carey  and  Marshman  and  Ward  and 
to  reflect  upon  what  they  had  achieved  and  what,  even  yet, 
we  too  may  achieve,  if  like  them  we  attempt  the  things  that 
are  great  and  endure  in  the  faith  of  the  Invisible. 

East  Indian  Railway,  Oct.  12,  1921. 


40 


IV.  INDIA 


PAGE 

1.  History  of  Our  India  Missions   43-53 

2.  Letters  from  the  Stations    54-113 

(1)  The  City  of  False  Gods   54 

(2)  The  Cradle  of  Christianity  in  the  Punjab 57 

(3)  The   Place  of   Serpents    60 

(4)  Kodoli  and  Islampur    63 

(5)  The  Two  Stations  of  the  Konkan    67 

(6)  Where  the  Kolhapur  Mission  Began    70 

(7)  Teaching   and    Healing    in     the     Southern     Marathi 

Country  73 

(8)  Lucknow  and  Cawnpore    76 

(9)  Fatehpur,  Etawah  and  Mainpuri    80 

(10)  On  Sacred  Ground  at  Fatehgarh 83 

(11)  By  the  Ganges  Canal  and  the  Great  Trunk  Road 87 

(12)  "Unto  the  Hills"   90 

(13)  The  City  of  St.  Haroun    93 

(14)  Ambala  and  Santokh  Majra 97 

(15)  JuUundur  and  Hoshiarpur    100 

(16)  The  Village  Work  in  India   104 

(17)  Lahore    107 

(18)  Gwalior  and  Jhansi    110 

3.  Some  Aspects  of  the  Present  Political  Environment  of  the 

Church  and   Missions   in   India    114-134 

4.  Some  Aspects  of  the  Present  Economic  and  Religious  En- 

vironment of  the  Church  in  India 135-170 

5.  Problems  of  the  Church  and  of  Evangelization 171-253 

(1)  Relations    between    the    Foreign    Missions    and    the 

Indian   Church    171 

A.  Early  History  of  the  Question   171 

B.  Correspondence  between  the  Four  Allahabad  Brethren 

and  the  Board   178 

C.  The  Saharanpur  Conference    179 

D.  Discussion  of  Saharanpur  Conference  Report 184-215 

a.  Expressions  of  Churches  and  Christian  Communities        184 

b.  Various  Group  Conferences   186 

c.  Actions  of  the  Missions,  the  Presbyteries  and  the 

India   Council    199 

E.  General  Observations  on  the  Situation 215-253 

(2)  The    Relation    of    the     Indian     Church     to     Political 

Problems    231 

(3)  The  Mass   Movement    235 

(4)  A  New  Aspect  of  the  Movement  toward  Church  Union  243 

(5)  The  Nationalistic  Ideal  of  the  Church 251 

6.  Some    Aspects    of   the    Problem   of    Missionary   Education 

in  India    254-303 

(1)  The  General  Situation   254 

(2)  The   Conscience   Clause    259 

(3)  The  Relation  of  Missions  to  Government 275 

(4)  The  Problems  of  our  Mission  Colleges 277 

(5)  High   Schools    282 

(6)  Village   Schools    287 

(7)  Theological,  Agricultural  and  Industrial  Schools....  290 

(8)  The  Christian  Influence  of  our  Educational  Work..  292 

(9)  Non-Christian    Teachers    299 

(10)    Schools   for    Missionaries'   Children 302 

7.  Some  General  Observations  Regarding  our  India  Missions. 304-312 

41 


IV.     INDIA 

1.     HISTORY  OF  OUR  MISSIONS  IN  INDIA 

The  first  missionaries  of  our  Church  to  India  sailed  from 
Philadelphia  on  the  "Star,"  on  the  30th  of  May,  1833.  The 
party  consisted  of  the  Rev,  John  C.  Lowrie  and  the  Rev. 
William  Reed  and  their  wives.  "Never,  it  is  believed,"  says 
the  Second  Annual  Report  of  the  Western  Foreign  Missionary 
Society,  which  sent  them,  "was  the  mind  of  the  Christian  pub- 
lic in  that  city  more  deeply  interested  in  the  foreign  mission- 
ary enterprise."  And  Dr.  Irenaeus  Prime  has  told  of  the 
crowd  of  students  at  Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  whose 
shouts  aroused  him  as  he  lay  sick,  and  whose  meaning  was 
explained  to  him,  when  he  arose  to  inquire,  by  the  words, 
"Lowrie  is  off  for  India."  Lowrie  and  Reed  were  the  first 
missionaries  who  offered  their  services  to  go  abroad,  and  they 
were  received  under  the  care  of  the  Society,  January  16,  1832, 
and  the  Presbyteries  to  which  they  belonged,  New  Castle  and 
Huntingdon,  undertook  their  support.  Leaving  Philadelphia, 
on  May  30th,  of  the  following  year,  they  reached  Calcutta  on 
October  15th.  Mrs.  Lowrie  had  been  ill  on  embarking,  and 
failed  rapidly  on  the  voyage.  She  died  and  was  buried  in 
Calcutta  on  November  21st,  "there  to  proclaim  as  she  sleeps 
on  India's  distant  shores,"  as  the  Report  of  the  Society  un- 
dauntedly declares,  "the  compassion  of  American  Christians 
for  its  millions  of  degraded  idolaters;  and  to  invite  others 
from  her  native  land  to  come  and  prosecute  the  noble  under- 
taking in  which  she  fell."  Shortly  after,  Mr.  Reed's  health 
began  to  fail,  and  on  July  23,  1834,  he  and  Mrs.  Reed  sailed 
for  America.  He  died  at  sea  and  was  buried  in  the  Bay  of 
Bengal,  near  the  Andaman  Islands.  The  solitary  survivor  of 
this  little  band  was  not  dismayed,  and  as  socm  as  he  could 
wisely  proceed  he  passed  on  alone  into  the  far  northwest, where 
no  missionary  had  ever  gone,  to  lay  there  the  foundations  of 
the  great  missions  of  his  Church. 

Of  course  there  had  been  Protestant  missionaries  in  India 
for  many  years.  The  first  ones  were  two  Pietist  students  from 
Halle,  Ziegenbalg  and  Plutschau,  sent  to  Tranquebar  in  1706, 
by  Frederick  IV  of  Denmark.  One  of  their  greatest  successors 
was  Schwartz,  a  man  trusted  and  beloved  by  all,  foreigners 
and  natives  alike.  The  first  American  missionaries  were  the 
fruit  of  the  work  of  the  little  band  that  under  the  shelter 

43 


of  the  haystack  at  Williamstown  resolved  in  prayer  "to  effect 
in  their  own  persons  a  mission  to  the  heathen."  Judson,  Gor- 
don, Hall  and  Nott,  began  the  work  in  1812,  the  former  in 
Burmah,  and  Hall  and  Nott  in  Bombay.  To  the  northwest 
of  Benares,  however,  in  the  regions  to  and  beyond  which  Mr. 
Lowrie  desired  to  go,  there  were  only  five  missionaries,  at  Chu- 
nar,  Allahabad,  Delhi,  Meerut,  and  Agra.  Carey,  Marshman, 
and  Duff,  were  among  the  missionaries  Mr.  Lowrie  met  in 
Calcutta,  and  they  sympathized  with  his  desire  to  press  on 
into  the  untouched  fields.  The  home  Church,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  Africa  Mission,  was  not  content  with  small  plans. 
Afghanistan,  Kashmir,  and  Thibet,  were  fields  which  it  ex- 
pected to  enter,  and  even  Eastern  Persia.  There  was  a  great 
optimism  about  the  beginnings  of  our  missionary  enterprise ; 
some  of  it  not  justified  by  subsequent  experience — for  ex- 
ample, the  opinion  that  Islam  was  peculiarly  tolerant  in  the 
lands  beyond  India,  and  that  India  was  on  "the  eve  of  a  great 
revolution  in  its  religious  prospects."  Two  missionaries  sail- 
ing in  1837  were  actually  designated  for  Kashmir  and  Afghan- 
istan. Yet  it  was  not  a  careless  or  small-hearted  optimism. 
There  was  a  Christian  large-mindedness  about  all  their  de- 
signs. With  the  party  of  new  missionaries  which  went  in 
1834,  the  Hon.  Walter  Lowrie,  whose  son  had  established 
the  Mission,  sent  a  valuable  set  of  philosophical  apparatus 
for  the  use  of  a  high  school,  with  the  hope  that  "by  the  bless- 
ing of  Heaven  it  might  prove  the  means  of  undermining  the 
false  systems  of  philosophy  adopted  by  the  heathen,  and  con- 
sequently their  false  systems  of  religion,  with  which  their 
philosophy  is  intimately  if  not  inseparably  connected." 

With  large  minded  ambition,  fashioned  after  that  of  the 
great  apostle  who  made  it  his  aim  to  preach  the  Gospel  not 
where  Christ  had  already  been  named,  but  where  no  tidings 
of  Him  had  come,  the  lonely  missionary  started  from  Calcutta, 
for  the  far  northwest.  "There  were  few  facilities  in  those 
days  for  communication  between  one  part  of  the  country  and 
another.  The  Grand  Trunk  Road,  which  began  at  Calcutta, 
and  in  after  years  extended  all  the  way  to  Peshawur,  reached, 
at  the  time  now  referred  to,  only  as  far  as  Barrackpore,  a 
few  miles  from  Calcutta.  In  the  absence  of  regular  roads, 
such  as  wheeled  carriages  required  for  easy  locomotion,  the 
first  missionaries  had  to  make  their  way  up  the  country  in 
palanquins,  or  by  the  more  tedious  process  of  sailing  up  the 
Ganges  in  native  boats,  which,  except  when  there  was  a  favor- 
able wind,  had  to  be  drawn  by  two  ropes ;  and  woe  to  the  ves- 
sel, when,  through  the  force  of  a  strong  current,  the  rope  hap- 

44 


pened  to  break!  The  time  required  for  such  voyages  had 
sometimes  to  be  counted  by  months.  In  the  rainy  season  the 
Ganges  is  navigable  by  native  boats  as  far  up  as  Garhmuktisar 
Ghat,  some  thirty  miles  from  Meerut.  But  this  is  often  ac- 
complished with  difficulty.  As  an  illustration  of  this  it  may 
be  mentioned,  that  the  second  party  of  our  missionaries,  hav- 
ing arrived  in  India  in  the  beginning  of  1835,  sailed  from 
Calcutta  on  the  23d  of  June,  reached  Cawnpore  about  three 
months  later,  were  obliged  then,  on  account  of  the  usual  fall 
in  the  river  at  the  end  of  the  rains,  to  change  their  boat  for  a 
smaller  one,  and  finally  to  stop  at  Fatehgarh.  From  this  place 
the  journey  was  accomplished  in  a  palanquin  carriage  drawn 
by  oxen.  In  some  places  the  road  was  fairly  good,  but  in 
others  certainly  bad  enough,  and  intersected  every  now  and 
then  by  unbridged  streams.  Ludhiana,  the  place  of  destina- 
tion, was  reached  on  the  8th  of  December;  so  that  the  whole 
journey  from  Calcutta  was  accomplished  in  just  five  months 
and  a  half."  Ludhiana  was  the  city  Mr.  Lowrie  selected  as 
the  first  station.  It  was  one  of  the  two  cities  in  this  district 
under  the  East  India  Company,  whose  officers  here  were  very 
friendly,  and  it  was  near  the  center  of  the  Sikh  people,  a 
people  of  fine  physique,  who  were  a  sort  of  reformed  Brah- 
manists,  having  discarded  the  old  idolatry  and  in  some  meas- 
ure broken  the  bands  of  caste,  and  who,  it  was  hoped,  would 
be  open  to  missionary  influence.  Mr.  Lowrie  arrived  in  No- 
vember, 1834.  The  first  reinforcement,  consisting  of  the  Rev. 
John  Newton  and  the  Rev.  James  Wilson  and  their  wives, 
arrived  in  December,  1835.  Six  weeks  after  their  arrival, 
Mr.  Lowrie,  whose  health  had  been  failing,  was  obliged  to 
leave,  never  to  return. 

It  was  thus  the  Presbyterian  Missions  in  India  were  begun. 
The  India  of  that  day  was  very  different  from  the  India  of 
this.  The  British  Government  had  not  formally  taken  over 
the  country.  The  East  India  Company  still  controlled  it, 
though  much  of  the  land  now  under  British  rule  was  inde- 
pendent. In  the  northwest,  Oudh  and  Rohilcund  were  under 
independent  native  rule.  Runjeet  Singh  ruled  the  Punjab 
north  of  the  Sutlej,  while  Sindh  was  subject  to  Mohammedan 
Nawabs.  The  Mogul  Emperor  was  still  treated  deferentially 
as  a  king,  though  stripped  of  power  outside  of  his  own  palace 
at  Delhi ;  but  the  old  days  of  native  power  were  almost  over. 

Among  the  Sikhs  at  Ludhiana,  and  also  among  Hindus  and 
Mohammedans,  the  work  was  solidly  established  in  1835,  by 
the  coming  of  Mr.  Newton  and  Mr.  Wilson.  The  following 
year  a  larger  reinforcement  was  sent,  including  three  laymen 

45 


sent  out  with  the  hope  that  "these  brethren  by  spending  a  few 
of  the  first  years  of  their  missionary  labors  as  teachers  in 
the  higher  departments  of  education  in  India,  might  promote 
the  great  object  of  its  evangehzation  as  effectually  as  any 
other."  Two  printing  presses  and  fonts  of  type  were  sent, 
also,  and  a  practical  printer  was  sent  out  in  1838,  who,  in 
six  years,  trained  native  men  who  carried  on  the  press  work 
after  he  had  withdrawn.  In  1836,  a  station  was  opened  at 
Saharanpur,  one  hundred  and  eleven  miles  southeast  of  Lud- 
hiana,  on  the  invitation  of  the  British  Collector  and  Magis- 
trate, who  arranged  for  the  purchase  of  a  large  house  for 
Rs.  400.  The  large  purposes  of  the  Church  in  the  work  are 
illustrated  by  the  Report  of  the  Society  for  1835,  describing 
the  reasons  for  occupying  this  field :  "Saharanpur,  distant 
130  miles  southeast  from  Ludhiana,  100  miles  north  of  Delhi, 
is  situated  within  twenty  miles  of  Hurdwar,  that  great  ren- 
dezvous of  pilgrims  from  all  the  surrounding  nations.  The 
annual  fair  at  Hurdwar  is  attended  by  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  all  classes ;  and  hitherto,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  tran- 
sient visits  of  a  single  missionary  from  Delhi,  Satan  has  had 
the  undisputed  possession  of  this  great  field  to  himself.  No 
place  affords  more  advantages  for  the  dissemination  of  the 
sacred  Scriptures  and  religious  publications  than  the  fair  at 
Hurdwar.  From  this  point  they  will  be  carried  into  the  sur- 
rounding countries,  and  to  all  parts  of  Northern  India,  and 
even  to  the  tribes  beyond  Kashmir,  inhabiting  the  high  table- 
lands of  Central  Asia." 

The  next  station  was  Sabathu,  110  miles  east  of  Ludhiana, 
and  4,000  feet  above  the  sea,  where  the  temperature  seldom 
rises  above  90  degrees  Fah.  and  rarely  falls  low  enough  for 
snow.  It  was  deemed  desirable  to  have  one  such  station  so 
healthfully  located,  even  though  the  surrounding  population 
was  not  as  dense  as  on  the  plains,  and  hopes  were  entertained, 
subsequently  disappointed,  that  the  Hill  tribes  would  prove 
simple-minded  and  teachable,  and  yield  readily  to  the  Gospel. 

In  1836  work  was  begun  in  Allahabad,  in  1838  in  Fatehgarh, 
and  in  1843  in  Mainpuri  and  Furrukhabad.  The  next  station 
occupied  was  Jullundur,  in  1847.  The  work  was  begun  by  Mr. 
Goloknath,  the  first  convert  and  minister  of  our  Church  in 
India.  He  was  a  Brahman,  and  son  of  a  tea  merchant  in  Cal- 
cutta. He  had  been  a  pupil  in  the  school  of  Dr.  Duff,  who  had 
come  to  India  in  1830,  and  he  had  become  so  interested  in 
Christianity  that  he  could  not  stay  at  home  happily,  and  wan- 
dered off  to  the  Northwest.  He  was  then  nineteen,  and  he 
appeared  in  Ludhiana  at  the  door  of  the  Mission  house,  well 

46 


dressed,  very  respectable  in  appearance,  and  with  a  small 
English  Bible  in  his  hand.  He  and  his  wife  died  recently, 
after  more  than  sixty  years  of  noble  service.  Jullundur  was 
the  first  station  occupied  beyond  the  river  Sutlej  in  the  Punjab 
proper,  which  the  missionaries  had  from  the  beginning  de- 
sired to  enter.  The  Punjab  includes  now  the  whole  north- 
western corner  of  India  beyond  the  Northwest  Provinces  up 
to  Afghanistan.  The  Northwest  Provinces  received  their 
name  before  British  rule  was  extended  beyond  the  Sutlej.  The 
Punjab  is  a  great  plain  intersected  by  five  large  rivers,  the 
Sutlej,  the  Beeas,  the  Ravee,  the  Chenab,  and  the  Jhelum, 
these  rivers  giving  its  name  to  the  country — The  Punjab, 
that  is.  The  Five  Waters.  The  population  o*f  the  Punjab  is 
now  about  twenty-one  millions.  It  is  made  up  of  Moham- 
medans and  Hindus  about  equally,  including,  among  the  latter, 
the  Sikhs,  some  of  whom,  however,  scorn  to  be  called  Hindus, 
and  the  Outcastes,  who  have  scarcely  any  religion,  and  are 
called  "some  of  them  Ramdassies  (followers  of  Ramdass) 
and  some  Muzkubies  (people  having  a  religion),  according  to 
the  grade  of  outcasts  to  which  they  originally  belonged."  "The 
Hindus,  on  account  perhaps  of  their  long  intercourse  with 
Mohammedans  (most  of  whose  ancestors  were  themselves 
Hindus)  and  on  account  of  their  subjection,  successively,  for 
many  centuries,  to  Mohammedan  and  Sikh  rule,  are  less  big- 
oted than  their  brethren  in  some  other  parts  of  India,  and 
they  have  not  so  strong  a  caste  feeling." 

The  Punjab  had  been  divided  among  a  number  of  indepen- 
dent princes,  but  Runjeet  Singh,  "The  Lion  of  the  Punjab," 
at  the  time  the  Mission  was  founded  ruled  the  whole  from 
Lahore.  Mr.  Lowrie  had  not  been  long  in  Ludhiana  when 
Runjeet  Singh  invited  him  to  visit  him.  Mr.  Lowrie  accepted 
the  invitation  and  was  the  Maharajah's  guest  for  several 
weeks,  treated  with  every  courtesy.  The  Maharajah's  object 
was  to  have  a  school  established  in  Lahore  for  the  English 
education  of  the  sons  of  the  nobles.  Mr.  Lowrie  insisted, 
however,  that  he  could  not  undertake  it  without  including  the 
teaching  of  Christianity,  and  the  plan  failed,  though  the 
Maharajah  sent  the  missionary  away  in  splendor,  and  was 
greatly  astonished  when  he  learned  that  the  present  he  gave, 
consisting  of  a  horse,  pieces  of  silk  and  cotton  goods,  jewelry 
and  money,  in  all  more  than  $1,100,  would  all  be  transferred 
to  the  Mission  treasury,  and  not  kept  for  Mr.  Lowrie's  per- 
sonal use. 

This  negotiation  having  failed,  the  missionaries  were 
obliged  to  wait,  no  European  being  allowed  in  those  days  to 

47 


cross  the  Sutlej  without  permission  from  the  Lahore  Durbar 
(court  of  the  chief).  In  1839,  however,  the  Maharajah  died, 
and  the  country  fell  into  a  state  of  anarchy.  When  attacks 
were  made  on  British  territory  south  of  the  Sutlej,  the  wars 
were  begun  which  ended  in  the  annexation  of  the  Punjab. 
The  government  of  the  new  province  was  in  the  hands  of  a 
Board  of  Administration,  of  which  the  two  most  prominent 
men  were  Henry  and  John  Lawrence,  the  latter  afterwards 
Viceroy,  and  both  splendid  Christian  men.  Lahore  was  taken 
possession  of  in  1849,  and  before  the  end  of  the  year,  at  the 
urgent  request  of  some  of  the  British  officials,  the  Rev.  John 
Newton  and  his  wife  and  the  Rev.  C.  W.  Forman  arrived  to 
establish  work  h\  the  new  field.  These  two  men  have  left  an 
indelible  impress  on  the  Punjab.  Dr.  Newton  spent  fifty-six 
years  in  India,  and  Dr.  Forman  forty-six,  and  each  of  them 
spent  more  than  a  generation  and  a  half  in  Lahore.  Dr.  New- 
ton was  a  powerful  preacher,  both  in  English  and  in  the  ver- 
nacular, and  he  had  a  patience  and  tact  which  melted  oppo- 
sition and  indifference,  and  won  for  him  and  his  Master  the 
admiration  and  love  of  thousands.  Both  he  and  Dr.  Forman 
were  men  of  exceptionally  powerful  and  spiritual  personality. 
A  missionary  of  the  Church  of  England,  recalling  the  effect 
produced  upon  his  mind  by  Dr.  Newton's  reading  a  part  of 
the  first  chapter  of  Acts  at  the  Lahore  Conference  in  1865, 
said,  "The  impression  made  by  his  merely  reading  a  few  verses 
has  not  been  effaced  by  almost  thirty  years."  He  was  a  man 
of  deep  piety,  blameless  and  most  winning  character,  and 
rare  catholicity.  He  invited  the  Church  of  England  Mission 
to  the  Punjab  in  1850,  and  it  was  largely  due  to  his  influence 
that  such  warm  fraternal  relations  were  maintained  for  forty 
years  between  the  American  missionaries  and  those  of  the 
Church  of  England;  and  one  of  the  latter  said  of  him  that 
he  was  "one  of  the  holiest  and  best  beloved  men  the  Punjab 
has  ever  seen."  All  of  his  children,  four  sons  and  two  daugh- 
ters, came  back  to  labor  with  him  in  India.  He  said  once  that 
it  was  his  mother's  prayers  that  took  him  to  India.  Little 
did  that  one  woman  know  of  the  immense  work  she  was  doing 
for  the  Punjab. 

Of  the  other  stations  of  the  Punjab  Mission,  Ambala  was 
occupied  in  1849.  It  is  a  walled  city,  doubled  by  the  canton- 
ments, or  quarter  which  has  grown  up  round  the  soldiers, 
and  about  seventy  miles  southwest  of  Ludhiana.  In  1853  work 
was  begun  at  Dehra,  like  Saharanpur  in  the  Northwest  Pro- 
vinces, and  situated  in  a  beautiful  valley  or  doon,  between 
the  Himalayas  and  the  Sewaliks.     It  is  the  seat  of  a  famous 

48 


Sikh  shrine,  the  mausoleum  of  one  of  their  gurus  or  religious 
guides,  visited  by  many  pilgrims.  Roorkee  and  Rawal  Pindee 
were  occupied  in  1856,  the  former  eighteen  miles  south  of 
Saharanpur,  and  the  latter  one  hundred  and  seventy  miles 
northwest  of  Lahore,  and  on  the  main  road  to  Kashmir.  The 
Mission  pressed  on  even  farther,  and  stationed  at  Peshawur, 
on  the  border  of  the  Afghan  country,  the  Rev.  Isidor  Lowen- 
thal,  a  Polish  Jew  born  in  Posen,  who  had  had  a  most  romantic 
history  and  had  been  obliged  to  flee  from  Poland  because  of 
his  liberal  political  views.  He  was  converted  by  the  example 
and  conduct  of  a  minister  in  Wilmington,  Del.,  who  took  him 
in  on  a  cold,  wet  night,  and  secured  for  him  a  position  as  tutor 
at  Lafayette  College.  He  was  a  man  of  iron  will  and  unresting 
intellectual  power,  and  although  he  was  shot  by  mistake  by 
his  own  watchman  at  Peshawur,  when  he  was  but  thirty-eight, 
and  had  been  only  seven  years  in  India,  he  had  already  trans- 
lated and  published  the  whole  New  Testament  in  Pushto,  and 
had  nearly  completed  a  dictionary  of  the  language,  and  could 
preach  with  facility  in  Pushto,  Persian,  Kashmiri,  Hindustani, 
and  Arabic,  besides  being  an  accomplished  musician  and 
mathematician.  If  he  had  lived  he  might  have  carried  the 
Gospel  to  Cabul  and  on  to  Persia.  The  money  for  this  attempt 
to  reach  the  Afghans  (rupees  15,000)  had  been  given  by 
Major  Conran,  an  earnest  Christian  officer.  With  Mr.  Lowen- 
thal's  death  the  attempt  was  given  up.  The  Church  Mission- 
ary Society  of  England,  however,  which  then  had  a  station 
at  Peshawur,  continues  the  work,  though  it  has  been  unable 
as  yet  to  get  beyond  the  Peshawur  valley.  Roorkee  and  Rawal 
Pindee  have  since  been  transferred  to  other  missionary  socie- 
ties, the  former  to  the  Reformed,  and  the  latter  to  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church. 

Hoshiarpur,  the  chief  town  between  the  Sutlej  and  the 
Beeas,  save  Jullundur,  was  occupied  in  1867.  That  station 
has  for  years  been  under  the  charge  of  a  converted  high-caste 
Brahman,  the  Rev.  Kali  Charan  Chatter jee,  a  man  of  fine 
culture  and  devotion,  whose  daughter  has  taken  a  medical 
course  in  the  United  States.  The  Rev.  Isa  Charan,  whose  name 
means  "One  who  is  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,"  was  put  in  charge 
of  Ferozepur  in  1870,  and  twelve  years  later  it  was  made  a 
station  under  the  Rev.  F.  J.  Newton,  M.D.  The  population 
of  the  district  is  about  fifty  per  cent  Mohammedan,  and 
twenfy-five  per  cent  each  of  Sikhs  and  Hindus.  In  1899  the 
Rev.  Robert  Morrison  occupied  the  city  of  Kasur,  forty  miles 
from  Ferozepur,  while  resident  missionaries  had  already  set- 
tled at  Jagraon  and  Khanna,  both  parts  of  the  Ludhiana  sta- 

49 


tion.  Moga  was  occupied  as  a  station  in  1911.  There  are 
eleven  regular  stations,  and  connected  with  them  thirty-nine 
out-stations,  with  241  native  workers. 

In  the  field  of  what  is  now  the  North  India  Mission,  the  first 
station  occupied  was  Allahabad  in  1836.  The  Rev,  James 
McEwen  of  the  party  who  arrived  in  India  that  year  was  left 
there  on  the  way  to  Ludhiana,  to  get  for  the  press  some 
parts  which  had  been  lost  by  the  upsetting  of  a  boat  in  a 
storm,  ascending  the  Ganges.  The  opportunity  for  work 
was  so  bright  that  it  was  decided  that  Mr.  McEwen  should 
return  to  settle  there.  When  the  Rev.  Joseph  Warren  came 
in  1839,  a  press  was  established  in  a  bath  room  of  his  bunga- 
low, and  he  instructed  a  native  boy,  who  with  a  sister  had 
been  left  destitute  and  brought  up  by  the  Mission.  This  boy 
became  later  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  press,  and  an  elder 
in  one  of  the  Mission  churches.  One  of  the  most  useful  men 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Professor  Archibald  Alexander 
Hodge,  of  Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  was  for  two  years, 
and  until  his  wife's  health  required  his  return  to  America, 
a  member  of  the  Allahabad  station.  John  H.  Morrison  was 
at  first  a  member  of  this  station,  but  after  his  wife's  death 
and  a  furlough  in  America,  he  joined  the  Punjab  Mission. 
His  missionary  life  covered  forty-three  years.  On  account 
of  his  fearlessness  in  preaching,  he  was  called  by  Runjeet 
Singh's  title  "The  Lion  of  the  Punjab."  It  was  he  who  led 
the  Ludhiana  Mission  after  the  Mutiny,  to  issue  the  call  to 
Christendom  to  the  annual  week  of  prayer.  His  last  words 
as  he  lay  dying  were,  "It  is  perfect  peace — I  know  whom  I 
have  believed." 

In  1838  work  was  commenced  at  Fatehgarh,  where  seventy 
orphans  previously  supported  by  two  devoted  Christians 
among  the  British  officials,  fifty  of  them  at  Fatehpur  and 
twenty  at  Fatehgarh,  were  gathered  and  taken  charge  of  by 
the  Rev.  Henry  R.  Wilson.  These  children  were  the  nucleus 
of  the  useful  Christian  community  now  to  be  found  at  Fateh- 
garh. In  1843  work  was  begun  in  Mainpuri,  forty  miles 
west  of  Fatehgarh,  and  at  Furrukhabad,  the  native  city  of 
which  Fatehgarh  is  the  cantonment,  in  the  same  year.  Ten 
years  later  Fatehpur  was  opened.  In  1844  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment was  transferred  from  Allahabad  to  Agra.  This  led 
to  the  removal  of  many  English  friends  who  urged  the  Mission 
to  open  work  in  Agra.  It  led  also  to  the  government's  offer 
to  the  Mission  of  leave  to  use  the  government  school  building 
in  Allahabad,  with  the  furniture  and  library.  A  good  school 
was  also  built  up  at  Agra,  with  the  aid  of  generous  donations 

50 


from  British  friends,  ))ut  after  some  years  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment was  removed  back  to  Allahabad,  and  the  work  in  Agra 
was  transferred  to  other  Societies. 

In  the  year  1845  the  first  meeting  of  the  Synod  of  India 
was  held  at  Fatehgarh,  in  the  chapel  of  the  orphanage,  and  the 
senior  missionary,  James  Wilson,  preached  from  the  text 
1  Timothy  4:14.  There  are  now  five  presbyteries  of  our  Church 
in  India — Ludhiana,  Lahore,  Allahabad,  Furrukhabad  and 
Kolhapur. 

In  1857  the  foundations  of  the  missionary  work  and  of 
British  rule  also  in  North  India  were  shaken  by  the  Indian 
Mutiny,  when  the  native  troops,  roused  by  the  belief  that  the 
cartridges  supplied  to  them  were  greased  with  animal  fat, 
which  was  repugnant  to  their  religious  scruples,  revolted  and 
massacred  their  officers  and  all  the  foreigners  in  their  power. 
Fifteen  hundred  were  butchered,  including  thirty-seven  mis- 
sionaries. All  of  our  missionaries  escaped  save  those  at  Fateh- 
garh— Freeman,  Johnson,  McMullen,  Campbell  and  their 
wives,  and  the  two  little  children  of  the  Campbells,  who  were 
captured  with  British  refugees  as  they  tried  to  escape  down 
the  Ganges  in  boats,  taken  to  Cawnpore,  and  at  Nana  Sahib's 
order,  at  seven  in  the  morning,  were  all  taken  to  the  parade 
ground  and  shot,  Mr.  Campbell  holding  one  little  child  in  his 
arms,  and  an  English  friend  the  other.  How  calmly  they  met 
their  fate,  their  last  words  show.    Mrs.  Freeman  wrote : 

"We  are  in  God's  hands,  and  we  know  that  He  reigns.  We 
have  no  place  to  flee  for  shelter  but  under  the  covert  of  His 
wings,  and  there  we  are  safe.  Not  but  that  He  may  suffer 
our  bodies  to  be  slain.  If  He  does,  we  know  that  He  has  wise 
reasons  for  it.  I  sometimes  think  that  our  deaths  would  do 
more  good  than  we  would  do  in  all  our  lives;  if  so.  His  will 
be  done.  Should  I  be  called  to  lay  down  my  life,  most  joyfully 
will  I  die  for  Him  who  laid  down  His  life  for  me." 

Nana  Sahib  was  Prince  of  Bithoor,  an  educated  gentleman, 
polished  and  refined,  trained  in  a  government  college,  and 
he  shot  down  the  European  women  and  little  children  like 
dogs.  His  external  culture  had  left  him  at  heart  the  same 
cruel  and  dastardly  man  he  was  before.  Many  of  the  mission 
stations  had  been  wrecked  by  the  mutineers,  and  had  to  be 
built  up  again,  but  soon  the  work  had  recovered  all  that  had 
been  lost,  and  grew  out  into  new  fields — Etawah,  thirty-two 
miles  southwest  of  Mainpuri  in  1863,  Morar,  in  the  native 
state  of  Gwalior,  in  1876,  Jhansi,  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
west  of  Allahabad,  in  1886.  Etah  was  occupied  in  1900  and 
Cawnpore  in  1901. 

51 


One  other  Mission  in  India  was  undertaken  by  the  Church 
in  1870.  It  is  located  many  miles  to  the  south  of  the  northern 
missions,  in  the  Bombay  Presidency,  in  the  Kolhapur  native 
state,  with  a  population  of  800,000,  with  a  population  of 
1,700,000  in  adjoining  districts,  and  about  1,500,000  in  the 
Konkan,  the  region  between  the  Ghats,  or  hills,  which  lie 
along  the  western  coast,  and  the  sea.  Of  Kolhapur  city 
it  is  said :  "As  seen  from  a  distance  the  city  is  beautiful  for 
situation.  The  most  commanding  object,  next  to  the  king's 
palace,  is  the  towering  white  dome  of  a  very  large  temple. 
Few  cities  or  places  in  India  have  so  high  a  reputation  for 
sanctity.  The  favorite  legend  among  the  people  is  that  the 
gods  in  council  once  pronounced  it  the  most  sacred  spot  of 
all  the  earth."  The  work  in  Kolhapur  was  begun  by  the  Rev. 
R.  G.  Wilder,  in  1852.  When  the  Board  undertook  the  Mission 
in  1870,  there  were  twenty-one  communicants.  The  number 
has  grown  but  slowly,  though  the  work  has  enlarged,  and  now 
embraces  stations  at  Ratnagiri  (1873),  in  the  Konkan,  Pan- 
hala,  fourteen  miles  north  of  Kolhapur,  Sangli  (1884),  with  a 
Boys'  Boarding  and  Industrial  School,  Miraj,  occupied  in 
1892,  and  the  site  of  a  large  and  efficient  hospital  to  which 
patients  come  from  towns  and  villages  hundreds  of  miles 
away,  Kodoli  occupied  in  1877,  and  Islampur  in  1919,  though 
previously  worked  by  Miss  Wilder  and  the  Village  Settlement. 

One  great  service  rendered  by  the  Presbyterian  Missions 
in  India  was  the  call  to  the  Christian  Church  to  the  annual 
Week  of  Prayer.  This  call  was  issued  by  the  Ludhiana  now 
the  Punjab  Mission  in  1858.  Though  the  Mission  felt  that 
it  was  a  humble  body  to  call  the  whole  Christian  world  to 
such  prayer  it  yet  adopted  in  faith  this  resolution : 

"WHEREAS,  Our  spirits  have  been  greatly  refreshed  by  what  we 
have  heard  of  the  Lord's  dealings  with  his  people  in  America,  and 
further,  being  convinced  from  the  sign  of  the  times  that  God  has  still 
larger  blessings  for  His  people  and  for  our  ruined  world,  and  that  He 
no\v  seems  ready  and  waiting  to  bestow  them  as  soon  as  asked;  therefore, 

"Resolved,  That  we  appoint  the  second  week  in  January,  1859,  be- 
ginning with  Monday  the  8th,  as  a  time  of  special  prayer,  and  that  all 
God's  people,  of  every  name  and  nation,  of  every  continent  and  island, 
be  cordially  and  earnestly  invited  to  unite  with  us  in  the  petition  that 
God  would  now  pour  out  His  Spirit  upon  all  flesh,  so  that  all  the  ends 
of  the  earth  might  see  His  salvation." 

Why  shall  we  not  believe  and  work  toward  the  fulfillment 
of  this  prayer,  that  at  last  it  may  be  answered  for  India  and 
that  the  long  work  of  preparation  that  has  now  been  done, 
may  issue  in  the  result  prophesied  by  Sir  Charles  Trevelyan, 
who  was  not  a  visionary  or  careless  man,  who  was  the  Gover- 

52 


nor  General's  Secretary  when  Dr.  Lowrie  reached  Calcutta, 
and  who  helped  him  in  his  plans,  and  advised  him  as  to  his 
location  at  Ludhiana : 

"Many  persons  mistake  the  way  in  which  the  conversion  of 
India  will  be  brought  about.  I  believe  it  will  take  place  at 
last  wholesale,  just  as  our  own  ancestors  were  converted. 
The  country  will  have  Christian  instruction  infused  into  it 
in  every  way  by  direct  missionary  education,  and  indirectly 
by  books  of  various  sorts,  through  the  public  papers,  through 
conversation  with  Europeans,  and  in  all  the  conceivable  ways 
in  which  knowledge  is  communicated.  Then  at  last  when 
society  is  completely  saturated  with  Christian  knowledge,  and 
public  opinion  has  taken  a  decided  turn  that  way,  they  will 
come  over  by  thousands." 


53 


2.  LETTERS  FROM  THE  STATIONS 

(1)       THE  CITY  OF  FALSE  GODS 

East  India  Railway, 
October  13,  1921. 

"Illahabad,"  the  "city  of  false  gods,"  this  is  the  name  which 
the  Mohammedans  gave  to  Allahabad  when  they  came  down 
to  this  sacred  confluence  of  the  Ganges  and  Jumna  rivers 
many  centuries  ago.  The  present  city  and  the  fine  old  fort 
at  the  junction  of  the  rivers  were  founded  by  Akbar  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  but  the  Aryans  had  possessed  a  very  ancient 
city  here  called  Prayag,  which  the  Moslems  had  visited  and 
conquered  four  centuries  before  Akbar.  The  idolatry  which 
shocked  the  Moslems  is  not  less  prevalent  today,  and  although 
the  city  is  not  throughout  the  year  such  a  goal  of  pilgrimage 
as  Benares,  it  is  still  about  the  month  of  January  every  year 
the  site  of  the  greatest  Mela  in  India,  when  more  than  a 
million  devout  Hindus  pour  up  from  all  over  the  land  to  bathe 
in  the  mingling  of  the  waters  of  the  two  sacred  rivers.  There 
is  probably  no  religious  spectacle  equal  to  it  anywhere  else 
in  the  world.  Under  no  other  religion  and  in  no  other  land 
could  hundreds  of  naked  men  with  matted  locks  and  gro- 
tesquely daubed  bodies,  be  regarded  as  the  highest  embodi- 
ment of  holiness  nor  could  such  rites  pass  for  religion  and 
be  acceptable  to  God. 

Allahabad  is  one  of  our  oldest  mission  stations,  full  of 
great  memories  that  run  back  to  the  Indian  Mutiny  and  be- 
yond. For  the  last  ten  days  we  have  been  attending  here  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  North  India  Mission  and  visiting  the 
institutions  of  the  Mission  at  this  central  station.  There  have 
been  some  unusually  important  and  difficult  problems  before 
the  Mission,  the  consideration  of  the  question  of  right  rela- 
tionship between  the  Mission  and  the  Indian  Church  in  the 
light  especially  of  the  new  spirit  of  independence  and  non- 
co-operation  which  is  abroad  in  India  today,  the  question  of 
the  absolutely  equal  place  and  functions  of  women  in  the  work 
of  our  foreign  missions,  the  new  questions  with  regard  to  edu- 
cation growing  out  of  the  probability  of  the  enforcement  by 
the  Government  of  a  "conscience-clause"  as  a  condition  of 
government  grant-in-aid,  and  the  reorganization  of  higher 
education  by  the  Government  in  a  way  that  seems  likely  to 
force  the  Christian  Missions  out  of  this  field,  and  the  question 
of  the  most  effective  paths  of  approach  for  the  Gospel  to  the 

54 


mind  and  heart  of  India.  The  Indian  Church  which  is  feel- 
ing the  pressure  of  the  national  spirit  is  happily  seeking  not 
separation  from  the  Missions  but  a  closer  co-operation  and  the 
North  India  Mission  has  sought  discriminatingly  to  provide 
for  such  co-operation  and  yet  to  preserve  the  autonomy  and 
responsibility  of  the  Presbyteries  of  the  Indian  Church.  Re- 
garding the  place  of  women  the  Mission  voted  to  approve  the 
principle  of  their  full  equality.  In  the  field  of  education  it 
voted  to  preserve  its  full  freedom  of  Bible  teaching  and  Chris- 
tian influence  at  whatever  cost  of  government  financial  aid. 
The  Mission  meeting  had  the  benefit  of  the  invaluable  council 
of  Dr.  J.  C.  R.  Ewing,  C.  I.  E.,  who  is  giving  all  his  time  to 
the  task  of  unifying  and  strengthening  the  administration 
of  our  Church's  three  Missions  in  India. 

The  Mission's  meetings  have  been  held  in  the  attractive 
buildings  of  the  Ewing  Christian  College  on  the  ample  mission 
compound  on  the  banks  of  the  Jumna  only  a  short  distance 
from  its  union  with  the  Ganges.  The  days  have  been  hot 
but  the  soft,  pleasant  moonlight  nights  have  been  delightful, 
as  we  have  slept  on  the  stone  platform  back  of  Dr.  Janvier's 
house  under  the  open  sky  looking  out  across  the  river  and 
disturbed  only  by  the  jackals'  weird  shrieks  at  midnight  and 
the  distant  resonant  call  to  Moslem  prayer  in  the  early  morn- 
ing from  a  little  mosque  far  away.  The  College  is  in  short 
vacation  now,  but  we  hope  later  to  meet  its  three  hundred  and 
fifty  men  and  the  three  hundred  younger  lads  in  the  Jumna 
High  School  at  the  other  end  of  the  campus.  Most  of  the 
students  in  the  school  and  college  are  from  Hindu  and  Moham- 
medan homes.  The  small  minority  of  Christian  boys  repre- 
sents, however,  a  far  larger  number  of  students  in  propor- 
tion to  the  size  of  the  community  from  which  they  come.  And 
nowhere  in  the  world  is  any  direct  evangelistic  work  being 
done  which  presses  more  ceaselessly  for  open  acceptance  of 
Christ.  By  daily  chapel,  by  regular  required  Bible  teaching, 
by  constant,  direct  evangelistic  appeal,  publicly  and  to  the 
individual,  the  men  and  women  of  the  college  are  seeking  to 
win  the  students  publicly  to  confess  Christ.  Scores  of  them 
do  accept  Him,  but  secretly,  and  it  is  impossible  for  us  at 
home  to  realize  the  difficulties  which  stand  in  the  way  of  a 
Hindu  or  Mohammedan  student's  open  baptism.  They  are 
faithfully  urged  to  pay  all  this  price,  and  it  is  not  the  fault 
of  missions  or  missionaries  that  young  men  do  not  break 
the  heavy  chains  which  bind  them  to  their  homes  and  the 
social  life  of  India, 

.     Directly  across  the  river  from  the  college  compound,  one 

55 


can  see  the  buildings  and  the  rich  crops  of  the  Agricultural 
Institute,  where  the  Mission  is  seeking  to  build  up  an  institu- 
tion which  will  prepare  young  men  as  farm  superintendents 
or  agricultural  village  leaders  to  improve  the  methods  of 
Indian  farming  and  animal  husbandry.  Already  the  farm 
has  become  an  object  lesson  in  soil-conservation,  crop-improve- 
ment, and  the  care  and  efficiency  of  farm  animals.  The  in- 
fluence of  the  extension  work  of  the  school  has  reached  out 
into  the  native  states  of  northern  India  and  is  shaping  the 
agricultural  department  of  the  new  Hindu  Agricultural  Col- 
lege in  Benares. 

Not  far  from  the  Agricultural  Institute  is  the  appealing 
institution  for  lepers,  managed  by  the  Mission  but  equipped 
and  supported  by  the  "Mission  to  Lepers"  and  by  the  Govern- 
ment. "This  asylum,"  wrote  a  recent  lieutenant-governor  of 
the  province  when  he  visited  it,  "seems  to  me  a  model  of  what 
such  an  institution  should  be."  The  lepers  have  their  own 
separate  quarters  and  individual  gardens,  men  and  women 
and  married  couples  having  each  their  distinct  section.  The 
Sunday  morning  leper  church  service  is  a  sight  to  remember 
forever.  Two  hundred  or  more  women  on  one  side  and  an 
equal  number  of  men  on  the  other,  some  blind,  some  without 
fingers  or  toes,  some  twisted  into  grotesque  shapes,  and  the 
little  children  with  the  terrible  disease  just  beginning  to  eat 
into  their  baby  flesh.  Behind  the  preacher  sat  the  two  score 
of  untainted  children,  and  the  most  pitiful  sight  of  all  was  to 
see  the  parents  ranged  round  the  wall  of  the  chapel  after  the 
service  while  the  untainted  children  were  allowed  to  stand 
before  them  just  out  of  reach  for  ten  minutes  for  their  one 
meeting  of  the  week. 

Some  miles  away  on  the  other  side  of  the  outspread  city 
are  the  Mary  Wanamaker  School  for  Girls,  with  its  commo- 
dious buildings  and  the  Katra  Church  with  its  associated  hotel 
and  school.  There  are  new  conditions  to  be  met  by  Christian 
schools  for  girls  in  Allahabad  in  competition  with  strong 
endowed  schools  which  give  free  tuition  and  teach  Hinduism 
and  Mohammedanism,  but  efficient  Christian  schools  have 
something  to  offer  which  even  Hindus  and  Mohammedans 
know  their  own  schools  do  not  supply. 

We  have  had  two  rare  experiences  here.  One  was  a  great 
reception  of  the  Christianity  community  of  Allahabad  when 
some  six  hundred  or  more  met  on  the  wide  lawn  beside  the 
Katra  Church.  There  were  government  officials,  teachers. 
Christian  workers,  and  no  one  could  mingle  with  them  without 
rejoicing  in  the  spirit  and  promise  of  such  gatherings,  equal 

56 


in  character  and  intelligence  to  any  similar  group  that  might 
be  gathered  at  home,  and  representing  six  or  seven  times 
as  many  people  in  the  Christian  community  of  Allahabad. 
The  other  experience  was  in  the  Ramalila  festival.  Uninten- 
tionally we  were  caught  in  the  mass  of  the  people  who  packed 
the  Grand  Trunk  Road  for  the  great  day  of  the  Durga  Puja. 
A  mounted  policeman  escorted  us  to  the  nearby  police  station 
from  which  we  looked  down  on  the  dense  crowds,  the  great 
processions,  elephants,  camels,  floats  representing  scenes  from 
Rama's  life.  It  was  Hinduism  aglow  in  one  of  its  most  enthu- 
siastic festivals  in  which  the  old  religious  spirit  was  mingled 
wth  the  new  political  and  economic  ideals,  but  of  these  one 
fears  to  write  until  he  has  seen  and  talked  with  more  of  the 
men  who  represent  both  the  new  and  the  old,  and  who  are 
able  to  appraise  justly  the  new  tendencies  which  are  so  mani- 
festly at  work  re-fashioning  the  thought  and  life  of  India. 

(2)    THE  CRADLE  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  THE  PUNJAB 

Great  Indian  Peninsula  Railway, 
October  25,  1921. 

Ludhiana  is  the  oldest  Mission  Station  of  our  Church  in 
India  and  the  first  Christian  Mission  Station  in  the  Punjab. 
Under  instructions  not  to  tarry  in  Calcutta  or  any  other  occu- 
pied place,  but  to  press  on  to  the  uttermost  possible  post  on 
the  way  to  Afghanistan,  Dr.  John  C.  Lowrie  landed  in  Cal- 
cutta in  October,  1833.  Burying  his  young  wife  there  a  month 
after  his  arrval,  he  made  his  way  alone  and  undismayed  up 
the  Ganges  to  Cawnpore  and  thence  by  palanquin  four  hun- 
dred miles  overland,  reaching  Ludhiana  on-  November  5, 
1834.  Here  Dr.  Lowrie  worked  alone  for  a  year  when  rein- 
forcements came,  John  Newton,  James  Wilson,  and  their 
wives,  who  took  three  months  to  reach  Fatehgarh  by  boat 
and  two  months  to  complete  the  journey,  which  we  have  made 
all  told  in  less  than  forty  hours.  The  reinforcements  came 
just  in  time  to  relieve  Dr.  Lowrie  whom  broken  health  sent 
home  to  America  permanently  in  1836,  but  not  before  he  had 
laid  the  first  stones  of  an  immovable  foundation.  On  his  be- 
ginnings Newton  and  Wilson  and  their  associates  started  the 
first  printing  press  and  the  first  boy's  school  in  northern  India. 
The  moment  the  door  was  opened  into  the  regions  beyond, 
John  Newton  and  C,  W.  Forman  crossed  the  Sutlej  on  the 
heels  of  the  British  troops  occupying  the  Punjab,  and  settling 
in  Lahore,  inaugurated  there  the  work  which  has  been  as  a 
fountain  of  living  waters  to  all  northwestern  India. 

The  Punjab  Mission,  embracing  now  a  dozen  stations  and 
numbering  102  missionaries  and  carrying  on  one  of  the  great- 

57 


est  Christian  enterprises  in  the  world,  and  all  of  it  the  out- 
growth of  Dr.  Lowrie's  lonely  beginning  ninety  years  ago, 
has  just  been  holding  its  annual  meeting  in  the  old  church 
which  he  founded.  It  has  been  an  inspiration  and  a  summons 
to  listen  to  the  discussions  of  the  Mission  and  to  its  survey 
of  the  immense  problems  and  needs  of  the  Punjab  in  the 
simple,  beautiful  old  building  with  its  thick,  cool  walls  and 
its  great  white  pillars  and  the  birds  flying  in  and  out  of  its 
open  windows  to  the  nests  which  they  had  found  for  them- 
selves, "even  thine  altars,  O  God."  Again  and  again  I  have 
read  the  tablets  behind  the  pulpit  com.memorating  the  lives 
of  the  founders  and  have  seemed  to  hear  voices  whispering 
out  of  the  great  past  and  calling  upon  the  new  generations  to 
complete  what  the  fathers,  in  their  great  but  simple  hearted 
faith,  had  so  heroically  begun. 

Not  only  was  this  old  Ludhiana  church  the  cradle  of  the 
hundreds  of  churches  of  our  own  and  other  Missions  now 
scattered  over  the  Punjab,  but  in  two  other  respects  it  has 
exerted  a  wide  and  even  world  embracing  influence.  For 
years  its  Sunday  School  work  was  a  model.  Mr.  Manasseh 
Wylie,  whose  long  service  as  elder  and  Sunday  School  super- 
intendent is  commemorated  in  one  of  the  tablets,  was  an 
Indian  lay  Christian  leader  of  unique  gifts,  and  the  influence 
of  his  life  as  a  Bible  teacher  has  given  the  Punjab  some  of 
its  outstanding  Christian  ministers.  A  beautiful  Sunday 
School  building,  just  erected,  almost  entirely  by  gifts  in 
India,  was  dedicated  during  our  visit  so  that  the  scattered 
classes  will  not  have  to  be  taught  as  heretofore  under  the 
shade  of  the  big  neem  and  eucalyptus  trees.  It  was  from  this 
old  church  also  that  the  call  went  out  which  resulted  in  the 
establishment  of  the  universal  Week  of  Prayer,  and  just  be- 
tween the  church  and  the  new  Sunday  School  buildings  stands 
a  handsome  little  brick  house  of  prayer  built  by  Mr.  Wylie 
in  memory  of  his  mother. 

One  of  the  most  pleasant  and  encouraging  features  of  these 
conferences  at  Ludhiana  has  been  the  presence  of  a  large 
group  of  most  capable  Indian  men  and  women  with  whom 
the  Mission  has  been  conferring  on  equal  and  brotherly  terms 
in  regard  to  their  common  work.  The  Rev.  P.  C.  Uppal  and 
the  Rev.  Jaimal  Singh,  who  have  been  in  the  Christian  min- 
istry more  than  fifty  years,  were  patriarchs  whose  very  pres- 
ence was  a  blessing  and  with  them  were  younger  men  and 
women,  Mrs.  Mamgain,  the  first  woman  B.A.  and  M.A.  in 
India,  for  many  years  principal  of  Bethune  College  in  Cal- 
cutta, Miss  Chatter ji,  just  appointed  principal  of  our  girls' 

58 


high  school  in  Dehra  Dun,  Mr.  Goloknath,  who  was  graduated 
from  Princeton  in  1882,  the  Rev.  B.  B.  Roy,  a  fertile  and  in- 
genious student  and  teacher  of  comparative  religion.  Pro- 
fessor Siraj  ud  din,  a  Christian  teacher  who  came  out  from 
and  who  thoroughly  comprehends  Islam,  Mr.  Rallia  Ram, 
member  of  the  Legislative  Council  of  the  Punjab  and  Mr. 
Jamal  ud  din,  both  of  whom  have  now  been  made  full  prin- 
cipals of  the  two  large  mission  schools  in  Lahore  and  Jullun- 
dur,  and  young  preachers  as  capable  as  our  best  young  men 
at  home  like  Andrew  Thakur  Das  and  Talib-ud-Din  and  many 
others.  No  one  can  doubt  the  independence  or  the  Christian 
thought  and  character  of  men  and  women  like  these  or  fail 
to  realize  the  contribution  which  they  have  to  make  and  the 
major  responsibility  which  they  must  assume  in  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Church  and  in  the  evangelization  of  India. 

An  old  Sikh  fort  of  the  17th  century  looks  down  over  the 
plain  and  the  city.  The  Salvation  Army  is  carrying  on  now 
in  the  fort  a  useful  industrial  work  for  boys  where  they  are 
taught  to  weave  silk  and  cotton  goods.  The  city  lies  spread 
out  in  dusty,  sandy  bareness  eastward  from  the  old  fort.  In 
the  heart  of  the  city,  with  the  little  Moslem  mosque  and 
Hindu  shrines  round  about  them,  are  the  old  preaching  hall 
where  nightly  for  three  generations  the  Gospel  has  been 
unceasingly  proclaimed,  and  the  old  boys'  school  building 
where  for  nearly  a  century  thousands  of  boys,  Mohammedan, 
Hindu,  Sikh,  and  Christian,  have  been  fitted  for  useful  lives 
and  been  taught  daily  the  Bible  and  the  living  principles  of 
Christian  character.  Fathers  have  sent  their  sons  and  their 
grandsons  and  I  suppose  even  their  great  grandsons  to  the 
old  school,  whose  beneficent  influences  have  gone  out  across 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Punjab.  The  school  is  a  fasci- 
nating mixture  of  color — of  color  of  dress,  language,  race, 
and  religion,  dominated  unceasingly  by  the  missionary  aim. 

On  the  wide  compound  near  the  old  church  is  the  Boys' 
Boarding  School  for  Christian  lads  which  the  Mission  pro- 
poses now  to  amalgamate  with  the  City  High  School  and  to 
make  of  it  a  model  high  school  for  Christian  boys  for  all 
our  stations  in  the  Punjab,  not  excluding  non-Christians, 
but  keeping  them  in  the  minority  and  surrounding  them  with 
the  influence  not  of  Christian  teaching  only  but  also  of  a  pre- 
dominant Christian  student  body.  One  of  the  small  boys  of 
the  school  died  during  our  visit  and  we  marked  the  impres- 
sive and  significant  contrast  of  the  unordered  but  quiet  little 
throng  that  accompanied  his  body  to  the  grave  with  the  de- 
spairing wailings  of  the  non-Christian  burials. 

The  Grand  Trunk  Road  runs  straight  almost  as  an  arrow 

&9 


into  Ludhiana  and  under  the  shadow  of  the  old  fort  and  across 
the  ancient  bed  of  the  Sutlej  River  which  has  now  shifted 
its  channel  some  eight  miles  further  west.  One  afternoon 
we  ran  out  by  motor  twenty-seven  miles  east  to  the  sub- 
station of  Khanna  where  there  is  an  industrial  school  for 
village  boys.  Another  afternoon  we  went  out  ten  miles  west 
to  Phillour  where  evangelistic  work  in  the  surrounding  villages 
has  been  under  the  care  of  a  winning-spirited  Mohammedan 
convert,  Ghulam  Masih,  who  was  convinced  of  the  supreme 
claims  of  Christ  by  his  reading  of  the  Koran.  At  Jagraon, 
twenty  miles  south  of  Ludhiana  the  Mission  has  another 
school  for  village  girls  and  little  boys  where  on  the  faces  of 
the  children  and  their  teachers  alike  the  light  with  which 
Christ  enlightens  the  lives  of  all  those  who  come  near  to  Him 
was  as  visible  a  fact  as  any  that  one's  eyes  could  see. 

Ludhiana  is  the  site  also  of  the  North  India  Medical  School 
for  women  in  which  we  have  co-operated  from  the  beginning 
and  which  represents  human  need  as  deep  as  human  need 
can  be. 

I  am  writing  this  as  we  cross  the  great  plains  south  of 
Delhi  covered  with  the  monuments  of  the  Mohammedan  con- 
quests, falling  everywhere  now  into  ruin  and  decay,  with 
such  occasional  exceptions  as  the  Taj,  whose  gleaming  white- 
ness we  saw  a  moment  ago  across  the  housetops  of  Agra, 
rising  up  dazzling  and  pure,  less  like  a  memorial  to  the  past 
than  a  hope  and  promise  of  something  brighter  and  better 
for  the  India  of  the  days  to  come. 

(3)    THE  PLACE  OF  SERPENTS 

Panhala,  India, 
November  3,  1921. 

Panhala  means  "the  place  of  serpents,"  but  thus  far  we 
have  seen  not  one.  Two  men  went  by  the  other  evening  carry- 
ing a  huge  rock  python  over  a  pole  between  them,  its  head 
and  tail  both  dragging  on  the  ground.  But  not  one  snake 
has  yet  showed  himself  to  us,  neither  python  nor  cobra  nor 
karait,  save  two  cobras  and  one  python  which  a  juggler  and 
an  old  man  and  a  little  boy  were  carrying  about  with  them. 
We  have  seen  far  more  wonderful  sights,  however,  than 
serpents. 

One  has  been  the  sight  of  this  old  fort  in  which  we  are 
living  and  of  the  far-reaching  plains  on  which  we  look  out. 
The  place  is  a  plateau  of  one  or  two  square  miles  rising  up 
with  sheer  walls,  like  a  table  out  of  the  wide  Kolhapur  plains. 
The  plains  themselves  lie  among  the  Western  Ghats  at  an  alti- 
tude of  1,800  feet  and  we  are  thirteen  hundred  feet  above  the 

60 


plain.  The  plateau  was  held  as  a  stronghold  by  various  petty 
chiefs  until  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  when  it  came 
under  the  Bijapur  (Mohammedan)  Kingdom  and  the  strong 
ramparts  and  gateways  of  the  fort  were  built.  The  tradi- 
tions say  that  they  required  a  hundred  years  for  building, 
and  one  looks  back  with  wonder  upon  the  energy  and  resources 
of  that  far-distant  day  which  left  these  massive  monuments. 
In  1659  the  place  was  captured  by  Shivaji,  the  great  Maratha 
hero,  who  had  slain  single  handed,  with  a  concealed  iron 
tiger  claw,  the  Mohammedan  general  Afzal  Khan,  near  Ma- 
hableshwar.  For  nearly  two  centuries  the  place  passed  to 
and  fro  between  Mohammedans  and  Marathas  until  it  be- 
came the  seat  of  the  Kolhapur  Maratha  government  and  ulti- 
mately passed  into  the  hands  of  the  British.  Now  the  old 
gateways  stand  in  picturesque  ruin,  and  the  tropical  vegeta- 
tion is  climbing  over  the  ancient  walls.  The  panthers  hide 
in  the  jungle  around  the  base  of  the  cliffs,  and  the  monkeys 
play  in  the  tree  tops.  The  Nautch  Girls'  Tower,  which  was 
made  stable  by  the  burial  within  its  walls  of  a  living  dancing 
girl,  and  the  stones  on  which  human  sacrifices  were  offered 
to  Mahakali  are  still  standing.  And  we  have  been  lodged 
in  an  upper  room  in  a  wonderful  old  castle  on  the  north  side 
of  the  walls  looking  down  on  one  side  on  the  garden  of  the 
country  place  of  the  British  Residency  inside  the  fort,  and 
looking  on  the  other  side  from  our  northern  windows  straight 
down  over  the  precipitous  battlements  and  out  over  hundreds 
of  square  miles  of  fertile  plain  and  terraced  hillsides,  which 
in  the  old  days  were  the  granary  of  the  kingdom.  The  huge 
old  stone  warehouses  for  the  grain  are  still  standing  in  the 
center  of  the  fortification.  It  is  a  wonderful  sight  to  sit  in 
our  high  tower  under  the  stone  peacocks,  standing  in  a  row 
in  the  frieze  of  the  dome  ceiling,  and  look  out  through  the 
casement  windows  over  a  land  which  is  now,  after  abundant 
rains,  as  rich  as  a  garden  but  which,  in  the  famine  years  of 
drought,  is  a  wide,  brown  plain  of  death. 

The  other  and  even  more  wonderful  sight  is  of  a  different 
harvest,  the  seed  of  the  Gospel  sown  far  and  wide  through 
these  villages  and  growing  up,  first  the  blade  and  then  the 
ear  and  then  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.  Panhala  was  one  of 
the  first  stations  of  this  Western  India  Mission.  A  beautiful 
site  was  acquired  on  the  plateau  and  from  this  high  place 
the  missionaries  went  down  to  itinerate  through  the  villages 
near  and  far.  Later,  other  centers  were  opened  more  ad- 
vantageous for  this  village  itineration,  and  Panhala  became, 
until  better  and  more  invigorating  places  were  developed,  a 
resting  spot  in  the  hot  weather.     Of  late  it  has  been  the 

61 


location  of  the  Workers'  Training  School,  where  simple  men 
from  the  villages  have  been  brought,  to  be  given  a  substantial, 
homely  training  to  fit  them  to  return  to  their  own  villages  as 
teacher-preachers,  conducting  village  schools,  especially  for 
the  boys  and  girls  of  the  rapidly  growing  village  Christian 
communities,  during  the  week  days  and  leading  the  Sunday 
Schools  and  preaching  services  on  Sundays.  It  has  been  in 
favorable  weather,  an  ideal  place  also  for  the  annual  meeting 
of  the  Mission,  lying  midway  between  the  eastern  stations 
of  the  Dekkan,  or  table  land,  and  the  two  western  stations 
of  the  Konkan  on  the  other  side  of  the  ghats  in  the  low  coast- 
land  of  the  Arabian  Sea. 

It  is  for  the  Mission  meeting  that  we  are  here  now,  and 
we  have  experienced  both  types  of  Western  India  weather, 
the  warm,  cloudless  sunshine  and  the  drenching  rain  and 
thick  mists,  which  for  the  last  two  days  have  shut  off  from 
us  all  the  vision  of  the  far  reaching  plains.  The  Mission 
meeting  has  been  considering  also  both  the  bright  and  the 
darker  problems  of  its  work.  Like  the  two  other  Missions, 
it  is  has  been  trying  to  work  out  in  conference  with  the  leaders 
of  the  Indian  Church  wise  plans  of  co-operation  which  will 
enable  the  Church  and  Mission  together  to  weather  the  storms 
of  this  time  of  political  agitation  over  nationalism  and  non- 
cooperation  and  swaraj.  The  Rev.  Shivaram  Masoji,  for 
many  years  pastor  of  the  Kolhapur  church,  and  one  of  the 
delegates  from  the  Church  in  India  to  the  Edinburgh  Con- 
ference in  1910,  read  a  thoughtful  paper  on  the  subject  of 
"The  Christian  Church  and  India's  Unrest,"  which  made  very 
clear  the  difficult  task  of  the  Church,  to  be  true  both  to  the 
spirit  of  brotherhood  and  the  universal  fellowship  on  the 
one  hand  and  to  the  spirit  of  Indian  patriotism  on  the  other. 
The  other  most  important  question  before  the  Mission  has 
been  perhaps,  as  in  the  case  of  the  two  northerji  Missions, 
the  problem  of  training  and  developing  the  Christian  com- 
munities in  the  villages.  For  generations  the  Missions  in 
India  have  done  their  utm.ost  through  their  colleges  and  high 
schools,  through  preaching  and  zenana  visiting  to  reach  the 
higher  classes  and  not  without  avail,  but  the  response  has 
been  meagre,  and  missionary  history  has  shown  that  Francis 
Xavier  might  more  truly  have  cried  out  before  Indian  caste 
than  before  the  walls  of  China,  "Oh  Rock,  Rock,  when  wilt 
thou  open  unto  my  Master."  In  these  later  years  without 
turning  aside  from  their  work  for  the  higher  castes  the  Mis- 
sions have  devoted  themselves  to  the  outcaste  village  people 
and  especially  to  those  classes  among  them  whom  the  Hindus 

62 


have  regarded  as  untouchable  and  for  whom  Hinduism  has 
had  nothing  but  depression  and  ostracism  and  ignorance  until 
forced  reluctantly,  and  as  yet  only  in  the  slightest  measure, 
to  take  up  a  different  attitude  as  a  result  of  the  example  and 
the  pressure  of  the  Christian  spirit. 

How  to  train  leaders  for  these  village  Christians,  how  to 
lead  them  to  support  and  meanwhile  to  help  them  in  support- 
ing, schools  for  their  children,  how  to  extend  this  work  now 
while  the  harvest  fields  seem  ripe, — these  were  among  the 
most  pressing  and  living  problems  of  the  Mission  meeting. 

The  villages  in  this  region  have  a  weekly  market  day  or 
bazaar,  and  the  Panhala  village,  which  lies  just  below  us  in 
a  nook  of  the  hillside  within  the  outer  battlements,  holds  its 
bazaar  on  Sunday.  Last  Sunday  afternoon,  accordingly,  we 
all  went  down  into  the  village  street,  crowded  with  the  country 
folk,  each  with  his  or  her  little  bundle  of  produce  to  sell, 
wheat,  rice  or  some  other  grain,  red  peppers,  gray  salt,  or 
oily  brown  sugar,  peanuts,  cocoanuts,  and  all  the  innumer- 
able little  articles  entering  into  the  minute  trading  of  such  a 
market.  Soon  in  a  dozen  groups  up  and  down  the  street  the 
missionaries  and  Indian  workers  were  surrounded  by  little 
knots  of  people,  some  listening  quietly  and  others  asking 
questions,  in  ignorance,  in  honest  inquiry,  or  in  contention. 
There  were  some  to  whom  the  whole  story  was  new  and  many 
more  who  had  heard  the  words  before  but  to  whom  the  great 
ideas  of  the  Gospel  were  still  strange  and  incomprehensible. 
But  still  in  faith  and  love  the  sowers  went  forth  to  sow. 

In  the  evening  as  the  sun  was  setting  we  all  went  out  to 
the  western  bastion.  A  golden  glory  filled  the  West.  The 
shadows  fell  purple  and  deep  over  the  plain.  The  lights  began 
to  twinkle  in  the  villages  and  far  away  Kolhapur  city  looked 
like  a  handful  of  stars  dropped  among  the  farm  lands.  We 
sang  "Day  is  Dying  in  the  West"  and  "Abide  With  Me,  Fast 
Falls  the  Eventide,"  and  prayed  for  the  Church  at  home 
and  for  the  Church  in  India  that  is  and  that  is  to  be. 

(4)    KODOLI   AND   ISLAMPUR 

Ratnagiri,  India, 
November  9,  1921. 
The  Western  India  Mission  meeting  closed  at  Panhala  last 
Saturday  afternoon.  We  were  to  spend  Sunday  at  Kodoli, 
and  instead  of  going  around  by  the  automobile  road  through 
Kolhapur,  a  distance  of  thirty-two  miles,  we  preferred  to 
take  the  foot  paths  over  the  hills  and  through  the  fields  which 
made  the  journey  by  a  direct  line  scarcely  more  than  a  seven 
or  eight  mile  walk.    It  was  a  glorious  afternoon.    The  Indian 

63 


sun  shone  down  with  strong. heat,  but  there  were  pleasant 
breezes  and  before  long  the  sun  went  down  below  the  Pan- 
hala  hill,  and  the  long,  soft  evening  shadows  fell  across  the 
plain.  We  went  by  the  cattle  tracks  and  the  little  by-paths 
over  the  foothills  of  marl  and  then  down  through  the  rich 
fields  of  kaffir  corn  now  almost  ripe  for  the  harvest.  The 
farmers  with  their  children  were  somewhere  near  their  fields 
to  drive  away  the  birds  from  the  ripening  crops.  The  country 
was  rich  with  all  the  movement  of  oriental  farm  life,  the 
farmers  threshing  their  grain  on  the  hard  earth  threshing- 
floors  by  driving  half  a  dozen  oxen,  tied  together  and  fastened 
to  a  stake  in  the  center  of  the  threshing-floor,  round  and 
round  over  the  grain.  The  women  were  busy  washing  clothes 
in  the  brooks  or  pools  near  the  villages  or  winnowing  grain 
or  preparing  food  with  pestle  and  mortar.  Toward  evening 
the  children  came  driving  home  the  herds  of  goats  or  buffa- 
loes, and  the  men  and  women  came  from  the  fields,  their 
loads  on  their  heads,  and  the  women  carrying  their  babies 
astride  their  hips.  Near  the  village  of  Mala  we  met  a  young 
man  whose  face,  like  the  faces  of  so  many  of  these  Indian 
Christians,  at  once  betrayed  him.  There  was  a  light  on  it 
which  it  is  perfectly  true  to  say  one  finds  in  so  many  of  the 
Christian  faces  here  that  he  comes  to  trust  it  as  a  mark  of 
identification.  We  asked  Mr.  Howard  of  Kodoli  who  was 
with  us  whether  the  man  was  not  a  Christian,  and  Mr.  Howard 
said  at  once  that  he  was  one  of  the  two  Christian  men  in  Mala, 
both  of  them  won  by  the  influence  of  their  wives,  who  had 
come  from  the  Girls'  School  in  Kolhapur. 

Just  as  the  pink  twilight  was  fading  on  the  hills  we  met  the 
waiting  Christians  on  the  outskirts  of  Kodoli,  were  decked 
with  the  customary  necklaces  of  flowers,  and  went  on  in  to 
the  simple  but  clean  and  beautiful  mission  compound  with 
the  smiling  welcome  of  group  after  group  of  Christians  both 
from  Kodoli  and  the  villages  round  about.  The  mission  Com- 
pounds were  in  themselves  object  lessons  of  the  vivifying  and 
transforming  power  of  the  Gospel.  As  a  speaker  said  in  one 
of  the  meetings,  ''If  you  wish  to  know  what  Christianity  can 
do,  see  what  it  has  done  here  even  in  the  way  of  making  these 
gardens  grow  where  twenty  years  ago  there  was  nothing  but 
cactus  and  wild  grass." 

Saturday  evening  we  went  down  into  the  village  to  the 
large  octagonal  stone  church  which  the  people  themselves  have 
built.  Alas,  they  have  not  been  able  to  put  on  the  roof  as 
yet,  but  for  the  dry  season  and  when  the  sun  has  gone  down 
the  star-filled  sky  was  the  most  beautiful  roof  that  could  be. 
Moreover,  this  evening  the   Christian  community  was  pre- 

64 


senting  an  original  dramatization  of  the  story  of  David  and 
Goliath,  and  Goliath  needed  the  roofless  freedom  of  the  sky 
for  the  antics  of  his  bamboo  spear  and  the  terrific  defiance 
of  his  roar.  It  was  a  most  entertaining  performance  devised 
by  the  people  themselves,  and  beside  the  eight  hundred  or  a 
thousand  Christians  present,  a  great  company  of  other  folk 
packed  the  open  space  within  the  walls  or  stood  in  the  un- 
finished windows  and  doorways.  The  dignified  old  hereditary 
chief  of  Kodoli  sat  in  an  arm  chair  beside  the  raised  earth 
platform  behind  his  sash-bearer,  who  was  bedecked,  like 
such  retainers,  with  a  huge  red  shoulder  sash  and  a  brass 
badge  not  less  than  six  inches  square.  The  Christian  per- 
formers did  not  lose  their  opportunity  of  Christian  testi- 
mony. The  poet  headmaster  of  the  Mission  School,  who  was 
one  of  David's  brothers,  began  and  ended  the  drama  with 
poetic  presentations  of  the  meaning  of  Christianity,  and  even 
Goliath  furtively  bore  his  testimony  when  he  demanded  of 
David  what  basis  of  courage  his  faith  in  one  God  could  give 
him  in  comparison  with  the  giant's  faith  in  three  hundred 
crores  of  deities. 

On  Sunday  morning  we  first  went  the  rounds  of  the  three 
Sunday  Schools,  and  were  delighted  to  see  David  and  Saul 
and  the  warriors  of  Israel  and  Philistia  among  the  teachers. 
Then  in  long  processions  we  marched  through  the  streets  past 
the  sacred  tulsa  plants  growing  before  the  houses  and  the 
little  groups  of  mud  gods  left  over  from  the  dewali  festival, 
and  again  filled  the  stone  walls  of  the  unfinished  church,  which 
sorely  needed  its  roof  now  under  the  scorching  heat  of  the 
morning  sun.  Deputations  of  Indian  Christians  were  present 
from  not  less  than  thirty-nine  villages,  each  deputation  bear- 
ing a  banner  giving  the  number  of  Christians  in  the  village 
and  indicating  by  the  color  of  the  banner  whether  the  village 
had  or  had  not  a  Christian  school.  The  largest  number  of 
Christians,  seven  hundred  and  twenty-eight,  was  naturally 
to  be  found  in  Kodoli.  Yelur  came  next  with  one  hundred 
and  nine.  The  last  villages  were  Godva  and  Mohra  with  two 
Christians  each.  One's  sympathy  and  prayers  could  not  but 
go  forth  to  these  lonesome  fellow  Christians  bearing  their 
witness  amid  the  ignorance  and  misunderstanding  of  their 
village  life.  In  the  afternoon  the  whole  great  congregation 
assembled  again,  this  time  within  the  shaded  walls,  and  a 
large  group  of  women  and  young  men  and  children  were  bap- 
tized, a  smaller  group  taken  into  the  communicant  member- 
ship of  the  church  while  a  still  smaller  group  of  older  men 
stood  up  and  acknowledged  themselves  as  inquirers  into  the 
Christian  way.     The  meaning  of  early  Christian  discipleship 

65 

3 — •India   and   Persia 


was  very  clear  to  one  as  he  saw  these  people  become  a  marked 
and  peculiar  people  severed  by  a  great  breach  from  their  old 
life  through  their  Christian  confession. 

All  of  the  next  morning  we  spent  with  unalloyed  delight 
in  the  Kodoli  Mission  School  for  village  boys  and  girls.  There 
appeared  last  year  a  very  helpful  little  book  entitled  "Schools 
With  a  Message  in  India."  The  Kodoli  School  certainly  should 
be  included  in  the  list  of  such  schools.  For  spotless  cleanli- 
ness, for  order  and  discipline,  for  the  spirit  of  love  and  kind- 
ness among  both  the  children  and  their  teachers,  for  practical 
efficiency,  and  for  uplifting  and  transforming  power,  it  would 
be  hard  to  find  a  more  nearly  model  school.  Dr.  Ewing,  who 
was  with  us,  said  that  he  had  never  seen  its  equal  in  India. 
With  its  early  morning  drill,  its  warm  and  cheerful  chapel 
service,  its  sloyd  workshop,  its  neat  and  happy  dormitories, 
its  bright  classrooms,  so  near  to  and  yet  so  far  away  from 
the  type  of  home  surroundings  from  which  the  children  had 
come,  the  efficient  teaching, — the  school  and  station  filled  us 
with  delight  and  gratitude,  and  we  went  on  Monday  noon  to 
Islampur  rejoicing  in  what  we  had  seen  of  the  truest  mis- 
sionary work  filled  with  the  manifest  presence  and  blessing 
of  the  Lord  of  Life  and  Love. 

Islampur  is  twelve  miles  from  Kodoli  in  the  direct  line,  but 
twenty-five  miles  by  road.  It  is  the  center  of  a  field  of  nearly 
five  hundred  villages  with  a  population  of  nearly  half  a  mil- 
lion. The  station  was  begun  as  a  village  settlement  of  single 
women  by  Miss  Grace  Wilder,  and  she  and  her  mother  died 
here  in  the  mission  house  which  they  built,  looking  out  over 
the  wide  prairie-like  plain  with  its  tree-embowered  villages. 
Curiously  enough  the  station  is  manned  now  by  three  men 
with  no  woman  missionary  at  present  working  with  them. 
In  the  nearest  village,  to  which  we  went  just  before  sunset, 
we  found  the  Christian  school  held  in  the  central  hall  belong- 
ing to  the  low  caste  section  of  the  village.  The  front  of  the 
hall  was  wide  open  to  all  and  just  such  a  throng  of  village 
folk,  old  and  young,  as  often  listened  to  Jesus  gathered  at 
once  to  hear  what  the  missionaries  might  have  to  say.  One 
little  boy  and  his  father  were  the  only  Christians  in  the  vil- 
lage, and  the  pressure  of  loyalty  to  the  village  gods,  Jotiba 
and  Vetal,  was  proving  too  much  for  the  father.  Could  it 
be  that  those  who  should  have  been  praying  far  away  were 
forgetting  by  faith  and  love  to  uphold  their  brother  in  the 
hard  hour  of  his  testing? 


66 


(5)   THE  TWO  STATIONS  OF  THE  KONKAN 

Londa,  India,  November  12,  1921, 
The  work  of  the  Western  India  Mission  is  carried  on  in 
two  adjoining  but  very  different  sections  of  country  and 
under  very  diverse  conditions.  The  main  body  of  the  work 
lies  in  the  Dekkan,  partly  in  British  territory  and  partly  in 
a  number  of  small  native  states  on  the  table  land  east  of  the 
ghats  but  the  Ratnagiri  and  Vengurla  stations  lie  west  of 
the  ghats  on  the  Arabian  Sea  coast  and  are  the  only  Christian 
Mission  stations  between  Goa  and  the  section  near  Bombay. 
We  came  down  from  Kolhapur  to  Ratnagiri  over  the  ghats 
last  Tuesday  afternoon.  In  the  old  days  there  was  nothing 
but  a  crude  trail,  and  even  after  the  road  was  put  in,  the 
journey  which  we  made  in  a  few  hours  required  five  days  by 
bullock  cart  when  Dr.  Gillespie  visited  the  Mission  thirty 
years  ago.  Our  road  led  up  a  long  river  valley  through  occa- 
sional villages  to  the  Amba  Pass  where  without  a  moment's 
warning  a  sudden  turn  left  the  plains  behind  out  of  view 
and  opened  before  us  the  hundreds  of  square  miles  of  the 
Konkan.  We  had  expected  a  flat  tropical  low  land,  but  looked 
out  instead  on  rolling  hills  and  a  seacoast  of  laterite  rock. 
We  dropped  down  by  a  side  road  over  the  largest  bit  of  flat 
country  in  the  Ratnagiri  field  where,  with  Devrukh  as  a  cen- 
ter, the  villages  lie  thickly  clustered.  From  these  villages, 
of  which  one  thought  in  the  language  of  our  Lord  to  His  dis- 
ciples by  the  well  of  Samaria,  we  rode  on  in  the  moonlight, 
frightened  the  jackals  out  of  the  road,  past  long  lines  of  ox 
carts  traveling  by  night  with  odorous  loads  of  dried  fish,  by 
the  white  tomb  of  old  Theebaw,  into  the  Ratnagiri  mission 
compound  which  the  school  boys  had  wonderfully  decorated 
and  illuminated  in  their  welcome. 

We  visited  all  six  of  the  day  schools  in  and  about  Ratnagiri 
and  as  far  away  as  the  hidden,  little  hillside  village  of  Am- 
bashet.  Almost  all  the  children  were  from  the  Mahar  low 
caste  community,  and  each  school  was  being  used  just  as  fully 
as  the  missionaries  could  use  it  as  a  center  of  Christian  teach- 
ing and  influence  and  was  all  the  more  efficient  as  a  school 
in  consequence.  It  is  necessary  to  see  one  of  these  schools 
and  the  community  about  it,  the  tragically  humble  homes  and 
poor  lives,  in  order  to  be  able  to  realize  its  lifting  and  illu- 
minating power.  And  it  is  not  possible  to  describe  in  words, 
to  any  one  who  has  not  experienced  it,  the  cleanness  and 
friendliness  and  sympathy  and  vivifying  influence  of  these 
mission  compounds,  planted  like  islands  of  good  will  and 
human  service,  and  sending  forth  from  their  fountains 
streams  of  unobserved  and  silent  power. 

67 


The  Christian  community  gathered  in  the  afternoon  in  the 
Theodore  Carter  School  just  next  to  the  beautiful  home  which 
Mrs.  Kennedy  and  Mrs.  Schauffler  built  for  the  single  women, 
looking  out  past  the  old  Outram  house  over  the  sea.  In  clear 
and  simple  ways  the  Christian  workers  set  forth  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  work  in  the  Konkan,  the  peculiar  strength  of  caste 
and  Hinduism,  the  dearth  of  workers,  the  conservatism  of 
thought  and  institution,  and  the  draining  away  to  Bombay 
and  Poona  of  the  responsive  lives  which  could  find  there  the 
freedom  unknown  in  their  home  villages.  In  the  evening  on 
the  beach  under  the  moonlight  as  we  waited  for  the  boat  for 
Vengurla,  I  had  a  long  talk  with  an  old  Hindu  scholar  who 
spoke  of  Jesus  Christ  as  "Our  Lord,"  and  who  declared  that 
he  could  see  wonderful  changes  which  had  taken  place  in 
thought  and  sentiment  even  in  the  Konkan  where  he  believed 
there  were  many  like  himself,  who  in  their  hearts  believed 
in  Christ  but  had  not  the  courage  to  confess  Him. 

The  little  coasting  steamer  landed  us  at  Vengurla  at  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  Only  a  few  dim  lights  were  burning 
in  the  homes,  but  we  passed  one  temple  where  the  lamps  were 
aglow  and  where  even  at  this  early  hour  a  company  which 
included  quite  a  group  of  small  boys  were  at  worship,  chant- 
ing together  some  religious  hymns  with  cymbal  and  drum. 
Indeed  nowhere  else  that  we  have  been  as  yet  have  we  our- 
selves seen  more  signs  of  the  solid  stability  of  Hinduism  than 
here.  Vengurla  is  a  town  of  not  more  than  eighteen  thousand. 
One  did  not  have  far  to  go  to  find  a  temple  or  a  shrine  or  the 
sacred  tulsa  plant.  Two  priests  in  one  of  Vithoba's  temples 
were  full  of  friendly  and  assured  communicativeness  when 
we  dropped  in  at  noonday  and  we  were  welcomed  in  the  even- 
ing to  another  temple  where  some  sixty  people  were  sitting 
on  the  floor  while  a  pandit,  accompanied  by  a  little  harmoni- 
cum  and  two  drums,  was  reciting  Sanskrit  slokas  regarding 
the  moral  duties  of  men  to  seek  God's  guidance  and  to  be 
obedient  to  it.  Bright  lights  were  burning  within  the  inner 
shrine  before  the  dark  images  of  Vithoba  and  his  consort. 
Two  of  the  last  sights  of  the  day  were  of  a  group  of  three 
in  a  brightly  lighted  shrine  before  an  ugly  idol  under  a  grove 
of  palm  trees,  and  of  an  old  Brahman,  with  no  idols  at  all 
about  him,  sitting  crosslegged  over  his  sacred  Scriptures, 
teaching  them  as  he  was  wont  to  do  every  night  to  two  nephews 
sitting  beside  him. 

We  saw  still  a  diff'erent  side  of  Hinduism  here  in  Vengurla 
in  a  delightful  conversation  with  two  Hindu  gentlemen  who 
had  the  highest  regard  for  the  missionaries  and  could  not 
speak  too  warmly  of  them.     These  men  represented  the  re- 

68 


fined  and  philosophic  view.  To  them  idolatry  was  a  gross 
incumbrance  upon  true  Hinduism,  one  of  the  after  results 
of  Buddhism.  Christ  they  were  more  than  ready  to  recognize 
as  a  saint  of  God,  but  not  a  truer  saint,  added  one,  than  "our 
Tukaram."  "All  true  religion  is  one,"  they  held.  "It  is  un- 
true only  to  exclude  the  truth."  Caste  and  idolatry,  they  held, 
are  both  doomed,  though  their  end  is  still  many  generations 
away. 

Vengurla  seems  an  even  harder  field  than  Ratnagiri.  It  is 
a  far  off  and  lonesome  station.  During  the  four  months  of 
the  rainy  season  the  coast  boats  cannot  run.  Ratnagiri  has 
then  its  good  road  communication  with  Kolhapur,  but  Ven- 
gurla has  no  contact  with  the  outside  world  save  by  the  less 
satisfactory  and  more  roundabout  road  via  Belgaum.  The 
mission  hospital,  however,  is  making  a  way  for  Christian 
truth  in  many  homes  otherwise  inaccessible  and  the  mission 
High  School  is  doing  what  such  high  schools  are  doing  all 
over  India.  Though  the  direct  evangelistic  fruitage  is  still 
small,  these  schools  are  providing  points  of  contact  otherwise 
unobtainable  and  they  are  drawing  into  missionary  friend- 
ship and  under  Christ's  influence  many  of  the  ablest  young 
men  of  India.  Even  in  our  short  visit  we  could  feel  the  reality 
of  Dr.  Goheen's  influence  through  the  hospital  and  Mr. 
Wright's  through  the  school. 

Here  in  Vengurla,  also,  the  village  day  school  is  one  of  the 
cells  of  life  whose  power  is  unmistakable,  and  no  such  school 
that  we  have  seen  has  appealed  to  us  more  than  the  simple 
little  mud  room  in  the  Mahar  quarter  under  the  cocoanut 
palms  where  a  score  of  almost  naked  little  children  sat  at 
one  end  of  the  room  behind  some  chalk  marks  on  the  floor 
while  a  happy  faced,  enthusiastic,  old  leper  teacher  stood  be- 
hind his  chalk  line  at  a  safe  distance  on  the  other  side  of  the 
little  room  and  taught  his  flock  as  best  he  could.  We  shall 
never  forget  the  picture  of  the  group  with  the  old  man  be- 
hind, standing  in  front  of  their  little  school  house  bidding 
us  farewell.  The  old  leper  knew  a  little  English.  "We  thank 
America,"  said  he,  "for  sending  us  this.  American  love  has 
done  all  this  for  India." 

We  left  Vengurla  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  spreading 
our  bedding  out  on  the  deck  of  the  little  steamer,  with  Indian 
neighbors,  men,  women,  and  little  children,  lying  closely 
packed  about  us,  and  when  we  waked,  the  pink  sunrise  was 
coming  up  over  the  hills  of  Goa.  We  had  all  of  yesterday 
there,  a  never-to-be-forgotten  day.  What  was  once  a  city  of 
two  hundred  thousand  people,  the  seat  of  Portuguese  empire 
in  the  far  East,  and  one  of  the  most  notable  cities  of  Asia, 

69 


is  now  only  a  waste  of  jungle  and  groves  of  palm  trees.  All 
the  buildings  of  the  city  are  gone  save  the  big  churches  and 
convents  which  Roman  Catholic  devotion  built  here  in  the 
sixteenth  century.  It  was  to  the  old  church  of  the  Bom 
Jesus  that  we  were  making  our  pilgrimage,  to  the  tomb  of 
Saint  Francis  Xavier.  It  is  a  wonderful  monument  in  mem- 
ory of  a  wonderful  devotion.  Thank  God  that  though  the 
glory  of  Goa  is  gone  the  true  spirit  of  Xavier  is  here  in  India 
still. 

(6)    WHERE   THE   KOLHAPUR   MISSION  BEGAN 

"Calcutta  Mail,"  en  route  Bombay  to  Allahabad, 

November  18,  1921. 

Kolhapur  is  the  oldest  station  of  the  Western  India  Mission. 
It  is  the  capital  of  the  native  state  of  Kolhapur,  one  of  a 
cluster  of  small  native  states  in  the  Southern  Maratha  coun- 
try. It  was  one  of  the  centers  of  the  old  Maratha  kingdom 
under  Shivaji,  whose  blood  still  flows  in  the  family  of  the 
present  Maharajah.  It  was  here  that  the  Rev.  Royal  G.  Wilder 
and  Mrs.  Wilder  began  the  work  of  the  mission  in  1852.  They 
were  then  missionaries  of  the  American  Board  which  con- 
ducted the  work  until  its  transfer  to  the  Presbyterian  Board 
at  the  time  of  the  reunion  of  the  Old  and  New  School  Churches 
in  1873.  Mrs.  Wilder  and  her  daughter,  Grace,  from  whose 
prayers  and  influence  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement  for 
Foreign  Missions  really  sprang,  are  buried  with  other  mis- 
sionaries and  many  little  children,  with  a  large  group  of 
Indian  Christians  in  the  old  cemetery  in  the  midst  of  the 
ample  missionary  compound  of  forty  acres  or  more  which 
the  State  has  given  to  the  Mission  for  its  work.  Below  the 
dates  of  the  birth  and  missionary  service  and  death  of  Mrs. 
Wilder  and  her  daughter  are  inscribed  in  English  and  Marathi 
John  3 :16  and  Romans  15 :21,  and  below  these  the  words  "The 
Path  of  the  Righteous  is  as  a  shining  light  that  shineth  more 
and  more  unto  the  perfect  day."  The  increase  of  this  shining  > 
is  unmistakably  manifest  here.  "How  great  has  been  the 
change  that  I  have  seen  here,"  said  the  Chief  of  Police  of  the 
Kolhapur  State,  who  is  a  Christian,  as  we  came  out  from  a 
meeting  in  the  old  church,  which  had  filled  it  to  the  doors, 
with  a  score  of  children  seated  on  the  floor  for  whom  there 
was  no  room  on  the  benches,  "I  can  remember  forty  years 
ago  when  we  were  reviled  and  pelted  as  we  came  through  the 
bazaar  to  the  church  and  when  the  preacher  spoke  to  empty 
benches,  and  now  see  this." 

The  old  church  is  a  simple  but  attractive  building  with  big 
white  pillars,  standing  in  the  very  midst  of  the  bazaar.    Next 

70 


door  to  it  is  the  Moslem  mosque.  Sunday  is  the  bazaar  day, 
and  the  main  church  service  came  at  the  cool  of  the  day 
when  the  street  in  front  of  the  church  was  most  densely 
crowded  with  the  sellers  and  their  wares  and  their  customers. 
Through  the  open  doors  one  saw  from  the  pulpit  all  the  busy 
movement  of  the  market  place  and  the  rich  variety  of  color 
and  style  of  dress.  The  hum  of  the  bazaar  was  a  ceaseless 
undertone  sounding  through  every  prayer  and  song  and 
spoken  word,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  service  the  sonorous 
voice  of  the  mollah  in  the  mosque  next  door  sounded  forth 
the  call  to  prayer.  From  the  pulpit  over  the  heads  of  the  con- 
gregation through  the  open  windows  one  could  see  the  whole 
white  interior  of  the  mosque  and  the  company  of  the  faithful 
as,  in  the  appealing  austerity  and  simplicity  of  their  worship, 
they  knelt  together  in  their  prayers.  I  do  not  wish  to  give 
any  wrong  impression  with  regard  to  the  church.  Most  of 
the  congregation  was  made  up  of  the  boys  and  girls  from  the 
mission  schools,  and  many  of  the  others  were  mission  work- 
ers of  one  kind  or  another,  but  even  when  all  allowances  had 
been  made  the  encouraging  comparison  of  the  Chief  of  Police 
is  justified.  The  light  that  at  first  had  been  so  flickering  and 
insecure  has  now  brightened  into  a  certain  and  steady  glow, 
and  the  future  lord  of  the  market  place  before  the  church  door 
is  not  Mohammed  nor  Krishna  nor  Shiv  but  Christ. 

The  little  cemetery  contains  also  the  graves  of  the  two  faith- 
ful missionaries  whose  work  is  commemorated  in  the  names 
of  the  Esther  Patton  School  for  girls  and  the  Irwin  Christian 
High  School  for  boys.  There  are  now  one  hundred  and  ninety 
girls  in  the  Esther  Patton  school  of  whom  one  hundred  and 
thirty-three  are  boarders.  The  school  is  a  model  of  neatness 
and  discipline  and  fine  spirit.  We  have  not  heard  the  singing 
of  the  girls  surpassed  anywhere  in  Asia.  Very  wisely  in 
these  Maratha  churches  the  Marathi  music  has  been  pre- 
served, and  the  Gospel  is  sung  in  the  minor,  repetitious  ca- 
dences so  dear  to  the  people,  but  it  is  interesting  and  whole- 
some to  see  these  girls  so  capable  also  of  appreciating  and 
themselves  rendering  our  very  best  English  church  music. 
Their  delight  in  the  harmonious  blending  of  the  various  parts 
was  naive.  One  of  our  most  pleasant  hours  was  spent  in 
hearing  them  sing  together  one  evening  in  the  moonlight  the 
music  they  are  preparing  for  the  coming  Christmas.  Every- 
where throughout  the  bounds  of  the  Mission  we  have  met  the 
graduates  of  this  school  and  found  them  almost  invariably 
distinguishable  by  the  cleanness  of  their  dress  and  homes 

71 


and  by  the  light  upon  their  faces  and  upon  the  faces  of  their 
children. 

The  Irwin  Christian  High  School  for  boys  is  just  about  to 
move  into  a  fine  new  building  erected  by  the  Mission  in  com- 
pliance with  an  understanding  with  the  Maharajah  who  has 
given  a  large  tract  of  valuable  land  in  addition  to  the  other 
mission  compound,  in  order  that  the  Mission  might  develop 
a  school  for  boys  of  the  most  efficient  character,  to  which  the 
Maharajah  expressed  his  desire  to  have  the  sons  of  his  nobles' 
families  go  for  their  education.  It  is  hoped  that  now  with 
good  equipment  and  continuity  of  capable  management  the 
school  will  be  such  an  institution  as  it  must  be  our  ideal  that 
every  mission  school  should  be  and  as  will  secure  the  main- 
tenance of  the  Maharajah's  hearty  good-will.  He  belongs  to 
the  non-Brahman,  Maratha  class,  and  his  religious  views  are 
liberal.  Like  practically  all  the  rulers  of  native  states  in  India 
he  is  very  loyal  to  the  present  Government  of  India.  His 
spirit  is  one  not  of  non-cooperation  but  of  cordial  friendli- 
ness, and  he  represses  the  local  hoodlumism  of  the  disorderly 
elements  in  the  national  movement.  The  marble  busts  of  the 
British  royal  family  in  the  public  garden  in  Kolhapur  are  pro- 
tected by  wire  screens  and  a  police  guard. 

In  addition  to  the  church  and  boarding  schools  in  Kolhapur 
there  are  a  number  of  useful  evangelizing  day  schools  both 
in  the  city  and  in  the  country  villages,  and  bands  of  evan- 
gelists and  Bible  women  go  about  from  place  to  place  spend- 
ing a  long  enough  time  in  each  village  both  to  teach  the  simple 
little  Christian  community  already  gathered  and  to  leave 
some  enduring  impression  upon  their  neighbors  who  are  not 
yet  ready  to  incur  the  risks  of  Christian  confession.  We  met 
such  a  band  of  four  men  and  four  women  in  the  picturesque 
village  of  Kini  with  its  old  brick,  stone  and  mud  buildings, 
half  glory  and  half  ruin,  exactly  like  one  of  the  old  cities  of 
Israel,  and  the  whole  scene  was  just  what  one  might  have 
come  upon  any  day  in  Palestine  two  thousand  years  ago. 

Nipani,  twenty-five  miles  south  of  Kolhapur,  in  the  midst 
of  a  broad  plain  of  many  villages,  is  another  town  like  Kini, 
with  old  temples  and  old  mosques,  but  now  at  last  with  a  new 
Christian  dispensary  and  schools  and  soon  to  have  a  mission- 
ary family  resident  in  it.  The  Lafayette  Avenue  Church  of 
Buffalo  is  supplying  the  funds  for  this  new  undertaking,  and 
the  stone  for  the  new  missionary  residence  was  already  ac- 
cumulating on  the  plot  of  ground  that  had  been  bought  on  the 
north  edge  of  the  town  looking  off  over  a  wide  vista  of  farms 
and  villages  to  the  far  distant  hills  near  Kolhapur.     A  good 

72 


part  of  the  low  caste  population  of  Nipani  was  on  the  verge 
of  coming  over  to  Christianity  when  checked  by  the  Hindus, 
who  until  then  had  displayed  no  interest  in  these  untouchables 
save  to  avoid  the  contamination  of  their  contact  or  of  their 
shadow. 

In  view  of  the  strong  anti-Brahman  feeling  which  character- 
izes the  Marathas  one  might  have  hoped  that  Christianity 
could  long  before  this  have  won  converts  from  some  other  com- 
munities beside  the  outcaste  Mahars  and  Mangs.  Almost 
without  exception  the  Christians  have  come  from  these  de- 
pressed communities.  It  is  an  amazing  thing  to  see  with  what 
uplifting  and  transforming  power  it  has  wrought  upon  them. 
Many  of  these  Christians  have  by  a  perfect  miracle  of  change 
become  qualified  to  meet  as  equals  or  even  as  superiors  mem- 
bers of  castes  before  which  they  had  been  accustomed  to 
cringe.  Perhaps  it  was  to  the  end  that  this  miracle  should 
be  wrought  before  the  eyes  of  India  that  the  doors  to  the 
higher  castes  have  thus  far  been  closed.  Yet  it  cannot  be  the 
will  of  God  that  they  should  not  open,  and  the  prayers  of  the 
Church  at  home  and  every  resource  of  thought  and  action 
should  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  task  of  winning  Brah- 
mans  also  in  great  numbers  to  our  Lord  and  Saviour. 

(7)    TEACHING  AND  HEALING  IN  THE  SOUTHERN   MARATHI 

COUNTRY 

"Calcutta  Mail,"  en  route  from  Bombay  to 
Allahabad,  November  18,  1921. 

We  came  last  in  our  visitation  of  the  Western  India  Mission 
to  the  two  closely  adjoining  stations,  Sangli  and  Miraj.  The 
two  towns  are  only  five  miles  apart,  and  for  some  years  the 
attempt  was  made  to  unite  them  into  one  mission  station. 
This  was  found  to  be  a  difficult  task,  however,  and  each  of  the 
two  station  communities  has  grown  into  a  strong  and  varied 
separate  station  organization.  Each  town  has  about  twenty- 
five  thousand  population  and  is  the  capital  of  a  small  native 
state  of  the  same  name,  whose  head  is  of  the  rank  of  chief 
or  rajah,  not  of  a  great  chief  or  maharajah. 

Sangli  is  the  site  of  the  Mission's  industrial,  agricultural, 
and  training  school.  Fifty  boys  are  learning  the  trades  of 
carpentering,  iron  working,  and  tailoring;  ten  are  studying 
agriculture  in  the  simple  and  practical  ways  that  will  leave 
them  willing  and  content  to  go  back  to  the  same  villages  from 
which  they  came,  to  share  their  knowledge  with  others.  Thirty 
boys  are  in  the  normal  training  school  for  village  teachers 
where  they  study  for  a  year  and  then  go  back  to  the  village 

73 


schools  while  the  teachers  whom  they  relieve  come  to  Sangli. 
The  students  of  all  departments  are  Christian  boys  sent  up 
from  the  Christian  communities  in  the  villages  throughout 
the  Mission.  At  the  beginning  of  the  year  a  few  non-Christian 
boys  are  taken  in,  but  these  are  usually  baptized  before  the 
year  is  over.  Many  of  the  pupils  are  really  grown  men  who 
have  had  no  educational  advantages  and  who  in  the  classrooms 
are  graded  with  the  third  and  fourth  standards,  but  who  in 
the  workshop  or  on  the  farm  are  learning  how  to  do  the  full 
work  of  a  man,  on  a  far  higher  economic  level  of  value  than 
characterizes  India's  industrial  and  agricultural  life.  It  is 
good  to  see  this  crude  material  from  the  villages  being  disci- 
plined into  shape  by  the  morning  setting  up  drill  and  by  the 
teaching  in  the  class  rooms  and  by  the  manual  labor  in  the 
shops  and  fields.  Mr.  Goheen  has  just  brought  with  him  on 
his  return  from  furlough  some  of  the  best  American  chickens, 
geese,  hares  and  turkeys  with  which  to  improve  native  stocks 
and  help  the  village  people  to  earn  a  better  livelihood. 

Sangli,  like  Kodoli,  is  the  center  of  a  large  work  among 
the  villages.  The  Kodoli  work  has  been  chiefly  among  the 
Mahars  who  are  the  coolie  class.  In  the  Sangli  field,  however, 
the  work  has  been  chiefly  among  the  Mangs  who  were  for- 
merly known  as  the  thief  caste.  Like  the  Mahars,  they  have 
lived  in  separate  villages  or  in  separate  quarters  of  the  towns 
or  villages  specially  set  off  for  them.  To  keep  a  check  upon  their 
movements  the  men  have  often  been  required  to  sleep  at  night 
near  the  police  headquarters  or  to  report  through  the  night 
at  regular  roll  calls.  Those  earnest  people  at  home  who  think 
that  the  social  character  and  influence  of  Christianity  are  a 
modern  discovery  should  visit  these  mission  stations  where 
the  Gospel  is  at  work  among  the  same  kind  of  people  as  those 
whom  Celsus  derided  as  Christians  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Church.  These  Mang  Christians  are  very  far  from  being 
all  that  one  could  wish.  They  are  very  ignorant.  Few  if 
any  of  them  know  how  to  read  until  they  come  to  the  mission 
schools.  Many  of  them  are  weak  and  timid.  What  else  could 
one  expect  in  a  people  who  from  time  immemorial  have  been 
regarded  as  untouchable  outcastes?  It  is  of  these  that  the 
power  that  raised  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead  is  taking  hold 
and  raising  them,  in  spite  of  the  same  kind  of  moral  draw- 
backs and  disappointments  which  are  reflected  in  St.  Paul's 
Epistles,  into  new  manhood,  intelligence,  and  usefulness.  There 
are  more  than  fifty  villages,  in  which  these  Christian  commu- 
nities have  developed.  Seventeen  of  these  have  Christians 
schools  with  teachers  sufficiently  traijied  to  conduct  the  school 

74 


during  the  week  and  to  hold  religious  services  on  Sunday  and 
oftentimes  to  gather  the  people  in  some  form  of  daily  ser- 
vice in  lieu  of  family  worship,  for  which  in  their  ignorance 
they  are  not  yet  prepared. 

We  went  out  to  the  village  of  Degraz  where  this  village 
movement  among  the  Mangs  began  with  a  man  who  had  left 
the  Sangli  school  discontented  both  with  it  and  with  Chris- 
tianity and  who  returned  to  his  Hinduism.  As  he  studied  it 
now,  however,  and  tried  to  adjust  himself  once  again  to  his 
old  village  life,  he  was  forced  into  a  fresh  and  living  com- 
parison of  Christianity  and  Hinduism.  It  was  no  matter  of 
theory  or  speculation  with  him.  He  was  considering  two  ways 
of  life,  and  the  utter  inferiority  of  that  to  which  he  was  re- 
turning demolished  all  the  disgruntlement  with  which  he  had 
left  Sangli  and  made  him  the  beginning  of  this  widely  ex- 
tended movement  among  the  Mangs.  We  have  heard  of 
much  product  of  the  mission  schools  like  this,  the  return  after 
many  days  of  bread  that  seemed  to  have  been  thrown  upon 
the  waters. 

As  Sangli  has  been  one  of  the  main  educational  training 
centers  of  the  Mission,  so  Miraj  has  become  not  only  the  main 
medical  center  of  the  Western  India  Mission  but  also  one  of 
the  greatest  medical  institutions  in  India.  Beginning  nearly 
thirty  years  ago  with  Mr.  John  H.  Converse's  gift  of  ten 
thousand  dollars.  Dr.  Wanless,  with  Dr.  Vail's  unequaled  help 
in  recent  years,  has  built  up  a  great  plant  which  could  not  be 
reproduced  now  for  seven  hundred  thousand  rupees,  with  a 
score  of  buildings,  with  three  or  four  fully  equipped  operating 
rooms,  between  one  and  two  hundred  beds  crowded  almost 
the  year  round  with  thousands  of  out-patients.  Indian  hotels 
and  lodging  houses  to  care  for  the  people  who  come  from  all 
over  India  have  grown  up  about  the  hospital  on  property 
whose  value  the  hospital  has  multiplied  ten  or  twenty  fold. 
It  seems  likely  that  the  chief  fame  of  the  state  will  lie  in  this 
noble  work  which  the  spirit  of  Christ  has  built  up.  "Sir," 
said  a  Brahman  in  a  railway  carriage  to  Bombay,  speaking 
to  a  friend  of  ours  who  was  a  stranger  to  him,  "I  have  just 
come  from  Miraj.  That  is  a  wonderful  place.  I  have  watched 
those  doctors.  It  is  beyond  understanding  that  such  men 
who  might  amass  wealth  anywhere  do  that  work  for  nothing 
but  love  and  their  own  bare  support."  Fifty  men  are  study- 
ing medicine  in  a  medical  school  connected  with  the  hospital, 
all  but  four  of  them  Christians.  On  our  last  evening  they 
invited  us  to  meet  with  them  in  their  dormitory  quadrangle. 
The  full  moon  came  up  over  us  as  we  sat  together  in  the  court 

75 


in  the  quadrangle  and  listened  to  their  address.  "Here,"  said 
their  spokesman,  "you  can  see  India  in  miniature.  We  come 
from  all  parts  of  the  land.  We  speak  nine  languages.  We 
belong  to  different  races.  If  you  ask  what  brings  us  all  here, 
I  will  tell  you.  First  it  was  Christ.  Second,  it  was  the  fame 
of  Dr.  Wanless."  What  a  fountain  of  power  this  place  is! 
Thousands  of  people  have  gone  out  from  it  to  all  parts  of 
India  grateful  for  physical  healing.  Hundreds  of  young  men 
have  been  sent  throughout  the  country  as  Christian  doctors. 
In  more  than  one  village  we  have  met  them,  standing  out  as 
the  foremost  men  of  the  community.  In  two  places  we  found 
them  filling  the  positions  of  chief  municipal  honor  and  re- 
sponsibility, presiding  over  high  caste  men  though  they  them- 
selves had  come  from  the  lowest  of  the  outcaste  people.  It 
is  both  the  high  and  the  low  that  this  medical  work  is  touching. 
Out  of  gratitude  and  appreciation  the  Maharajah  of  Kolhapur 
has  supplied  and  keeps  in  order  the  fine  car  which  Dr.  Vail 
uses  in  his  work,  and  Dr.  Wanless  has  two  decorations  from 
the  Government  of  India.  These  are  but  little  things,  how- 
ever, in  comparison  with  the  looks  of  gratitude  and  almost 
worship  which  we  saw  following  the  doctors  as  we  went  with 
them  through  their  great  clinic  of  love. 

Here  as  everywhere,  the  Christian  missionary  lays  Christ's 
hands  upon  the  leper,  and  nothing  could  better  express  Christ- 
like cleanliness  and  kindliness  than  the  asylum  to  which  Mr. 
Richardson  took  us  with  its  one  hundred  and  fifteen  lepers, 
as  contented  and  happy  as  poor  human  creatures  can  be  who 
live  within  such  a  doom.  On  a  fine  site  adjoining  one  of 
the  best  handled  mission  day  schools  we  have  seen,  the  Mixai 
church,  on  land  given  by  the  Rajah,  is  about  to  erect  the 
church  building  for  which  the  Fourth  Presbyterian  Church  in 
New  York  City  has  generously  given  the  funds.  Just  across 
the  street  is  the  convalescent  home  built  by  funds  raised 
from  Indians  by  an  English  woman  in  Southern  India.  There 
amid  Hindus,  Parsis,  Goanese  and  Mohammedans  we  met  a 
Christian  sadhu,  a  holy  man,  without  legs,  but  with  a  new 
love  and  a  new  light  preaching  Christ  to  all. 

(8)  LUCKNOW  AND  CAWNPORE 

Fatehpur,  India,  November  22,  1921 
We  said  good-bye  to  the  last  of  the  Western  India  mission- 
aries at  Poona  on  November  16th,  after  a  fascinating  trip  by 
railway  and  motor  from  Miraj  to  Wathar  and  thence  to  Wai, 
an  interesting  station  of  the  American  Board,  where  we  were 
received  as  belonging  all  to  one  family,  and  from  Wai  to  Ma- 

76 


hableshwar,  a  hill  station  of  forty-five  hundred  feet  altitude 
which  the  Western  India  Mission  uses  as  a  sanitarium  in  the 
hottest  weather  and  as  a  place  of  language  study  for  new 
missionaries.  From  Mahableshwar  one  commands  a  won- 
derful view  of  the  Western  Ghats  and  in  clear  weather  can 
look  across  their  summits  and  see  the  ships  on  the  Arabian 
Sea.  From  Mahableshwar  we  came  on  to  Poona,  passing  in 
the  dusk  the  camp  of  the  elephants  who  had  come  to  help  to 
welcome  the  Prince  of  Wales.  The  following  day  we  our- 
selves helped  to  welcome  him  as  he  landed  in  Bombay.  All 
was  peaceful  and  quiet  along  the  route  of  the  Prince's  march, 
but  in  other  parts  of  the  city  there  were  riots  and  fighting 
between  the  extreme  and  ungoverned  elements  of  the  national- 
istic movement  and  the  people  who  were  returning  from  wel- 
coming the  Prince.  The  result  of  this  rioting  and  of  Mr. 
Gandhi's  appeal  to  his  nationalistic  followers  seems  likely  to 
be  a  strong  reaction  against  such  violence  and  disorder. 

We  left  Bombay  the  same  evening  for  Allahabad  to  meet 
there  with  the  Presbytery  of  Allahabad  in  an  all-day  con- 
ference on  the  subject  of  the  best  plan  of  relationship  between 
the  Missions  and  the  Indian  Church,  and  from  Allahabad 
we  came  on  to  visit  our  mission  work  in  the  other  two  of  the 
four  great  cities  of  the  United  Provinces,  Allahabad,  Benares, 
Cawnpore,  and  Lucknow.  Benares  and  Allahabad  with  their 
sacred  river  sites,  Benares  especially  as  the  great  sacred  city 
of  Hinduism,  have  a  unique  and  distinctive  character  but 
in  many  respects  Lucknow  is  a  still  more  interesting  city, 
with  its  magnificent  old  palaces  and  mosques,  some  of  them 
as  beautiful  as  anything  that  can  be  found  in  India  except 
the  Taj,  and  with  its  great  memories  of  the  days  of  the  Mutiny, 
the  ruined  walls  of  the  Residency,  and  the  grave  of  Henry 
Lawrence  with  its  familiar  inscription,  "Here  lies  Henry 
Lawrence  who  tried  to  do  his  duty.  May  the  Lord  have  mercy 
on  his  soul." 

Lucknow  is  not  one  of  the  old  mission  stations  of  our 
church,  but  we  have  now  a  vital  interest  in  it  through  our 
association  with  the  Women's  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  support  of  the  Isabella 
Thoburn  College,  not  only  the  only  Christian  college  for 
women,  but  the  only  college  of  any  kind  for  women  in  the 
United  Provinces.  This  is  the  institution  into  which  Miss 
Thoburn  built  her  rugged  and  devoted  life,  and  which  trained 
Lilivati  Singh  whose  untimely  death  prevented  her  succeed- 
ing to  the  principalship  and  of  whom  President  Harrison 
said  at  the  Ecumenical  Missionary  Conference  in  New  York 

77 


in  1900  after  he  had  heard  her  speak,  "If  I  had  had  a  mil- 
lion dollars  and  had  given  it  all  to  foreign  missions  and  this 
were  the  only  result,  I  should  be  satisfied  with  my  investment." 
The  Methodist  women  have  given  a  wealth  of  love  and  life 
to  the  college,  and  they  have  been  generous  to  welcome  us  as 
participants  in  it  with  a  contribution  of  money  and  workers 
as  yet  but  a  fraction  of  what  they  have  put  in. 

A  wide  reorganization  of  higher  educational  work  is  going 
on  in  India  at  the  present  time.  A  number  of  the  provincial 
governments  are  seeking  to  build  up  unitary  teaching  uni- 
versities somewhat  after  the  fashion  of  Cambridge  and  Ox- 
ford or  our  great  American  universities,  instead  of  the  old 
Indian  universities  which  were  almost  entirely  examining 
bodies  after  the  fashion  of  the  University  of  London.  In 
this  transformation  what  were  formerly  colleges  are  required 
to  drop  the  two  higher  years  and  their  graduate  M.A.  courses 
in  order  that  these  may  be  taken  over  into  the  new  unitary 
universities,  the  colleges  henceforth  to  be  known  as  inter- 
mediate colleges  and  to  embrace  a  little  less  than  is  covered 
by  the  two  last  years  of  high  school  and  the  two  first  years 
of  college  in  the  United  States.  The  Isabella  Thoburn  College 
becomes  thus  an  intermediate  women's  college  of  the  Luck- 
now  University.  It  is  at  present,  as  I  have  said,  the  only 
women's  college,  and  the  Government  has  recognized  it  as 
the  women's  section  of  the  University  and  it  will  not  only 
deal  with  the  intermediate  work  but  it  will  also  provide  for 
the  women  students  who  may  join  the  University  proper.  It 
has  also  its  normal  training  course  for  the  preparation  of 
women  as  teachers.  There  are  now  fifty-seven  young  women 
in  the  college,  but  preparations  must  be  made  for  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  and  for  this  purpose  a  new  site  and  buildings 
must  be  provided.  We  were  glad  to  aid  the  Methodist  friends, 
who  are  carrying  the  chief  burden  of  the  enterprise,  in  con- 
ferences with  the  authorities  with  the  view  of  securing,  if 
possible,  an  adequate  site  in  a  nearby  park  which  would  be 
conveniently  near  the  schools  and  churches  and  where  the 
beautiful  buildings  proposed  would  serve  both  to  improve  and 
to  protect  the  two  parks  which  would  lie  between  the  new 
buildings  and  the  wonderful  old  palace  of  one  of  the  kings 
of  Oudh  which  is  the  home  of  Martiniere  College,  the  great 
legacy  of  a  French  adventurer  now  devoted  to  the  education 
of  Anglo-Indian  boys. 

With  happy  memories  of  the  center  of  new  life  and  power 
which  our  Methodist  friends  have  developed  in  Lucknow, 
both  in  the  Isabella  Thoburn  College  and  in  their  churches 

78 


and  in  the  great  Christian  institutions  for  the  eckication  of 
boys  and  men  which  they  are  enlarging  with  notable  courage 
and  foresight,  we  came  on  the  next  day  to  Cawnpore,  the 
industrial  center  of  northern  India.    There  are  thirty  or  forty 
mills  here  working  in  cotton  and  wool  and  leather  and  em- 
ploying  forty   thousand   workmen.      Four   thousand   village 
Christian  people  have  come  in  to  find  profitable  employment, 
and  the  Anglican  and  Methodist  Missions  as  well  as  our  own 
and  the  Women's  Union  Missionary  Society  are  caring  for 
these  Christians  and  for  the  evangelization  of  the  city.     By 
an  interesting  arrangement  Mr.  Wiser,  while  still  a  member 
of  our  Mission,  is  in  charge  of  wide-reaching  social  work  in 
the  mills  and  is  at  the  head  of  the  two  model  villages  planted 
by  two  of  the  largest  mills,  each  of  which  houses  nearly  three 
thousand  people.    The  four  Missions  in  Cawnpore  have  united 
in  the  Rifa-i-Am  Association,  a  Christian  welfare   agency, 
designed    to    develop    co-operatively    the    community    center 
already  begun  by  the   Presbyterian  Mission.     The  mills  in 
Cawnpore  are  seeking  to  pursue  a  generous  and  enlightened 
policy.     They  close  on  Sundays  and  give  adequate  holiday 
rests  and  furnish  far  better  working  conditions  and  wages 
than  we  have  found  in  mills  in  other  parts  of  Asia.     With 
all  this  and  with  annual  bonuses,  some  of  these  mills  are  said 
to  have  paid  in  dividends  last  year  between  a  hundred  and 
a  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent.     Here  there  is  opportunity  at 
the  beginning  of  a  vast  industrial  development  both  for  em- 
ployers and  for  the  Christian  Church  to  deal  with  conditions 
of  labor  and  of  life  in  the  spirit  of  enlightenment  and  sym- 
pathy and  justice  which  will  advance  human  brotherhood  and 
well-being. 

Cawnpore  also  has  its  great  memories.  Every  visitor  goes 
to  see  the  memorial  chapel,  the  cross  at  the  river  ghat,  and 
the  marble  angel  over  the  well  which  mark  the  spots  of  tragedy 
in  the  days  of  the  Mutiny.  The  old  city  of  Cawnpore  itself 
is  a  living  memory  full  of  all  the  scenes  of  traffic,  the  tone 
and  color  and  movement  of  Indian  life  which  these  streets 
have  known  for  untold  generations.  A  Moslem  school  for 
boys  was  seated  on  the  ground  by  the  tram  line  with  all  the 
busy  life  of  the  city  moving  around  them.  Cows  and  donkeys 
wandered  at  will  to  and  fro.  The  great  bullock  carts  loaded 
with  the  produce  of  northern  India  churned  the  road  into  ever 
deeper  dust.  Under  all  the  fascinating  medley  of  race  and 
color  and  sound  I  could  still  hear  the  voice  of  the  dear  old 
Indian  preacher  minstrel  who  had  just  sung  for  us  on  his 

79 


long  Indian  guitar,  decked  with  peacock  feathers,  of  the 
Saviour  whose  salvation  is  free  and  whose  messengers  are 
offering  it  with  an  ever  larger  freedom  to  India. 

(9)    FATEHPUR,  ETAWAH  AND  MAINPURI 

En  route,  Mainpuri  to  Farrukhabad, 
November  24,  1921. 

The  little  waif  was  lying  on  his  pallet  on  the  ground  in 
front  of  the  simple  mud  building  just  like  a  good  house  in 
his  village  only  cleaner  than  any  house  that  he  had  known. 
He  had  a  brass  bowl  of  water  beside  him.  He  did  not  mind 
the  unshaded  heat  of  the  sun.  After  the  chill  of  the  early 
morning  the  warmth  was  grateful  to  him.  He  was  a  poor 
little  chap,  homeless  and  friendless  and  sick,  until,  directed 
probably  by  some  one  who  knew  of  Christian  kindness  that 
might  take  him  in,  but  of  no  other,  he  trudged  alone  into  the 
mission  compound  at  Fatehpur  and  found  a  place  in  Mr. 
Smith's  little  school.  There,  with  two  score  other  lads  who  had 
come  in,  only  the  least  bit  less  needy  than  himself,  he  had 
found  a  home  and  love  and  his  one  chance.  It  jis  true  that 
such  little  centers  of  Christian  life  and  service  seem  at  first 
to  be  trivial  and  ineffectual  efforts  to  deal  with  this  immeas- 
urable mass  of  human  need  in  India,  but  it  is  true  also  that 
the  most  powerful  thing  in  the  world  is  just  such  a  cell  of 
life,  and  the  irresistible  forces  of  life  wrapped  up  in  it  but 
not  to  be  confined  to  it,  sure  instead  to  break  loose  and  spread 
with  all  the  contagion  of  life.  Into  such  a  mission  compound 
as  this  at  Fatehpur,  sanctified  by  the  sacrifice  and  the  fidelity 
of  the  Mutiny  days,  the  lines  of  need  are  forever  running  from 
villages  near  and  far,  and  out  from  it  proceed  unceasingly 
the  influences  which  carry  sympathy,  intelligence,  and  hope 
to  individuals,  to  families,  and  to  whole  depressed  commu- 
nities. 

Just  adjoining  the  compound  where  the  one  missionary 
family  of  the  station  lives  is  one  of  the  compounds  of  the 
Women's  Union  Missionary  Society  with  its  clean  and  recrea- 
tive home  for  Indian  women  who  need  shelter  and  comfort, 
and  some  of  them  help  for  themselves  and  their  babies,  until 
they  can  recover  their  moral  footing  again.  A  mile  down 
the  wide,  dusty  road  with  great  overarching  trees,  with  its 
camels  and  its  ox-carts,  and  its  passing  bahli  with  its  gaudily 
decorated  trappings  and  its  veiled  women  within,  we  came  to 
the  beautiful  Broadwell  Memorial  Hospital  of  the  Women's 
Union.  In  all  this  wide  district  the  three  women  of  the  Union 
and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Smith  are  at  present  the  only  foreign  mis- 

80 


sionaries,  amid  a  population  almost  as  great  as  that  of  New 
Hampshire  and  Vermont  combined. 

In  Etawah,  the  next  station  which  we  visited,  three  hours 
by  rail  west  of  Fatehpur,  the  population  is  as  great,  and  at 
present  there  is  no  American  missionary  in  the  district,  which 
has  been  under  the  efficient  administration  of  Mr.  Fitch,  a 
South  Indian  from  Ceylon,  who  with  his  fifteen  fellow  work- 
ers is  caring  for  the  twenty-five  hundred  Christians  of  the 
district  and  seeking  to  evangelize  the  multitudes  who  have 
never  been  in  any  way  reached.  Etawah  city  has  a  popula- 
tion of  nearly  fifty  thousand  and  is  full  of  striking  temples 
and  mosques  and  with  most  picturesque  settlements  of  mud 
and  brick  houses  built  on  the  sides  of  the  deep  ravines  cut 
through  the  heart  of  the  city  by  the  heavy  waters  of  the  rainy 
season  running  down  into  the  Jumna  river.  The  non-coopera- 
tors  were  boycotting  with  zealous  western  methods  an  exhi- 
bition which  was  to  be  opened  on  the  day  of  our  visit.  It 
was  an  exhibition  of  Indian  products,  and  the  government 
officials  of  the  district  projecting  it  were  all  Indians,  but  it 
was  a  government  affair  and  foreign  goods  were  also  to  be 
displayed  at  it,  and  its  scheme  was  out  of  keeping  with  the 
principles  of  Tolstoi  and  frugality  upheld  by  the  preachers 
of  swaraj  and  swadeshi,  so  the  young  nationalists  were  pick- 
eting the  roads  to  dissuade  those  who  would  patronize  the 
exhibition.  Among  them  was  one  ardent  young  man  of  the 
Arya  Samaj  who  was  convinced  that  the  ancient  Vedas  con- 
tain the  full  truth  needed  by  the  world  and  was  devoting  him- 
self, while  still  conducting  his  business,  as  so  many  of  the 
Aryas  do,  to  earnest  religious  propaganda.  He  came  to  us 
in  the  evening  to  present  a  copy  of  one  of  their  strongest 
books  and  was  at  the  station  next  day  to  see  us  off  and  to  urge 
further  the  adequacy  and  comfort  of  his  Vedic  faith  upon 
us  who,  he  was  convinced,  had  only  the  less  sufficient  and  less 
satisfying  light  of  Christianity.  He  was  devoting  himself 
to  the  long  courses  of  training  which  would  bring  him  at 
last  to  Sunyasihood  and  then,  eighteen  years  from  now,  he 
hoped  to  go  fully  qualified  to  America  as  a  missionary  of  the 
Arya  Samaj.  We  promised  to  read  his  book  if  he  would 
promise  to  read  the  New  Testament,  and  we  left  the  friendly, 
energetic  lad  with  the  hope  and  prayer  that  long  before  the 
time  for  his  missionary  errand  to  America  might  have  come 
he  would  be  devoting  himself  to  the  spread  of  the  Christian 
faith  in  India. 

On  the  evening  of  our  arrival  at  Etawah  the  village  Chris- 

81 


tians  who  had  come  in  to  meet  us  amid  many  happy  festivities 
read  a  wonderful  original  Hindustani  poem,  and  with  two 
boys  representing  the  bride  and  bridegroom  showed  us  the 
ceremonial  of  a  village  non-Christian  wedding,  and  then  dra- 
matized the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  in  which  the  little 
pigs  were  vivaciously  personified  by  the  late  bride  and  bride- 
groom. It  was  all  beautifully  natural  and  unconsciously  free, 
full  of  vitality  and  spirit.  One  wondered  whether  Christians 
at  home  coming  out  of  the  same  social  and  intellectual  sur- 
roundings could  have  done  anything  to  compare  with  it.  It 
was  to  us  a  poignant  detail  of  the  drama  that  the  chief  sym- 
bols of  dissipation  of  the  younger  son  and  his  wild  companions 
were  Scotch  whiskey  bottles.  Where  we  have  taught  one 
thing,  our  obvious  duty  is  to  teach  something  else  also  widely 
different. 

From  Etawah  a  three  hours'  ride  across  this  immense  allu- 
vial plain  of  northern  India  brought  us  to  another  of  our 
exclusively  Presbyterian  fields,  the  district  of  Mainpuri,  with 
its  population  greater  than  that  of  Oregon  or  of  Colorado 
or  of  Maine.  Here  in  a  little  town  of  fourteen  thousand,  by 
good  judgment  and  devotion  and  continuity  of  missionary 
service,  a  beautiful  center  of  missionary  influence  has  been 
developed.  The  High  School  has  for  eighty  years  been  send- 
ing out  generation  after  generation  of  boys  so  well  taught 
that  the  school  outnumbers  the  government  high  school  and 
triumphantly  vanquished  by  love  and  truth  a  rival  high  school 
which  the  Arya  Samaj  built  next  door  and  which  now  stands 
unfinished  and  abandoned.  For  all  of  these  years  the  school 
has  unflinchingly  taught  the  Bible  and  set  before  Hindu  and 
Mohammedan  boys  the  appeal  of  the  Christian  faith  and  the 
Christian  character.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  talk  in  India 
today  of  the  unjustifiableness  of  required  religious  teaching 
in  mission  schools.  Our  own  view  is  that  if  the  schools  are 
justifiable  at  all  it  is  because  of  their  avowed  and  integral 
Christian  character,  and  we  were  delighted  to  have  a  Hindu 
boy  who  addressed  us  in  behalf  of  the  school  and  who  spoke 
before  many  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  declare,  of  his  own 
accord,  that  what  they  liked  in  the  school  was  its  straight- 
forward teaching  of  the  Bible  and  its  emphasis  upon  moral 
principle  and  character. 

Not  far  from  the  High  School,  with  its  great  predominance 
of  non-Christian  students,  is  the  Mission  Boarding  School  for 
younger  boys  from  the  villages,  practically  all  of  whom  are 
Christian,  and  on  whose  lives,  as  everywhere,  the  influence 

82 


of  the  Gospel  is  as  clear  as  the  transformation  wrought  by 
the  rains  upon  these  burned  Indian  plains.  Clearer  still,  if 
possible,  is  the  change  as  we  noted  it  in  the  village  men  and 
women  gathered  in  the  training  school  for  village  workers. 
One  needed  only  to  have  the  newcomers  stand  up  beside  the 
three  year  students  to  mark  the  almost  unbelievable  trans- 
formation. There  is  need  of  all  this  rightly  trained  and  not 
overtrained  service  in  the  villages  of  this  district,  where  there 
are  five  thousand  baptized  Christians  needing  most  patient 
schooling  in  Christian  truth  and  duty. 

Happy  as  our  visit  to  these  three  stations  in  the  heart  of 
the  North  India  Mission  has  been  and  full  of  happy  incidents, 
nothing  has  been  happier  or  more  of  a  privilege  than  our 
meeting  again  with  Dr.  Johnson  of  Mainpuri,now  in  his  eighty- 
third  year.  Nearly  four  hundred  publications  have  come 
from  Dr.  Johnson's  pen  during  his  more  than  half  a  century 
of  notable  service  in  India.  With  unabated  energy,  though 
with  failing  vision,  he  is  still  rendering  invaluable  service, 
turning  out  some  of  the  freshest  work  of  his  life  and  eager 
to  find  new  ways  of  making  the  Gospel  words  clear  to  the 
village  folk  of  India. 

(10)    ON  SACRED  GROUND  AT  FATEHGARH 

En  route  Kasganj  to  Bareilly, 
November  26,  1921. 
We  are  glad  to  have  visited  Fatehgarh  at  last  and  to  have 
got  clear  in  our  own  minds  the  varied  work  of  this  old  and 
complicated  mission  station,  rich  with  the  memories  of  the 
missionary  martyrs  of  the  Indian  Mutiny  and  of  three  genera- 
tions of  fertile  and  unwearied  missionary  service.  The  many 
forms  of  the  station's  work  and  their  location  and  interrela- 
tions are  clear  to  us  now.  The  central  station  itself  includes 
Farrukhabad  with  a  population  of  eighty  thousand,  Fateh- 
garh three  miles  away  with  a  population  of  thirty  thousand, 
the  village  of  Bharpur  lying  between  the  two  cities  with  a 
population  of  five  thousand,  and  the  little  village  of  Rakha,  a 
mile  and  a  half  north  of  Fatehgarh.  In  Farrukhabad  are 
the  mission  day  school  of  Hindu  and  Mohammedan  girls 
and  a  good  brick  church  and  reading  room  in  the  midst  of 
the  bazaar.  At  Bharpur  are  the  Boys'  High  School  with  its 
hostel  for  Hindu  and  Mohammedan  boys,  and  its  boarding 
house  for  the  Christian  boys  from  the  villages,  the  large  new 
hospital,  the  industrial  trade  school  for  boys,  and  the  bunga- 
lows for  the  missionaries  engaged  in  these  institutions  and 

83 


in  the  evangelistic  work  in  the  cities  and  villages.  There  are 
five  Christian  groups  in  each  of  the  two  cities  associated  in 
one  church  organization  for  each  city,  and  there  are  besides 
a  church  at  Bharpur  and  a  church  at  Rakha  where  also  the 
Boarding  School  for  Christian  Girls  carries  on  its  work. 
Here  in  one  united  mission  center  at  a  total  expense  for  mis- 
sionary support  and  all  other  outlay  of  less  than  the  cost  of 
a  single  city  congregation  or  superior  high  school  at  home, 
the  missionaries  are  carrying  on  a  great  undertaking  of  pure 
evangelism  and  of  social  ministry  dealing  with  personal  and 
community  health,  economic  and  agricultural  welfare,  and 
seeking  to  communicate  the  Lord  of  Life  and  the  life  of  the 
Lord  to  all  the  life  of  man. 

Farrukhabad  is  a  fascinating  old  city  with  its  long  street 
of  ancient  shops,  its  crooked  ways  and  varied  color,  preserv- 
ing, no  doubt,  the  typical  character  of  the  ancient  cities,  so 
many  of  which  have  fallen  away  into  ruins  in  this  great 
center  of  the  ancient  life  in  India.  In  spite  of  all  the  preach- 
ing and  teaching  of  the  years  by  men  and  women  as  earnest 
and  devoted  as  any  who  have  ever  lived,  the  heart  of  the  city 
is  still  closed  to  Christ.  The  women  in  hundreds  of  its  homes, 
however,  are  open  to  those  who  follow  into  the  zenanas  and 
purdahs  the  gaily  dressed  little  girls,  who,  Hindu  and  Moham- 
medan though  they  are,  are  happily  studying  the  Bible  in 
the  picturesque  old  school,  built  round  its  open  court  with 
its  huge  imli  tree,  under  whose  shade  the  classes  sit  on  the 
ground  about  their  teachers.  At  occasional  services  also  the 
big  brick  church  is  packed,  though,  for  the  rest  of  the  time, 
few  come.  A  reading  room  has  lately  been  opened  in  the 
church  where  an  increasing  number  of  young  men  are  com- 
ing nightly  for  conversation  about  the  Bible.  As  we  came 
out  of  the  church  a  huge  elephant  nearly  twelve  feet  high 
came  swinging  gravely  down  the  street  with  a  load  of  sugar 
cane  on  his  back. 

We  have  met  here  with  one  of  the  most  interesting  religious 
groups  in  this  land  of  infinitely  varied  religions.  These  are 
the  Sadhs.  They  are  among  the  most  prosperous  merchants 
of  the  city,  manufacturing  beautiful  hand  printed  cloth,  of 
which  they  export  large  quantities  to  London  and  Paris.  They 
are  a  small  community  numbering  only  four  or  five  thousand 
in  the  whole  of  India,  distributed  in  Farrukhabad,  Delhi, 
Mirzapur,  Bijmian  and  Lairdpur.  Half  a  dozen  of  them  gen- 
erously came  to  explain  their  religion,  several  of  whom  under- 
stood English.     Their  faith  is  unlike  Hinduism,  for  it  has 

84 


no  caste,  no  idols,  no  pilgrinia^j^es,  no  priests,  and  no  worship 
of  the  Ganges.  It  is  unlike  Buddhism  because  Buddhism  be- 
lieves in  no  creator,  while  the  Sadhs  believe  in  God.  We  asked 
them  what  their  conception  of  God  was,  and  their  spokesman 
answered,  **He  is  the  Sat  Sub,  the  true  one,  the  one  who  is. 
He  was  in  the  beginning  with  God  and  he  was  God."  I  asked 
the  speaker  whether  he  was  quoting  these  words  from  any 
sacred  book,  and  he  said  not,  but  that  this  was  the  way  his 
people  thought  of  God.  It  emerged  that  he  had  been  years 
ago  a  student  in  the  Mission  High  School,  and  Bible  language 
had  unconsciously  wrought  itself  into  the  very  habit  of  his 
mind.  Evidence  could  be  produced  of  thousands  of  such 
cases,  men  who  while  still  within  their  old  religions  have 
carried  with  them  from  mission  schools  distinctly  Christian 
conceptions  both  of  religious  faith  and  of  moral  character. 
The  Sadhs  are  vegetarians.  Polygamy,  opium,  and  intoxicat- 
ing drinks  are  forbidden.  They  carry  on  no  missionary  work 
and  they  welcome  but  receive  few  proselytes.  They  salaam 
to  no  one  but  to  God  only,  and  they  do  not  mourn  at  death. 
"If  a  man  lends  me  a  hundred  rupees,"  said  our  friend,  "and 
the  time  comes  for  his  repayment,  like  an  honest  man  and 
without  complaint  I  pay  him  his  debt.  Why  should  we  act 
otherwise  with  God?"  The  community  bears  a  good  moral 
reputation  and  is  deemed  honest  but  very  sharp  in  business. 
Mrs.  Bandy  has  won  many  friends  among  them,  and  their 
sick  have  come  to  the  mission  hospital.  When  will  such  people 
find  their  halflight  fulfilled  and  satisfied  in  the  full  Light  of 
the  world ! 

In  the  schools  at  Bharpur  and  Rakha  the  station  is  doing 
its  utmost  to  deal  with  the  problem  of  the  training  of  the 
village  Christians.  There  are  eight  thousand  baptized  Chris- 
tians in  the  villages  of  this  district  of  more  than  a 
million  people.  These  Christians  are  almost  entirely  from 
the  sweeper  castes,  of  whom  nearly  four-fifths  have  been 
gathered  into  the  village  Christian  communities.  These 
communities  are  very  small,  however,  and  there  are  not 
enough  children  in  a  single  community  to  sustain  a 
school.  They  are  not  admitted  to  the  government  schools 
and  the  children  of  other  castes  would  not  come  to 
schools  provided  for  the  sweepers.  The  only  ways  in  which 
at  present  the  problems  of  ignorance  and  illiteracy  among 
these  village  Christians  can  be  met  are  first  the  gathering  of 
the  best  children  into  the  central  station  schools,  and  second 
the  use  of  itinerant  teachers  of  whom  Dr.  Bandy  has  em- 

85 


ployed  a  number,  inciting  them  to  more  efficient  work  in 
teaching  the  village  people  to  read  the  Bible  by  making  the 
salaries  of  the  teachers  proportionate  to  the  success  of  their 
efforts.  The  majority  of  these  poor  people  own  no  land  and 
can  acquire  none  and  the  average  holding  of  those  who  pos- 
sess land  is  between  a  third  and  a  half  of  an  acre.  How  this 
land  can  be  made  to  produce  five  crops  so  as  to  sustain  a 
family  is  one  of  the  mission  problems  which  is  no  less  evan- 
gelistic than  it  is  economic. 

In  the  corner  of  the  Rakha  compound  stands  the  beautiful 
old  church  which  was  built  the  year  before  the  Mutiny. 
On  its  wall  is  a  tablet  in  memory  of  the  four  missionary  fami- 
lies and  the  Indian  Christian  family  which  were  killed  in  the 
Mutiny,  and  not  far  away  near  the  parade  ground  in  Fateh- 
garh  stands  the  beautiful  memorial  church  and  beside  it  the 
simple  shaft  containing  the  names  of  all  the  Fatehgarh  folk 
who  fell  in  the  Mutiny.  On  the  side  of  the  monument  which 
we  first  approached  under  the  long  column  of  names  was  the 
single  word  "Forsaken,"  which  startled  one  until  he  read  on 
two  other  faces,  "Persecuted" — "But  not."  There  are  two 
hundred  girls  in  the  Rakha  Girls'  School,  four-fifths  of  them 
boarders  and  mostly  from  the  villages.  Dr.  Rogan's  bequest 
furnished  the  funds  for  a  new  and  greatly  needed  school  but 
one  almost  regrets  to  see  the  present  simple  school  rooms 
given  up,  consisting  of  only  the  earthen  floor,  the  tile  roof, 
and  two  mud  end  walls,  the  two  sides  of  the  room  being  wide 
open  to  the  air.  It  was  fine  to  see  the  happy  faces  of  the  clean 
and  healthy  company  clad  in  the  simplest  little  dresses  made 
of  a  mere  fraction  of  the  cloth  necessary  for  a  full  Indian 
woman's  dress.  But  when  two  hundred  girls  have  to  be  fed 
and  clothed  and  taught  on  a  mission  appropriation  of  two 
hundred  dollars  a  month  with  such  help  as  can  be  gotten 
from  fees  and  Government,  it  is  necessary  to  practice  every 
economy.  ! 

I  should  have  to  write  another  letter  to  deal  with  the  need 
and  the  work  of  the  memorial  hospital.  To  see  the  poverty 
and  pain  and  quiet  suffering  in  the  hospital,  and  the  Christian 
love  which  is  meeting  it,  has  made  us  glad  and  has  made  us 
thoughtful.  Why  has  the  Christian  Church  not  multiplied 
such  ministry  to  Christ  and  men  a  hundred  fold? 


86 


(11)  BY  THE  GANGES  CANAL  AND  THE  GRAND  TRUNK  ROAD 

En  route  Kasganj  to  Bareilly, 
November  26,  1921. 

We  left  Fatehgarh  by  motor  in  the  early  morning.  The 
air  was  crisp  and  sharp.  As  we  ran  through  the  long,  empty 
street  of  the  Farrukhabad  bazaar  the  smoke  of  the  early 
fires  came  drifting  through  the  roofs.  Here  and  there  an 
early  riser  among  the  shop  keepers  had  opened  the  front 
of  his  single-roomed,  little  shop  upon  the  street  and  was 
arranging  his  wares  or  huddling  within  his  blanket  waiting 
for  the  warm  sun.  The  funny  big  two  storied  wagons  drawn 
each  by  a  single  camel  were  creeping  into  the  city  laden  with 
country  produce  and  sleepy,  shivering  passengers.  The  farm- 
ers were  just  bringing  out  their  oxen  to  begin  the  daily  work 
of  drawing  water  from  the  innumerable  wells  among  the 
potato  fields,  by  the  quaint  device  of  the  huge  leather  water 
buckets  pulled  up  by  the  oxen  moving  up  and  down  a  little 
inclined  roadway.  Twenty  miles  out  we  left  the  good  high- 
way and  turned  off  to  a  branch  of  the  great  Ganges  irrigation 
canal,  and  for  forty  miles  ran  along  the  bank  of  the  canal, 
past  herds  of  wild  deer  and  amid  the  most  varied  and  beau- 
tiful bird  life  I  have  ever  seen.  Near  the  village  of  Banhari 
ka  lam  we  left  the  canal  and  stopped  at  Mr.  Ogden's  evangel- 
istic camp  under  a  grove  of  mango  trees.  For  a  good  part 
of  the  cool  season  each  evangelistic  missionary  is  out  in  his  dis- 
trict moving  his  camp  from  place  to  place.  The  women  of 
the  nearby  villages  come  to  his  wife  and  to  the  Bible  women 
in  the  camp  in  the  evening  when  the  work  is  done,  and  he 
and  the  Indian  evangelists  move  about  from  village  to  village 
preaching  Christ.  Sometimes  they  meet  with  indifference, 
sometimes  as  in  this  camp  of  Mr.  Ogden's,  they  meet  with 
theft  and  serious  loss,  and  sometimes  they  find  an  open  door 
and  an  interested  response. 

But  how  great  is  one  man's  task  in  a  field  like  this !  The 
Kasganj  field  is  one-half  of  the  Etah  district  and  embraces  over 
four  hundred  thousand  people  in  more  than  eight  hundred  vil- 
lages with  nearly  eight  thousand  Christians  scattered  through 
nearly  five  hundred  and  twenty-five  villages.  The  Christian 
groups  and  the  sweeper  caste  communities  from  which  they 
come  are  too  small  to  sustain  schools,  and  as  yet  no  central 
schools  have  been  established  in  the  central  station  at  Kas- 
ganj. On  one  missionary  family  alone  the  burden  of  all  this 
great  work  in  a  population  twice  as  large  as  that  of  the 
state  of  Wyoming  is  laid,  save  as  it  is  shared  by  the  Indian 

87 


preachers  who  have  been  trained  for  it  and  who  are  willing, 
as  only  very  simply  trained  workers  are  willing,  to  live  in 
the  poverty  and  ignorance  of  these  village  communities. 

We  sat  down  under  the  shade  of  the  mango  trees  for  a 
conference  with  these  simple  Indian  evangelists.  We  asked 
them  for  answers  out  of  their  own  thought  and  experience 
to  such  questions  as  these:  What  was  their  thought  of  God 
before  they  became  Christians?  What  were  their  ideas  of  sin 
and  salvation  then  and  now?  What  did  they  admire  most  in 
the  earthly  life  and  character  of  Christ?  What  did  they 
think  of  Him  now?  Which  were  their  favorite  miracles  and 
parables?  What  reasons  did  they  give  to  those  to  whom 
they  spoke  as  to  why  they  should  accept  Jesus  Christ  as  their 
Saviour?  The  characteristics  of  Christ  which  they  mentioned 
were  His  love  for  His  enemies.  His  unselfish  service  to  others, 
His  fellowship  with  God,  His  patience  and  holiness.  Their 
favorite  parables  were  the  parables  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  the 
Good  Samaritan,  the  Lost  Sheep,  and  then,  realizing  its  perti- 
nence to  their  own  work,  the  parable  of  the  Sower.  In  the 
midst  of  the  conference  a  man  and  his  wife  stood  up  to  state 
some  grievances,  and  as  we  listened  to  his  story  and  thought 
on  what  the  little  company  seated  there  under  the  mango 
trees  had  been  saying,  it  was  not  hard  to  imagine  that  we 
were  back  in  the  Corinthian  Church  and  looking  in  upon 
its  life  instead  of  on  these  crude  beginnings  of  the  Christian 
Church  in  India. 

From  this  little  camp  we  went  back  to  the  canal  again  and 
on  until  we  crossed  another  of  the  great  roads  of  India,  wide 
and  straight  and  shaded,  and  turning  down  it  we  came  past 
big  flocks  of  monkeys  and  scores  of  wild  peafowl  into  Kas- 
ganj.  From  Kasganj  we  drove  out  in  the  evening  nineteen 
miles  to  the  station  of  Etah,  another  of  the  great  centers 
of  this  village  mass  movement  work  from  which  the  Kasgani 
field  had  been  cultivated  until  it  seemed  better  to  set  it  off 
under  the  care  of  a  missionary  located  at  Kasganj.  Here  in 
the  Etah  field  there  are  nearly  seven  thousand  Christians 
scattered  in  nearly  one-half  of  the  eight  hundred  villages  of 
the  field.  In  this  field,  as  in  Kasganj  and  Fatehgarh,  schools 
in  the  small  village  communities  which  are  accessible  are  im- 
practicable, and  the  work  has  to  be  done  in  the  two  central 
station  schools  in  Etah,  one  for  boys  and  one  for  girls.  In 
the  simplest  way  and  under  the  plainest  conditions  and  forced 
both  by  the  scanty  funds  available  and  by  sound  judgment 
that  would  teach  these  boys  and  girls  so  as  to  fit  them  for 

88 


the  kind  of  lives  they  must  Hve  within  the  tight  and  tyran- 
nical caste  bonds  which  are  still  unshattered  in,  India,  the 
station  is  training  the  nearly  two  hundred  children  who  are 
all  for  whom  its  present  inadeciuate  appropriations  provide. 
It  was  as  much  as  one  could  do,  who  had  little  ones  of  his 
own  to  think  of,  to  hold  back  the  tears  as  we  watched  the 
two  schools  marching  in  Sunday  morning  to  the  big  tent 
where  the  services  of  the  day  were  to  be  held.  They  came 
two  by  two  singing  their  Christian  songs  and  the  missionary 
who  came  with  each  company  looked  just  like  a  shepherd 
going  before  the  sheep  who  knew  their  shepherd's  voice 
and  followed  him. 

We  were  delighted  to  meet  here  after  the  morning  service 
a  large  company  of  Christian  farmers,  elders  in  the  churches, 
some  of  them  old  men  and  some  of  them  young.  They  told 
of  the  changes  which  they  had  experienced  in  their  lives 
through  the  influence  of  the  Gospel  and  which  they  had  seen 
and  could  bear  sure  witness  to  in  the  lives  of  their  out-caste 
and  untouchable  people.  Nowhere  in  the  world,  I  suppose, 
could  men  be  found  to  whom  St.  Paul's  words  would  more 
fittingly  apply,  "God  hath  chosen  the  foolish  things  of  the 
world  and  the  weak  things  of  the  world  and  the  base  things 
and  things  which  are  despised,  yea  and  things  which  are  not," 
and  likewise  it  would  be  hard  to  find  anywhere  more  homely 
sense,  awakened  zeal,  and  simple  and  true  purpose  and  ex- 
perience. When  one  of  the  evangelists  suggested  that  the 
work  was  very  dependent  upon  rupees  from  America  and  that 
if  these  rupees  should  cease  the  work  would  decline,  the  old 
farmers  broke  in,  "No,  no."  No  doubt,  they  said  much  that 
was  being  done  now  could  not  then  be  done,  but  the  Gospel 
was  alive  in  their  hearts  and  would  spread,  whatever  the 
future  might  bring.  On  the  subject  of  present  pohtical  con- 
ditions the  farmers  had  also  their  own  clear  and  intelligent 
views.  They  did  not  believe  in  revolution.  They  thought 
the  present  government  of  India  was  good  and  whatever 
changes  were  to  come  should  be  made  in  orderly  and  law- 
abiding  ways. 

Here  too  the  economic  problems  are  very  real,  and  the 
self-support  of  the  Church  is  interwoven  with  the  problem 
of  the  self-support  of  these  poor  Christians  who  have  always 
hung  on  the  eyelids  of  poverty.  The  new  thrift  and  industry 
which  the  Christian  spirit  produces  have  been  of  immeasur- 
able help,  but  the  station  has  sought  also  to  develop  some 
forms  of  home  industry  which  will  not  be  impossible  for  these 

89 


outcaste  folk  within  the  rigid  and  oppressive  structure  of 
Indian  society.  Some  of  the  most  evangehstic-hearted  of  our 
home  people,  like  Mr.  Charles  L.  Huston,  chairman  of  the 
General  Assembly's  Evangelistic  Committee,  have  seen  that 
it  is  evangelistic  work  of  the  truest  kind  to  help  these  Chris- 
tians to  be  self-sustaining  evangelists  to  their  own  people. 
The  station's  enterprise  in  supplying  these  Indian  villagers 
with  better  chickens  has  been  recognized  by  the  Government 
as  one  of  the  wisest  and  most  effective  measures  of  helpful- 
ness which  has  been  introduced  into  India.  "It  is  practical 
improvements  of  this  kind,"  wrote  the  Lieutenant  Governor 
of  this  province,  "which  constitute  one  of  the  greatest  needs 
of  India  at  the  present  time  and  are  in  themselves  a  most 
valuable  form  of  education." 

And  through  and  beneath  and  beyond  all  these  things  the 
Gospel  is  being  preached  in  all  this  region  as  our  Lord  meant 
it  to  be  preached  and  promised  to  bless  its  preaching. 

(12)    "UNTO  THE  HILLS" 

Dehra  Dun,  November  30,  1921. 
There  may  be  more  beautiful  places  than  Dehra  Dun  and 
Landour  which  we  are  yet  to  see  in  India,  but  certainly  there 
are  no  more  beautiful  places  that  we  have  seen.  We  reached 
Dehra  after  a  long  night's  ride  from  the  flat  plains  just  as 
the  day  was  breaking,  and  lo,  before  us,  reaching  right  up 
to  the  heavens  like  a  huge  wall  between  us  and  the  coming 
dawn  rose  the  Mussoorie  foot-hills  of  the  Himalayas.  One 
brilliant  star  was  still  bright  over  them,  and  high  up,  seven 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  shone  the  lights  of  Mussoorie. 
Outside  the  railway  station  we  came  upon  the  picturesque  and 
variegated  types  which  make  this  north  Indian  life  so  much 
more  interesting  than  the  less  varied  life  of  southern  India. 
A  little  wandering  group  of  hill  minstrels  which  had  taken 
in  somehow  a  Scotch  bagpipe  sat  huddled  up  in  the  morning 
chill  under  a  big  tree.  We  rode  off  at  once  through  the  well- 
watered  and  well-wooded  big  compounds  of  Dehra  to  Rajpur 
where  horses  were  waiting  for  the  long  climb  up  the  moun- 
tains. The  wide  dun  of  Dehra  stretched  out  below  us  from 
the  mountains  which  we  were  ascending  far  across  to  the 
range  of  the  Sewaliks.  All  this  as  we  rose  above  it  was  beau- 
tiful enough,  but  it  was  very  little  in  comparison  with  the 
glory  which  we  looked  out  upon  when  we  came  out  on  the 
top  of  the  range  beside  the  Kellogg  Memorial  Church.  There 
to  the  north  beyond  range  after  range  of  intervening  moun- 

90 


• 
tains,  green  in  the  wet  season  but  now  brown  and  bare,  rose 
the  huge  dazzling  white  range  of  the  high  Himalayas.  Everest 
and  Kuchinjunga  were  far  to  the  eastward  beyond  our  sight, 
but  from  Naini  Tal  to  Simla  the  whole  glorious  range 
stood  out  in  the  morning  sunlight  without  a  cloud.  Later  in 
the  day  for  a  little  while  the  clouds  blew  up  from  Dehra  Dun, 
and  with  entrancement  we  watched  the  dissolving  and  re- 
appearing wonder  of  the  scene.  One  instant  the  mountains 
would  vanish  as  though  they  were  not  and  then  one  white 
peak  would  appear  and  then  the  whole  range  and  the  next 
instant  the  glory  would  be  gone  as  in  a  dream.  Now  the 
sunlit  bases  would  return,  the  summits  invisible.  Now  the 
white  summits  would  stand  out  as  though  resting  on  the 
clouds.  The  little  church  stood  on  the  very  crest  and  from 
its  pews  one  could  look  out  through  the  windows  over  the 
Dehra  valley  to  the  far  off  Sewalik  hills  on  the  one  side  and 
on  the  other  across  fifty  or  a  hundred  miles  of  rough  brown 
tumbled  mountains  to  the  alabaster  wall  of  northern  India. 

Years  ago  through  the  foresight  of  the  early  missionaries 
property  was  acquired  here  of  which  the  Missions  now  hold 
a  hundred  acres  or  so  including  the  highest  ground,  barring 
an  adjoining  peak  held  by  the  Government.  On  this  property 
the  Punjab  and  North  India  Missions  have  the  simple  hill 
houses  which  are  so  absolutely  indispensable  to  health  and 
especially  to  the  health  of  the  women  and  children  in  the 
heat  of  the  north  India  plains.  Perched  on  the  summit  or 
nestling  here  and  there  on  the  very  highest  slopes  are  a  dozen 
of  these  plain  buildings  which  for  three  generations  have 
been  saving  invaluable  lives  and  promoting  missionary  effi- 
ciency. 

About  five  hundred  feet  down  from  the  top  is  the  composite 
group  of  buildings  making  up  the  Woodstock  School,  and  two 
hundred  feet  lower,  on  the  crest  of  a  connected  hill,  are  the 
beautiful  buildings  of  the  Woodstock  College  standing  as  a 
memorial  to  two  women  whose  pictures  hang  upon  the  wall 
of  the  main  school  room  and  whose  lives  have  meant  as  much 
as  those  of  any  American  women  in  the  missionary  work  of 
the  Church,  Mrs.  Turner  and  Mrs.  Thorpe  of  the  old  Phila- 
delphia Women's  Board.  Woodstock  School  was  begun  be- 
fore the  Mutiny  and  is  still  known  to  the  hill  coolies  by  the 
name  of  the  Company  School.  It  was  in  the  early  seventies 
that  the  school  was  taken  over  by  the  Mission  on  the  receipt 
of  what  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  cablegram  that  was  ever 
received  by  the  Mission  from  America,  "Buy  Woodstock." 

91 


Here  during  the  long  history  of  the  school  thousands  of  girls, 
Anglo-Indians  and  daughters  of  missionaries  and  other  for- 
eigners, have  been  fitted  for  useful  lives,  and  many  small 
boys  from  missionary  homes,  who  otherwise  would  have  had 
to  be  sent  home  to  America,  have  been  kept  near  their  fathers 
and  mothers  and  given  their  early  training  in  full  view  of 
the  opportunity  and  need  in  India.  With  the  increase  of  the 
missionary  force  of  all  denominations  the  necessity  of  such 
schools  for  children  is  ever  more  clear  and  imperative,  and 
our  own  Missions  are  now  welcoming  the  United  Presbyterian 
Mission  into  the  support  and  management  of  Woodstock. 
Parallel  with  this  development,  however,  it  has  been  found 
necessary  to  plan  for  the  abandonment  of  the  college  depart- 
ment, the  American  girls  preferring  to  take  their  college 
course  in  America  and  the  Anglo-Indian  girls  desiring  a 
normal  or  commercial  training  which  Woodstock  will  pro- 
vide, in  addition  to  its  work  of  caring  for  the  missionary 
children  and  the  large  number  of  Anglo-Indian  girls  who 
come  for  the  middle  and  high  school  work.  Indian  girls  who  \ 
care  for  a  college  course  are  provided  for  at  the  college  in 
Lucknow  in  which  we  cooperate  with  the  Methodists,  or  in 
Kinnaird  College,  Lahore. 

From  Landour  we  tramped  down  the  steep,  stony  road  to 
Raj  pur,  and  from  Raj  pur  came  back  to  Dehra.  We  have  lost 
our  hearts  a  good  many  times  on  this  trip,  but  we  have  lost 
them  again  to  the  Dehra  Girls'  School  with  its  beautiful 
grounds  and  its  noble  old  building  and  its  heavenly  view  of 
the  hills  and  its  fine  spirit.  Miss  Donaldson  has  just  laid 
down  the  principalship  of  this  school  after  a  generation  of 
service  which  has  left  the  school  with  a  unique  endowment 
of  influence  and  of  confidence  and  of  affection,  and  at  her 
suggestion  and  that  of  her  associates  the  Mission  has  chosen 
as  her  successor  an  Indian  Christian  woman.  Miss  Chatterji. 
This  is  one  Mission  school  which  has  got  far  beyond  the  elee- 
mosynary stage.  With  the  exception  of  less  than  half  a  dozen 
scholarship  girls  all  the  girls  pay  for  their  board  and  tuition 
and  provide  their  own  clothing  and  books. 

Both  the  Dehra  Girls'  School  and  the  Dehra  Christian  com- 
munity illustrate  the  way  in  which  Christianity  is  reaching 
other  classes  of  the  population  of  India  than  the  outcastes, 
among  whom  we  have  been  in  so  many  stations,  and  also  shows 
how  the  Christian  community  in  many  parts  of  India  is  work- 
ing its  way  onward  in  thrift  and  prosperity.  The  company 
which  met  us  here,  in  the  same  kind  of  cordial  welcome  re- 

92 


ception  which  we  meet  everywhere,  was  made  up  almost  alto- 
gether of  Christians  of  the  second  or  third  generation  or  of 
converts  from  the  upper  castes.  The  gentleman  who  made 
the  welcoming  address  was  one  of  the  leading  lawyers  of 
northern  India  and  a  son  of  the  convert  of  Alexander  Duff 
who  had  been  pastor  of  the  Fatehpur  church  in  the  Mutiny 
and  whose  fidelity  had  been  inscribed  on  the  tablet  which  we 
had  reverently  read  on  the  Fatehpur  church  wall.  At  the 
same  time  it  was  significant  to  find  that  the  pastor  of  the 
Dehra  church,  preaching  effectively  and  acceptably  to  this 
congregation,  was  himself  a  product  of  the  work  in  the  Fateh- 
garh  station  among  the  sweeper  out-castes. 

The  roll  of  missionaries  who  have  worked  at  Dehra  since 
its  occupation  as  a  mission  station  in  1853  contains  the  names 
of  many  men  and  women  who  have  been  forgotten  at  home, 
but  whose  impress  has  been  made  indelibly  on  the  Christian 
Church  in  India.  Indian  Christians  tell  us  that  it  was  this 
one  or  that  one  who  led  them  to  the  Saviour,  and  that  old  and 
blessed  business,  the  first  and  last  task  of  foreign  missions, 
the  leading  of  men  and  women  and  boys  and  girls  one  by  one 
to  the  Saviour,  is  still  going  richly  on.  But  how  colossal 
a  task  it  is!  This  letter  was  begun  at  Dehra,  but  the  train 
has  brought  us  now  to  Hurdwar,  the  great  place  of  pilgrimage 
for  the  Hindus  coming  hither  to  worship  the  sacred  Ganges, 
near  the  gateway  of  the  Himalayas  through  which  the  river 
comes  forth.  Some  say  that  the  great  Indian  pilgrimages 
have  fallen  off  from  year  to  year,  and  we  saw  in  an  Indian 
paper  a  few  days  ago  a  statement  of  the  evidence  of  this 
diminution  in  certain  receipts  of  tolls,  but  others  see  no  weak- 
ening in  the  immense  popular  worship  of  the  Ganges  in  north- 
ern India.  To  die  and  to  be  burned  on  its  banks  is  still  the 
longing  of  the  true  Hindu  heart  on  these  great  plains  to  which 
the  Ganges  has  meant  life  and  fertility  for  innumerable 
years.  In  the  far  off  future  of  Indian  Christianity  there  will 
still  be  room  for  some  special  worship  of  God  in  consideration 
of  His  goodness  and  greatness  as  the  giver  of  rivers,  but  how 
many  generations  and  centuries  will  it  take  to  destroy  the 
weakening  and  corrupting  superstition  of  the  Indian  idolatry 
which  it  is  sheer  folly  to  idealize  into  innocence? 

(13)    "THE  CITY  OF  ST.   HAROUN" 

En  route  Kaithal  to  Kurrukhshetra, 
December  3,  1921. 
Who  this  St.  Haroun  was  or  whether  he  was  a  true  saint, 
I  do  not  know,  but  this  is  what  Mr.  Roy  told  me  was  the  mean- 

93 


ing  of  the  name  Saharanpur,  and  he  is  one  of  the  most 
thoughtful  and  ingenious  Indian  scholars  we  have  met.  It  is 
next  to  the  oldest  of  our  mission  stations  in  India.  The  beau- 
tiful old  church  standing  in  the  middle  of  the  ample  mission 
compound  of  fifty-four  acres  is  one  of  the  pre-Mutiny  church 
buildings,  simple,  commodious  and  of  thoroughly  good  taste. 
On  the  wall  of  the  church  is  a  tablet  to  the  memory  of  the 
Rev.  A.  P.  Kelso,  for  many  years  one  of  our  missionaries 
here  and  the  father  of  President  Kelso  of  the  Western  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  and  another  tablet  bearing  the  following 
inscription : 

"Sacred  to  the  memory 

of  the  late  Rev.  J.  R.  Campbell,  D.D., 

Founder  and  First  Pastor  of  this  Church, 

And  of  Mary  his  wife,  who  labored  together 

For  many  years  in  this  district  as  missionaries 

In  the  cause  of  Christ  and  in  the  work  of 

The  American   Presbyterian  Mission." 

Dr.  Campbell  and  his  associates  were  ministers  of  the  Re- 
formed Presbyterian  Church  which  had  sent  them  forth  and 
paid  their  salaries  while  the  expenses  of  the  work  were 
borne  by  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.  Later  the  entire  expense  was  taken 
over  by  the  Board,  and  the  missionaries  became  members  of 
the  Presbytery  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.  which  is  now  of  course  part  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  of  India.  Dr.  Campbell  laid  the  foun- 
dations of  the  work  in  courageous  faith.  While  there  were 
yet  only  eight  converts,  he  built  the  present  church  with  its 
ample  room  for  four  hundred,  and  he  and  his  successors 
acquired  perpetual  lease  for  a  small  annual  rental  of  commo- 
dious room  in  this  large 'compound  for  all  the  varied  work  of 
the  station  for  all  the  years. 

As  everywhere  else,  the  station  is  not  intended  to  be  the 
city  only,  but  the  whole  district  round  about,  and  although 
various  sections  of  the  field  are  now  made  over  to  other 
agencies  such  as  the  Indian  National  Missionary  Society,  the 
Reformed  Presbyterian  Church,  and  the  Methodist  Church, 
there  still  remain  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  whose 
evangelization  is  the  responsibility  of  our  own  Church.  There 
are  some  twelve  hundred  baptized  members  of  the  Church 
in  the  city  and  in  the  villages,  and  the  evangelistic  workers 
told  us  of  the  situation  and  problems  which  they  were  facing. 
It  was  the  Indian  preachers  and  Bible  women  who  were  bear- 
ing testimony.    The  difficulties  of  which  they  spoke  were  the 

94 


anti-Christian  propaganda  of  the  Arya  Samaj,  the  oppression 
of  landlords,  the  economic  slavery  of  the  people,  their  help- 
lessness in  the  face  of  caste  ostracism  and  exclusion  from 
water  and  the  means  of  livelihood  on  their  becoming  Chris- 
tians, their  ignorance  and  poverty.  On  the  other  hand  there 
were  many  people  who  wanted  to  become  Christians  and  there 
was  the  evidence  of  gain  in  thrift  and  character  due  to  even 
a  small  measure  of  Christian  knowledge  and  faith.  The  new 
political  agitation  was  not  helping  the  progress  of  Christian- 
ity. It  was  bringing  new  pressure  to  bear  against  the  in- 
crease of  the  Christian  communities.  On  the  other  hand, 
again,  even  simple  Christian  folk  were  meeting  the  pressure 
and  saying  to  the  Nationalist  and  Khilafat  agitators,  "We  are 
Christians,  and  we  were  Christians  before  your  movement 
arose.  If  you  have  swaraj  and  turn  us  out  of  our  villages, 
we  will  go,  but  we  will  still  be  Christians."  "As  to  our  diffi- 
culties and  encouragements,"  said  one  old  man  at  the  end,  "as 
long  as  we  live  there  will  be  hardships.  The  one  great  diffi- 
culty is  always  the  same.  It  is  just  sin,  and  our  greatest  hope 
is  just  love."  There  is  nothing  idealistic  about  such  little 
groups  of  workers  or  the  situations  with  which  they  are 
dealing,  unless  one  views  them  through  the  eyes  of  Christ 
and  realizes  that  such  as  these  must  be  just  the  same  sort 
of  folk  as  those  from  whom  our  Lord  called  the  founders  of 
the  Christian  Church  as  He  taught  in  the  villages  of  Galilee. 

The  names  of  two  of  the  most  devoted  friends  of  foreign 
missions  at  home  are  associated  with  the  Theological  Semi- 
nary of  our  Punjab  and  North  India  Missions  which  is  located 
here  in  Saharanpur.  The  dormitory  quadrangle  bears  the 
name  of  Mr.  L.  H.  Severance  and  the  name  of  Mrs.  Living- 
stone Taylor  of  Cleveland  is  on  a  tablet  over  the  door  of  an 
attractive  building  containing  the  seminary  chapel,  library 
and  class  rooms.  We  asked  the  sixteen  students  who  were 
there  from  our  three  India  Missions  what  motives  were  lead- 
ing them  into  the  ministry  and  what  it  was  in  Christianity 
which  seemed  to  them  to  mark  it  off  as  superior  to  the  other 
religions.  The  two  ideas  were  evidently  inseparable.  These 
were  some  of  their  answers  drawn  not  from  theoretical  study 
of  comparative  religion,  but  out  of  the  experience  and  struggle 
of  life:  (1)  The  death  of  Christ  upon  the  cross  and  His 
resurrection.  (2)  The  experience  of  repentance  and  the  sense 
of  sin  and  of  emancipation  from  it.  (3)  Fulfillment  of  Old 
Testament  predictions  in  Christ  and  the  not  less  wonderful 
fulfillment  in  Him  of  the  unconscious  predictions  and  hopes 

95 


of  the  non-Christian  religions.  (4)  The  love  and  holiness 
of  a  fatherly  God  who  wishes  His  children  to  attain  to  His 
righteousness.  (5)  The  Christian  conception  of  salvation 
and  its  gift  by  God's  goodness  as  the  answer  to  faith.  How 
can  those  who  have  such  a  possession  feel  otherwise  than 
bound  to  share  it  with  others?  The  wives  of  the  seminary 
students  and  their  little  children  were  gathered  in  separate 
classes  of  their  own,  and  for  once  not  one  baby  cried,  while 
the  mothers  sang  a  Hindu  hymn  which  had  been  taken  over 
by  Christianity,  just  as  Buddhism  is  taking  over  some  of 
our  Christian  hymns  in  Japan.  It  had  been  an  old  song  of 
devotion  to  Krishna  in  which  the  women  for  Krishna  had 
substituted  Christ.  *'I  have  made  Christ  my  own,"  they  sang, 
"let  people  say  what  they  will.  I  have  made  Christ  my  own." 
The  other  mission  institution  on  the  compound  is  the  in- 
dustrial training  school  for  boys.  It  is  a  small  school  now 
in  comparison  with  what  it  was  in  the  days  after  the  great 
famine  when  several  hundred  orphan  lads  were  gathered 
here  largely  under  the  support  of  the  late  E.  B.  Sturges  of 
Scranton,  whose  loving  heart  took  in  and  upbore  hundreds 
of  these  Indian  famine  waifs.  Mr.  Borup  told  us  that  though 
the  orphanage  had  saved  their  lives  and  taught  them  trades 
and  brought  all  of  them  into  the  Christian  Church,  neverthe- 
less nearly  eighty  per  cent  of  them  had  died  in  their  young 
manhood  as  a  result  of  seeds  of  disease  planted  in  the  days 
of  their  starvation.  The  boys  trained  in  the  school  have  not 
met  any  difficulty  in  finding  good  wages  upon  leaving.  Many 
of  them  went  as  mechanics  or  chauffeurs  with  the  Indian 
army  to  Mesopotamia  and  came  back  with  good  savings.  Both 
of  these  training  institutions  in  Saharanpur  are  able  to  train 
many  times  the  number  of  students  which  they  have  at  pres- 
ent, and  one  of  the  present  problems  of  the  work  in  India 
is  the  larger  utilization  of  these  two  good  agencies  in  meeting 
the  enormous  needs  in  their  fields  of  work. 

Saharanpur  is  an  old,  typically  irregular  and  confused 
oriental  city.  We  went  through  tortuous  streets  with  their 
specialized  trades-folk  gathered  in  their  own  sections  to  visit 
the  city  day  schools,  especially  the  school  for  Hindu  and  Mo- 
hammedan girls  conducted  in  the  old  building  of  the  boys' 
high  school  which  was  given  up  some  years  ago,  and  a  Mo- 
hammedan theological  school  where  several  hundred  young 
men  are  under  training  as  Maulvies  to  go  out  over  northern 
India  and  as  far  as  Persia.  On  our  way  back  to  the  compound 
we  passed  the  new  and  the  old  in  India  in  vivid  contrast.    The 

96 


new  was  a  sign  over  a  none  too  clean  shop  reading,  "London 
Barber  Shop.  Haircut  in  the  latest  European  fashions.  Civil 
and  Military  hair  singed  and  curled."  The  old  was  an  aged 
Indian  fakir,  naked  save  for  his  loin  cloth,  smeared  with 
ashes  over  his  body  and  his  matted  white  hair  and  beard,  seated 
in  the  blazing  sun  on  a  heap  of  ashes  by  the  roadside.  He 
had  traveled  far  and  wide  through  India,  said  he,  and  was 
happy  in  his  life.  Where  he  was  going  he  did  not  know. 
He  was  content  to  be  where  he  was.  After  death?  "Who 
could  say.  That  is  to  be  seen."  What  did  he  hope  for?  "To 
tell  the  name  of  Rama."  Of  the  name  that  is  above  every 
name  he  did  not  know. 

(14)    AMBALA  AND  SANTOKH   MAJRA 

En  route  Ambala  to  Jullundur, 
December  5,  1921. 
The  province  of  the  Punjab  is  divided  into  political  divisions 
called  districts  and  these  into  sub-divisions  called  tahsils.  The 
general  unit  of  our  missionary  organization  is  the  tahsil. 
The  Ambala  district,  for  example,  comprises  five  tahsils.  One 
of  these  tahsils  is  cared  for  by  the  New  Zealand  Presbyterians, 
another  by  the  English  Baptists,  a  third  falls  within  the  field 
of  the  Rupar  station,  and  the  two  others,  namely,  the  tahsils 
of  Ambala  and  Naraingarh,  constitute  the  field  of  the  Ambala 
station.  To  the  southeast  of  the  Ambala  district  lies  the 
district  of  Karnal  in  which  is  the  work  of  the  Presbyterian 
home  missions  of  the  Ludhiana  Presbytery,  and  in  which  also 
is  the  settlement  of  Santokh  Majra,  which  is  an  effort,  unique 
in  our  Missions  in  India,  to  deal  in  a  direct  way  with  the  eco- 
nomic problem  of  the  ostracized  Christian  village  farmer  and 
at  the  same  time  to  develop  an  indigenous  center  of  financially 
unaided  missionary  effort  on  the  part  of  Indian  Christians. 

Coming  by  train  from  Saharanpur  we  changed  cars  first 
at  Ambala  and  then  at  midnight  at  Kurrekshetra,  one  of  the 
most  famous  of  all  the  battle  grounds  of  India.  Here  in  the 
fabled  times  occurred  the  great  struggle  which  determined 
the  Aryan  supremacy  in  India.  Here  long  afterwards  the 
decisive  battle  between  the  Marathas  and  the  Mohammedans 
was  fought.  In  the  present  century  on  the  same  historic  soil 
were  two  of  the  decisive  engagements  between  the  British 
and  the  Sikhs  and  the  British  and  the  Mutineers.  Nearby 
are  the  ruined  shrines  and  pools  of  Thanesar,  neglected  save 
in  the  pilgrimages  in  the  time  of  the  lunar  eclipse,  where  the 
river  Saraswati   is  believed  to  disappear  under   ground   to 

97 

4 — India   and  Persia 


emerge  again  in  the  juncture  of  the  Ganges  and  the  Jumna 
at  Allahabad. 

From  Kurrekshetra  a  little  branch  line  which  ran  one  or 
two  trains  a  day  took  us  out  from  the  great  highway  of  India 
to  the  quaint  old  town  of  Kaithal.  As  we  got  off  the  train 
in  the  early  morning  we  met  an  assembly  of  wonderfully 
decorated  ox-teams  and  ox-carts  with  gold  and  purple  trap- 
pings, and  faded  gorgeous  cupolas,  which  had  come  to  receive 
a  young  bridegroom  and  his  party.  The  poor  bridegroom 
himself  was  overlooked  in  the  general  excitement  and  was 
standing  alone,  rather  disconsolate  in  his  gilt  and  crimson 
headdress  and  his  pink  robe,  until  some  kindly  by-stander 
espied  him  and  hurried  him  off  to  his  proper  seat  in  the  pro- 
cession which  had  already  begun  to  move,  led  by  a  khaki-clad 
country  band  playing  Auld  Lang  Syne.  Some  of  the  mission- 
aries had  breakfast  waiting  in  the  old  palace,  now  used  as  a 
traveling  rest  house  by  government  officials.  In  its  faded  but 
still  dignified  grandeur  it  stood  on  a  brick  platform  with  steps 
leading  down  to  a  pool  across  which,  although  within  the 
same  great  enclosure,  rose  the  battlements  of  the  fortifications 
and  of  the  women's  apartments  of  the  ancient  establishment. 
The  monkeys  were  scampering  about  in  the  trees,  and  thorn 
bushes  were  wrapped  around  the  lamp  posts  to  keep  the  little 
rascals  from  putting  out  the  lights. 

Santokh  Majra  is  eighteen  miles  out  from  Kaithal.  over  a 
rude  road  now  deep  in  dust  and  rutted  by  the  bullock  carts. 
It  is  a  tract  of  two  thousand  acres  which  the  Mission  holds 
under  a  lease  from  the  Government  expiring  in  1930  and 
which  is  sub-let  to  some  fifty  or  sixty  Christian  families  on 
terms  which  cover  the  rental  paid  to  Government  and  the 
other  expenses  of  administration  and  which  at  the  same  time 
leave  a  balance  available  for  use  in  times  of  emergency  like 
famine  and  drought,  while  protecting  the  tenants  against  the 
oppression  of  the  non-Christian  zamindars  and  the  petty  per- 
secutions of  hostile  neighbors.  The  farmers  work  average 
holdings  of  about  twelve  acres  each,  a  far  larger  tract  than 
the  average  Indian  farmer  can  ever  hope  to  possess.  Indeed 
in  many  of  our  mission  districts  it  is  not  possible  for  the  low 
caste  Christians  to  secure  land  at  all.  Even  our  superficial 
experience  enabled  us  to  see  how  much  more  comfortable  and 
prosperous  these  Christian  farmers  at  Santokh  Majra  have 
become  than  farmers  of  the  same  type.  Christian  or  non- 
Christian,  elsewhere.  Useful  as  such  a  piece  of  work  is,  how- 
ever, it  is  not  as  an  economic  experiment  that  it  would  jus- 

98 


tify  the  amount  of  missionary  time  and  attention  it  requires. 
It  is  rather  because  of  the  hope  that  such  a  community  can 
be  developed  into  an  independent  group  holding  its  own  land 
in  fee  simple  and  constituting  a  base  of  evangelistic  eifort  un- 
subsidized  by  foreign  funds.  The  whole  community  came 
together  in  the  simple  mud-walled  and  mud-floored  church 
and  school  house  which  the  people  themselves  had  built,  and 
as  we  looked  out  over  the  group  and  through  the  open  windows 
and  doors  over  their  village  and  listened  to  the  old  gray- 
bearded  patriarchs,  it  seemed  to  us  that  we  were  back  in  one 
of  the  very  villages  of  Galilee  among  the  same  kind  of  people 
and  the  same  sort  of  village  life  with  which  our  Lord  had 
to  deal. 

From  Santokh  we  returned  to  Ambala,  coming  in  the  last 
twenty  miles  on  the  Grand  Trunk  Road,  thinking  of  the  many 
feet  that  had  tramped  that  road  in  the  old  days  when  it  was 
the  one  great  highway  of  northern  India  from  Calcutta 
straight  away  a  thousand  miles  to  Peshawar  and  the  Khyber 
gate  into  Afghanistan. 

In  addition  to  the  evangelistic  work  throughout  the  villages 
the  Ambala  station  has  its  two  extensive  centers  of  activity 
in  Ambala  Cantonment,  one  of  the  main  military  headquarters 
in  India,  and  in  Ambala  City,  five  miles  away.  In  the  Canton- 
ment are  a  fine  old  church  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Uppal.  one 
of  the  most  lovable  men  we  have  met  in  India,  who  has  been 
r>reaching  Christ  to  his  countrvmen  with  winning  persuasion 
for  fifty-four  years,  and  the  dispensary  which  Dr.  Forman 
is  carrying  on  in  the  simplest  and  most  unencumbered  way 
but  with  fullness  of  personal  touch  on  the  forty  or  fifty  needy 
souls  and  bodies  which  come  to  him  daily.  In  Ambala  City 
are  the  Boys'  High  School  which  was  for  years  the  only  high 
school  in  the  city,  although  it  has  now  four  rivals,  Moham- 
medan, Hindu,  Sikh,  and  government,  some  of  them  called 
into  existence  by  its  influence;  the  large  day  school  for  Mo- 
hammedan girls  into  which  Miss  Pratt  has  gathered  the  half- 
dozen  former  little  girls'  schools  in  order  to  make  sure,  with 
Christian  teachers  and  her  own  daily  influence,  of  the  most 
direct  Christian  teaching;  the  Philadelphia  Hospital  for  Wo- 
men with  its  cleanliness  and  order  and  efficiency,  witnessing 
to  the  love  and  care  of  the  women  who  have  built  their  lives 
into  it;  and  the  Mary  E.  Pratt  Middle  School  for  girls  to 
which  the  younger  girls  from  the  Punjab  Mission  are  now  sent 
instead  of  to  Dehra  as  in  the  earlier  years.  Certainly  there 
is  no  work  in  the  world  that  is  finer  or  done  with  a  more 

99 


deft  and  certain  touch  or  marked  by  clearer  transforming 
and  purifying  power,  and  by  more  Christlike  spirit  and  result 
than  the  work  of  Christian  women  for  the  girls  of  India. 
Every  girls'  school  which  we  have  visited  has  shown  this 
magic  touch  of  Christian  women.  As  we  came  away  from 
these  schools  on  Saturday  afternoon,  we  stopped  at  the  leper 
asylum,  superintended  by  the  station,  though  financially  sup- 
ported by  the  Mission  to  Lepers,  one-third  of  the  sixty 
doomed  sufferers  were  Christians,  and  at  their  desire  they 
stood  up  in  a  row  by  the  side  of  their  poor  but  very  tidy  and 
comfortable  home  and  sang  "The  Lord  is  My  Shepherd."  Who 
could  have  listened  to  their  song  unmoved  as  the  poor,  gnarled, 
scarred,  decaying  creatures  sang  together  "My  cup  runneth 
over.  Surely  goodnes  and  mercy  shall  follow  me  all  the  days 
of  my  life,"  and  then  over  the  very  wreckage  of  their  lives 
called  after  us  as  we  went  away,  "Yisu  Masih  ki  jai,"  "Victory 
to  Jesus  Christ?" 

Miss  Pratt  will  complete  next  year  her  fiftieth  year  of  mis- 
sionary service  in  India.  I  asked  her  what  changes  she  had 
seen  in  these  years.  She  answered,  a  great  decrease  of 
poverty,  the  opening  up  of  the  whole  of  India  in  physical 
accessibility,  a  great  diminution  of  ignorance,  a  steady  blur- 
ring of  the  rigidity  of  caste,  an  immense  increase  of  the  senti- 
ment of  political  independence,  the  sure  growth  of  Christian 
character,  and  a  deepened  revelation  of  the  inadequacy  of 
any  power  short  of  Christ's  to  meet  the  needs  of  India  and 
India's  people. 

(15)    JULLUNDUR  AND   HOSHIARPUR 

En  route  Hoshiarpur  to  Moga, 
December  6,  1921. 
These  two  old  stations  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Punjab  Mis- 
sion are  familiar  and  sacred  names  in  the  missionary  affec- 
tions of  the  Church  at  home,  and  they  are  associated  with  the 
names  of  two  of  the  best  known  and  most  honored  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Indian  Church.  Jullundur  was  founded  as  a 
Mission  Station  by  Golok  Nath.  As  his  name  indicates,  "The 
master  of  a  hundred  cows,"  he  was  the  son  of  a  Brahman 
family  in  Bengal,  who  wandered  northwestward  to  far  off 
Ludhiana  in  the  early  days.  There  through  the  influence  of 
John  Newton,  one  of  the  great  missionary  pioneers,  he  was 
brought  to  Christ  and  was  then  sent  on  by  Mr.  Newton  across 
the  Sutlej  river  to  open  work  in  Jullundur  before  any  foreign 
missionary  was  allowed  to  go   in.     When  some  weeks  ago 

100 


we  went  out  from  Ludhiana  to  Phillaur,  Golok  Nath's  son 
pointed  out  to  us  the  spot  beyond  the  Sutlej  and  just  in  front 
of  the  old  Sikh  fort,  which  is  now  the  police  training  school, 
where  his  father  was  nearly  ground  to  death  between  stones 
in  punishment  for  his  distribution  of  the  Bible, 

For  half  a  century  Mr.  Golok  Nath  worked  in  Jullundur 
preaching  the  Gospel  in  the  city  and  the  surrounding  country. 
In  1846  he  established  the  Mission  High  School  for  boys  which 
for  more  than  seventy-five  years  has  been  moulding  the  char- 
acter of  the  young  men  of  Jullundur  by  daily  Bible  teaching 
and  daily  chapel  with  its  unceasing  and  sympathetic  presen- 
tation of  the  Gospel.  The  winning  of  any  one  of  these  Pun- 
jabi Mohammedans  or  Hindus  or  Sikhs  to  the  Christian 
faith  is  a  miracle  and  the  miracles  have  not  been  as  many  as 
prayer  has  asked  or  as  life  has  been  poured  out  to  effect, 
but  there  has  been  and  there  is  no  other  form  of  access  or  of 
influence  which  the  best  and  truest  missionaries  have  been 
able  to  devise  more  effective  than  this  daily  teaching  of  the 
Gospel  to  these  boys.  Ninety  per  cent  of  the  five  hundred 
boys  who  sat  crowded  together  with  their  many  colored  tur- 
bans looking  like  a  bed  of  tulips  on  the  floor  of  the  assembly 
hall  when  we  met  with  them  are  Mohammedans,  and  only 
those  who  have  tried  to  win  Mohammedans,  whether  men  or 
boys,  to  Christ  know  the  supreme  difficulty  of  the  task.  But 
in  these  schools  as  in  no  other  audiences  the  coming  men  of 
Islam  are  listening  with  docile  and  friendly  spirit  to  the  claims 
of  Christ,  and  those  who  would  discontinue  this  kind  of  mis- 
sion work  as  unwarranted  must  be  prepared  to  point  out 
some  substitute  for  it  which  will  secure  the  same  hearing  for 
the  Gospel  among  the  Mohammedan  lads  of  India.  As  in  many 
of  these  cities  in  the  Punjab,  the  spirit  of  political  discontent 
has  been  very  strong  in  Jullundur.  It  has  sought  in  vain, 
however,  to  break  up  the  school.  Its  headmaster,  Mr.  Jamal- 
ud-Din,  the  son  of  a  Christian  convert  from  Islam,  has  been 
strong  enough  to  hold  his  own  and  to  maintain  his  school, 
and  when  on  the  day  of  the  arrival  in  Bombay  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales  a  hartal  was  proclaimed  in  Jullundur  by  the  ultra 
Nationalists  and  the  shops  were  closed  and  the  boys  ordered 
to  stay  away  from  the  schools,  the  Christian  High  School 
went  right  on  with  its  work  with  the  full  attendance  of  its 
students.  Thousands  of  Mohammedan  and  Hindu  parents 
in  India  know  enough  to  prefer  and  support  a  school  where 
boys  are  held  under  firm  discipline  and  where  Christian  prin- 
ciples are  grained  into  their  lives. 

101 


No  American  missionaries  are  located  at  present  in  Jul- 
lundur.     Mr.  Jamal-ud-Din  has  been  placed  in  entire  charge 
of  the  school  and  the  Rev.  Henry  Goloknath,  one  of  the  sons 
of  the  founder  of  the  station,  is  in  charge  of  the  evangelistic 
work.     The  church  built  in  memory  of  Golok  Nath  provides 
fully  the  salary  of  its  pastor,  weak  though  its  membership  is. 
In  all  these   Mission   stations,   however,   the   great  bulk   of 
the  work  is  among  the  villages  and  the  low  caste  people  whom 
Hinduism,  and  Mohammedanism  also,  shut  out  and  who  found 
their  only  hope  in  Christianity.    We  went  out  from  Jullundur 
to  a  gathering  of  these  village  Christians  at  Phoriwal.     It 
was  a  wonderful  celebration,  and  the  village  Christians  met 
all  the  expense  including  the  cost  of  the  carts  which  brought 
us  out  from  the  Jullundur  Cantonment.     First  the  children, 
then  a  group  of  men  with  a  band,  then  the  old  chaudhris  or 
elders  of  the  village  met  us,  and  we  marched  in  disorderly 
procession  through  the  dusty,  tortuous  village  street  between 
mud  walls  to  an  open  space  where  a  large  enclosure  had  been 
shut  in  by  curtains  and  a  canopy  spread  over  the  chairs  where 
we  were  to  sit.    Into  the  enclosed  space  thronged  five  hundred 
or  more   village   Christians,  old  men   with  beards  gray   or 
henna  dyed,  young  men,  women  and  children.     Several  hun- 
dred more  women  and  children  gathered  on  the  housetops 
and  a  crowd  of  Mohammedan  landlords  of  the  village  sur- 
rounded the  enclosure  and  looked  over  the  curtains  or  stood 
on  a  little  bank  a  few  feet  away  where  they  could  see  and 
hear  all  that  was  going  on.     After  the  band  had  played  and 
a  group  of  men  and  boys  had  sung  some  Indian  music,  the 
Christian  pastor  read  us  in  Punjabi  a  remarkable  address 
to  which  the  whole  audience  within  and  without  listened  with 
breathless  interest.     "We  welcome  you,  sir,  with  a  shout  of 
cheer,"  he  began,  and  he  went  on  with  great  power  to  describe 
in  the  very  hearing  of  their  oppressors  "the  low  life  of  utter 
wretchedness,  servitude,  and  mental  and  moral  degradation," 
from  which,   "thanks  to  the  efforts  of   Christian   Missions, 
thanks  to  the  Gospel  of  touchability  of  love  as  taught  and 
lived  by  our  Lord  and  Saviour,"  Christ  had  begun  to  lift  them. 
"We  are  done  with  groveling  at  the  foot  of  the  social  and 
moral  and  material  ladder  of  life.     We  send  forth  a  strong 
appeal  to  you  as  representative  of  the  great  and  living  Church 
of  America  to  take  advantage  of  our  mass  movement  towards 
Christianity."    We  ventured  to  assure  them  that  the  Church 
at  home  in  America  would  not  fail  them  in  this  hour  of  their 
need  and  appeal   for  the  liberty  and   lifting  power  of  the 

102 


Gospel,  for  the  alleviation  of  their  diseases,  and  for  the  train- 
ing of  their  children  for  useful  and  efficient  lives. 

We  returned  to  Jullundur  and  went  on  the  same  evening 
to  Hoshiarpur  where  for  forty-eight  years   Dr.   Chatter jee 
carried  on  his  great  work.     Like  Golok  Nath,  he  too  was  a 
Brahman  of  Bengal.     He  was  baptized  in  Calcutta  by  Dr. 
Ewart,  one  of  Alexander  Duff's  associates.     In  response  to 
the  call  for  help  in  the  Punjab  he  came  to  Jullundur  to  teach 
in  Golok  Nath's  school  and  married  one  of  his  daughters. 
After  six  years'  work  he  settled   in  Hoshiarpur  and  there 
for  nearly  half  a  century  by  his  noble  Christian  character, 
his  charm  of  personality,  his  ability,  and  devotion,  he  com- 
mended  himself   to   all   men   everywhere,   winning   the   love 
of  British  officials,  of  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  and  Sikhs, 
and  building  up  a  great  Christian  work  through  the  district 
of  Hoshiarpur,  where  multitudes  of  people  knew  and  loved 
him  under  his  old  Bengali  name.  Kali  Charan,  "the  feet  of 
Kali," — Babu  Kali  Charan.     He  and  Mrs.  Chatter  jee  carried 
on  for  years  an  orphanage  and  school  for  village  girls  in  one 
of  the  simplest  and  most  wisely  planned  school  properties 
we  have  seen,  closely  adjoining  their  house  in  a  compound 
beautifully  laid  out  with  trees  and  gardens  planned  by  Dr. 
Chatterjee  with  rare  taste  and  skill.     I  remembered  him  as 
we  saw  him  last,  useful  and  honored  as  always,  at  the  World 
Missionary  Conference  in  Edinburgh  in  1910,  when  we  met 
together  in  the  little  church,  built  in  memory  of  his  daughter, 
and  later  stood  beside  his  own  grave  where  a  great  multitude 
of  Christians  and  non-Christians  had  seen  him  laid  under  the 
plain  white  stone  which  bears  the  simple  inscription,   "In 
memory  of  Kali  Charan  Chatterjee,  servant  of  Jesus  Christ. 
For  fifty-four  years  a  missionary  of  the  American  Presby- 
terian Mission  in  the  Punjab."     These  words  and  the  dates 
of  birth  and  death  in  1839  and  1916  were  all  that  he  would 
allow  as  his   memorial.     Others  have  taken  his  place  now 
and  the  places  of  Miss  Downs  and  Miss  Given,  the  two  con- 
secrated  American  women  who  had   worked   with  him  for 
many  years,  and  the  school  has  grown  on  the  foundations  so 
well  laid  for  it.     And  the  harvests  are  gathering,  and  the 
seed  is  more  widely  scattering  over  the  far  spread  fields  where 
Dr.  Chatterjee  went  to  and  fro  in  the  work  of  the  Great  Sower 
and  with  His  Spirit. 


103 


(16)    THE  VILLAGE  WORK  IN  INDIA 

En  route  Delhi  to  Agra, 
December  14,  1921. 

The  work  of  our  India  Missions  which  is  most  immediately 
and  visibly  fruitful  is  the  work  among  the  low  caste  or  rather 
out-caste  people  in  the  villages.  A  large  part  of  our  time  has 
been  spent  in  immediate  contact  with  this  work,  in  fellowship 
with  the  most  immature  and  simple  minded  Christian  folk, 
and  in  studying  the  problems  which  this  contact  of  Christian- 
ity with  the  most  elemental  sections  of  Indian  society  has 
produced.  The  three  last  stations  which  we  visited  before 
reaching  Lahore,  namely  Moga,  Ferozepur  and  Kasur,  are  in 
the  very  heart  of  this  Christian  movement  in  the  villages  of 
the  Punjab. 

At  Moga  the  Mission  is  developing  a  training  school  for  vil- 
lage boys  which  seemed  to  us  to  be  well-nigh  a  model  of  what 
such  a  school  should  be.  The  stations  of  the  Mission  send 
iiere  the  promising  boys  or  even  young  men  from  the  village 
Cliristian  communities  not  only  to  be  taught  but  also  to  be 
taugnt  how  to  teach  others.  Mr.  McKee  has  developed  original 
metnous  of  remarkable  effectiveness  in  arousing  and  sustain- 
ing enthusiasm  in  the  boys  and  in  carrying  them  forward  in 
a  short  time  and  in  the  most  thorough  way  over  ground  which 
often  takes  three  or  four  times  as  long.  The  result  of  such 
Slow  teaching  is  that  the  minds  of  the  pupils  are  habituated 
to  a  retarded  and  dilatory  movement  and  the  momentum  is 
lost  which  we  felt  in  every  department  of  the  Moga  Training 
School.  The  reports  of  the  government  school  inspectors  are 
enthusiastic  in  their  comments  on  the  school  and  its  work. 
The  agricultural  inspector  wrote,  "I  think  this  institution  is 
doing  a  rare  service  to  the  rural  community,  and  Mr.  McKee, 
Mr.  Jiwa  and  Mr.  Samuel  deserve  congratulations  for  the  suc- 
cess achieved  m  the  initial  stages  of  the  farm's  growth.  For 
me  it  was  quite  a  treat  to  have  the  privilege  of  paying  a  visit 
to  this  institution."  The  inspector  of  schools  for  the  Jullundur 
division  wrote  that  he  was  taking  steps  to  have  the  methods 
which  the  school  had  developed  for  teaching  reading  and  writ- 
ing adopted  in  the  government  schools  throughout  his  division 
and  he  added,  "It  is  a  pleasure  to  see  this  institution  which 
imparts  a  thorough,  practical  vocational  training  along  with 
literary  subjects.  These  poor  boys  would  have  grown  up  in 
ignorance  but  for  this  institution.  The  Mission  and  Mr. 
McKee  are  to  be  congratulated  on  the  noble  work  they  have 
undertaken  for  the  uplift  of  the  depressed  classes.     I  wish 

104 


the  institution  every  success  and  I  will  do  all  that  I  can  to 
promote  its  welfare."  Two  years  ago  the  school  had  forty- 
seven  students;  last  year  it  had  eighty;  and  this  year  it  has 
one  hundred  and  sixty.  The  only  limit  to  its  growth  seems 
to  be  its  own  capacity  to  care  for  the  boys  who  are  ready  to 
come.  It  has  twenty-nine  acres  of  ground  and  needs  at  least 
as  much  more.  It  is  teaching,  in  addition  to  farming,  sewing, 
carpentering,  gardening,  and  the  manufacture  of  baskets, 
brick,  rope  and  charpais  (the  native  bed). 

The  school  utilizes  the  Indian  habit  and  gift  of  story  telling 
in  its  religious  teaching.  Village  boys  who  have  been  only  a 
few  weeks  in  the  school  are  able  to  tell  altogether  in  their 
own  words  stories  and  incidents  from  both  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  with  astonishing  naturalness,  fluency  and  accu- 
racy. The  morning  chapel  service,  which  came  in  these  winter 
months  in  the  chill  and  dark  before  the  sunrise,  was  not  un- 
like a  school  chapel  service  at  home,  save  that  the  school  sat 
huddled  together  on  their  heels  on  the  floor  wrapped  up  in 
their  blankets,  but  the  evening  chapel  was  no  such  conven- 
tional affair.  The  boys  would  then  dramatize  some  Bible 
story.  They  needed  no  artificial  or  made-up  setting  for  it. 
Their  own  village  life  today  is  nothing  but  a  replica  of  the 
village  life  of  Israel  in  the  days  of  David  or  of  Palestine 
when  our  Lord  was  here.  The  evening  we  were  there  a  small 
boy  told  with  great  skill  the  story  of  Job,  and  then  a  group 
of  the  lads  presented  some  of  the  outstanding  incidents  of 
that  great  story  as  they  might  have  happened  in  a  Punjab 
village  a  few  days  before.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
the  boys  who  have  been  trained  at  Moga  are  eagerly  sought 
as  teachers  and  workers  in  the  villages  and  although  the  finan- 
cial ability  of  the  Missions  to  employ  such  workers  is  closely 
limited,  it  is  hoped  that  there  will  be  an  unlimited  field  for 
them  either  as  teachers  in  government  schools  or  as  self- 
supporting  farmers  and  mechanics  in  the  villages. 

The  head  of  the  municipal  hospital  in  Moga,  Dr.  Mutthra 
Das,  who  showed  us  great  kindness,  is  famous  throughout 
India  and  throughout  the  world  for  his  skill  as  an  eye  sur- 
geon. He  is  said  to  have  performed  more  operations  for 
cataract  than  any  other  man.  Last  year  his  cataract  opera- 
tions numbered  8,102.  Since  1903  his  cataract  cases  have 
numbered  51,745.  With  no  trained  nurses  and  with  only  the 
scantiest  assistance,  his  hospital  handled  last  year  more  than 
eleven  thousand  in-patients.  In  a  single  day  he  operated  on 
as  many  as  151  cataracts. 

105 


In  the  cold,  penetrating  air  of  the  early  December  morning 
we  ran  out  in  Dr.  Mutthra  Das's  car  with  the  Rev.  Talib-ud- 
Din  to  visit  the  Christian  community  in  the  village  of  Dharm- 
kot.  The  women  were  busy  in  their  household  duties,  but  we 
sat  down  with  twelve  men  and  a  score  of  children  in  a  mud- 
walled,  mud-floored,  mud-roofed  house.  Through  cracks  in 
a  big  barred  doorway  curious  eyes  peered  through  from  the 
street  as  passers-by  heard  Christian  songs  within  and  the 
sound  of  voices  speaking  strange  things.  As  we  sat  on  char- 
pais  before  the  row  of  twelve  men  seated  on  the  floor  I  could 
not  help  studying  their  faces  and  identifying  them  one  by 
one  with  those  twelve  men  who  years  ago  rose  up  and  followed 
Jesus.  No  harsher  words  were  spoken  of  those  twelve  men 
by  their  neighbors  years  ago  than  these  Christians  of  Dharm- 
kot  have  to  hear  today. 

It  is  a  slow  railway  journey  of  two  hours  from  Moga  to 
Ferozepur.  There  is  a  good  old  church  in  Ferozepur  with  a 
high  Scotch  pulpit  associated  with  the  name  of  Maya  Das 
for  many  years  one  of  the  most  trusted  officials  of  the  Gov- 
ernment and  one  of  the  most  honored  and  beloved  leaders  of 
the  Church,  whose  children  are  carrying  on  the  tradition  of 
their  father's  character  and  spirit.  Apart  from  the  Church, 
which  I  believe  is  self-supporting,  with  its  Indian  pastor,  the 
work  of  the  Mission  in  Ferozepur  embraces  the  work  of  the 
Frances  Newton  Memorial  Hospital  and  the  district  work. 
If  one  wants  to  know  what  the  touch  of  love  is  and  how  sure 
is  the  response  in  human  hearts,  let  him  visit  this  hospital. 
And  though  there  is  more  than  enough  of  opposition  and  dis- 
couragement to  be  found  everywhere,  the  only  lament  of 
the  Ferozepur  missionaries  engaged  in  the  village  work  was 
that  they  were  so  few  against  the  opportunities  and  the 
appeals  of  the  153  villages  where  there  are  already  baptized 
believers  and  the  other  villages  where  people  might  be  gath- 
ered in  if  there  were  only  those  who  could  go  to  them  in  the 
kindness  and  the  patience  of  Christ. 

The  Kasur  station  is  right  out  in  the  country.  The  govern- 
ment census  reported  13,000  Christians  in  this  district,  al- 
though the  Mission's  baptized  list  is  11,158,  gathered  in  149 
groups.  We  found  the  Kasur  missionaries  in  the  heart  of 
their  field,  in  the  village  of  Luliani,  of  whose  4,000  people 
nearly  a  thousand  reported  themselves  as  Christians.  Sev- 
eral hundred  of  them  were  waiting  to  greet  us  as  we  reached 
the  camp.  Never  shall  we  forget  the  meeting  that  evening. 
A  large  tent  had  been  pitched  in  an  open  space  in  the  village 

106 


between  the  mud  walls  of  the  houses.  All  the  sides  of  the 
tent  had  to  be  taken  out  for  the  crowd  which  packed  the  floor 
space  and  reached  out  on  every  side.  Two  dim  lamps  shone 
in  the  tent  and  all  the  space  around  was  flooded  with  bright 
moonlight  and  filled  with  motionless  white  figures  sitting 
sheikh-like  on  the  ground  and  against  the  walls.  There  were 
weird  Punjabi  hymns  and  preaching  that  was  full  of  ques- 
tions that  asked  for  answers,  and  straight  admonition  and 
appeal.  The  power  of  a  new  life  was  at  work,  and  we  felt, 
all  through,  the  thrill  of  its  fierce  grapple  with  the  forces 
of  darkness  and  death.  What  other  power  than  Christ  dare 
essay  this  grapple?  What  a  privilege  and  a  joy  it  is  to  be 
sharers  in  it  in  Kasur  or  wherever  in  the  world  the  battle  is 
joined ! 

(17)    LAHORE 

En  route  Delhi  to  Agra, 
December  14,  1921. 
We  left  the  evangelistic  camp  and  the  hospitable  Christians 
of  Luliani  just  after  dawn  and  set  out  by  motor  for  the  last 
of  our  mission  stations  in  the  Punjab.  The  village  folk  were 
huddled  around  their  fires  or  squatting  wrapped  in  blankets 
against  some  sunlit  wall  thawing  out  after  the  chill  of  the 
night.  The  smoke  lay  in  a  gray  mist  over  the  village.  The 
cattle  were  just  coming  down  to  the  village  pools  to  drink. 
The  goat  herds  and  the  donkey  boys  were  setting  out  with 
their  charges.  Our  way  was  over  the  Grand  Trunk  Road, 
drawing  ever  nearer  now  to  its  terminus  on  the  northwestern 
frontier.  Here  and  there  batteries  of  British  troops  which 
had  been  camping  along  the  road  were  moving  up  the  highway 
with  us  towards  Lahore.  We  felt  like  excited  countrymen 
visiting  the  metropolis  when  at  last,  after  so  many  days  in 
small  places  and  among  the  country  people,  we  found  ourselves 
in  this  greatest  city  of  the  Punjab. 

The  work  of  our  Mission  in  Lahore  consists  of  the  Forman 
Christian  College,  the  Rang  Mahal  School  for  boys,  two 
churches,  the  Naulakha  church  and  the  church  among  the 
poor  folk  in  a  distant  section  of  the  city,  a  day  school  for 
Mohammedan  girls  in  the  city,  a  girls'  school  near  the  jail, 
la  dispensary,  and  the  district  work  under  the  care  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Harper,  who  though  members  of  the  Lahore  sta- 
tion, are  located  nineteen  miles  out  in  the  village  of  Sharak- 
pur.  Much  of  the  general  work  of  the  Mission  is  cared  for 
also  in  Lahore,  and  here  Dr.  Ewing,  the  secretary  of  the  India 
Council,  which  co-ordinates  the  work  of  all  our  Missions  in 

107 


India,  makes  his  home.  Dr.  Ewing  has  been  with  us  through- 
out all  our  trip  in  India,  and  it  has  filled  us  with  happiness 
and  pride  to  see  the  love  and  esteem  with  which  he  is  held 
everywhere  and  nowhere  more  than  here  in  Lahore. 

The  Naulakha  church  is  a  self-supporting  congregation 
which  fills  the  building  to  the  doors  when  the  girls  of  the 
Kinnaird  School  of  the  Zenana  Bible  and  Medical  Mission 
attend  as  they  are  accustomed  to  do  from  their  handsome 
building  across  the  street.  On  the  walls  of  the  old  church 
are  three  tablets,  one  in  memory  of  Mr.  Newton  and  his  fifty- 
six  years  of  missionary  service  bearing  the  verse,  "Behold 
I  come  quickly  and  my  reward  is  with  me  to  give  to  every 
man  according  as  his  work  shall  be;"  another  to  Dr.  Forman 
and  his  forty-seven  years  of  missionary  service  bearing  the 
verse,  "And  they  overcame  him  by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb 
and  by  the  word  of  His  testimony  and  they  loved  not  their 
lives  unto  the  death ;"  and  a  third  to  the  Rev.  Talib-ud-Din,  for 
seventeen  years  pastor  of  the  church,  bearing  the  verse,  "I 
know  whom  I  have  believed  and  am  persuaded  that  He  will 
keep  that  which  I  have  committed  unto  Him  against  that  day." 
Compassed  about  with  such  witnesses  the  Naulakha  church 
is  a  real  power  in  Lahore  possessing  in  its  pastor,  the  Rev. 
Andrew  Thakur  Dass,  and  in  a  number  of  its  laymen,  the 
strongest  Indian  Christian  leaders  in  the  Punjab. 

The  Indian  Christian  community  in  Lahore  is  a  large  and 
influential  body.  We  had  two  opportunities  of  meeting  with 
it  as  a  whole  and  one  of  meeting  in  conference  with  its  leaders. 
On  Sunday  afternoon  the  community  held  one  of  its  monthly 
union  meetings  of  Christians  of  all  denominations  in  the  large 
hall  of  the  Forman  Christian  College.  On  Monday  afternoon 
the  whole  community  met  again  in  a  cordial  and  generous 
reception  of  our  deputation.  In  addition  to  British  and 
American  missionaries  there  were  present  Indian  laymen, 
business  men,  teachers  and  government  officials  as  well  as 
Christian  preachers  and  evangelists.  No  one  could  look  upon 
this  company  without  realizing  that  the  Christian  Church  in 
Lahore  is  an  Indian  institution  and  a  living  power,  and  each 
year  it  is  drawing  closer  and  closer  together.  "A  lady  said  to 
me  the  other  day,"  remarked  one  of  the  strongest  of  the* 
Christian  leaders,  "you  cannot  know  with  what  pain  I  have 
heard  of  your  union  meetings."  I  replied  to  her,  "Madam, 
you  cannot  know  with  what  pain  I  think  of  the  divisions 
which  you  have  established  among  us."  The  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  union  are  many  and  great,  but  the  strong  men  of  both 

108 


the  Presbyterian  and  the  Anglican  Churches,  which  are  the 
strong  churches  in  the  Punjab,  are  facing  the  matter  with 
earnestness  and  resolution.  I  have  spoken  of  the  Forman 
Christian  College  and  the  Rang  Mahal  School  as  our  Mission's 
chief  educational  institutions  in  Lahore,  but  to  these  should 
be  added  the  Kinnaird  College  for  women  (separate  from 
the  Kinnaird  School  for  Girls),  a  union  institution  supported 
by  the  Z.  B.  M.  M.,  the  Church  Missionary  Society  of  the 
Church  of  England,  the  United  Presbyterian  Board,  the 
Indian  Christian  Conference  of  the  Punjab,  and  ourselves. 
It  is  the  only  Christian  college  for  women  in  the  Punjab, 
and  it  needs  and  deserves  the  same  hearty  support  which  our 
home  churches  of  different  denominations  in  America  are 
giving  to  the  other  union  Christian  colleges  for  women  in 
the  Orient.  The  Forman  Christian  College  is  the  leading 
Christian  college  in  the  Punjab  and  one  of  the  foremost  col- 
leges in  India.  It  has  been  an  enormous  force  for  truth  and 
righteousness  in  the  Punjab  and  though  the  visible  results 
of  its  work  in  the  open  confession  of  Christ  by  Mohammedan 
and  Hindu  students  has  not  been  what  the  missionaries  en- 
gaged in  it  have  longed  and  prayed  and  worked  for,  never- 
theless its  distinctive  Christian  influence  in  bringing  men  in 
their  secret  faith  to  Christ  and  into  respect  for  Christian 
principle  and  into  friendship  with  missionary  work  has  been 
incalculable.  The  Rang  Mahal  School  founded  in  the  early 
days  by  Dr.  Forman  has  been  one  of  the  great  formative  in- 
fluences in  northwestern  India.  Its  present  headmaster,  Mr. 
K.  L.  Rallia  Ram,  is  one  of  the  most  forcible  Christian  per- 
sonalities in  the  Punjab,  a  member  of  the  Provincial  Legisla- 
tive Council  and  of  the  Municipal  Council  of  Lahore,  who  has 
been  instrumental  in  securing  temperance  legislation  and 
legislation  in  behalf  of  compulsory  education  of  the  highest 
value.  On  a  stone  beside  the  entrance  of  the  school  are  carved 
the  words  of  the  school  motto,  "Knowledge,  Character  and 
Service,"  and  every  day  seven  hundred  boys  are  brought  under 
the  persistent  and  pervasive  influence  of  these  ideals. 

The  district  work  of  the  Lahore  station  presents  many  prob- 
lems. The  number  of  Christians  has  trebled  in  the  last  five 
years,  but  it  has  been  difficult  to  find  an  ideal  center  of  work. 
A  city  home  is  not  suitable  for  the  missionary  engaged  in 
the  district  work.  He  wants  to  be  among  his  people  and  to 
live  where  the  simplest  villager  can  come  to  see  him  in  a 
natural  and  homelike  way  as  he  cannot  do  in  a  city.  Sharakh- 
pur  seemed  to  be  the  best  center,  but  new  conditions  as  to 

109 


roads  and  administration  seem  likely  to  make  it  no  longer 
so  suitable.  One  of  our  happiest  days,  however,  was  spent 
with  the  Sharakhpur  church  and  the  workers  in  this  tahsil. 
Some  of  them  were  men  of  the  most  loving  and  winsome  char- 
acter, men  of  prayer  and  real  tenderness  of  spirit,  and  Dr. 
Ewing  and  I  were  deeply  moved  when  we  were  taken  to  lay 
the  corner  bricks  of  the  little  church  which  the  Sharakhpur 
Christians  were  building,  eighteen  feet  by  twelve  with  arch- 
ways for  walls  and  a  little  mud  brick  wall  enclosure  surround- 
ing it.  The  lumbardar  or  head  man  gave  us  some  little  pres- 
ents which,  having  thought  of  their  poverty,  we  were  ashamed 
to  take,  but,  having  thought  of  their  pride  and  self  respect, 
were  ashamed  to  refuse  and  which  consequently  were  received 
with  grateful  hearts  and  the  resolution  to  be  more  worthy  of 
the  trust  and  good  will  of  these  little  children  of  Christ  just 
entering  His  school. 

As  I  came  back  to  Lahore  I  was  thinking  on  the  contrast 
between  this  little  village  church,  eighteen  feet  by  twelve, 
and  the  great  Anglican  Cathedral  in  Lahore  where  I  had 
spoken  the  evening  before.  Not  even  the  Cathedral  with  its 
tall  spires  and  the  rich  service,  so  full  of  the  dear  memories 
of  home,  is  more  a  house  of  God  or  the  temple  of  His  Spirit 
than  that  little  room  in  the  low  caste  quarter  of  the  village 
of  Sharakhpur.  The  Bishop's  invitation  to  the  Cathedral 
was  only  one  of  many  courtesies  of  our  British  friends,  and 
in  addition  to  other  kindnesses  Sir  Edward  Maclagan,  the 
Lieutenant  Governor,  and  one  of  the  best  type  of  British  serv- 
ants, sent  the  big  government  elephant  with  its  red  trap- 
pings to  take  us  from  the  Delhi  gate  through  the  narrow, 
tortuous  streets  of  old  Lahore,  another  contrast  with  the 
new  life  pulsating  in  school  and  college  and  church.  Nothing 
is  plainer  than  "the  old  order  changeth,  giving  place  to  new." 

(18)    GWALIOR  AND   JHANSI 

En  route  Jhansi  to  Bombay, 
December  22,  1921. 
After  attendance  at  the  regular  meeting  of  the  three  Mis- 
sions, North  Lidia,  Punjab  and  Western  India,  and  at  special 
meetings  of  the  five  Presbyteries,  Kolhapur,  Allahabad,  Far- 
rukhabad,  Ludhiana  and  Lahore,  and  after  visits  to  all  the 
twenty-nine  stations  of  our  Board  in  India  except  two,  our 
schedule  called  for  a  final  conference  of  four  days  with  the 
India  Council  and  provided  for  visits  to  the  last  two  stations, 
Jhansi,  where  the  Council  was  to  meet,  and  Gwalior,  through 
which  we  would  pass  on  our  way  to  Jhansi  from  Lahore. 

110 


The  only  spare  day  which  our  schedule  since  reaching  the 
Missions  had  allowed  was  the  day  in  Goa,  visiting  the  tomb 
of  Saint  Francis  Xavier.  Now  at  the  very  end,  however, 
two  days  were  left  free  between  Lahore  and  Gwalior  which 
we  spent  at  Delhi  and  Agra  and  at  the  two  long  abandoned 
cities  of  Kutab  Manar  and  Fatehpur  Sikri.  Of  all  the  things 
which  we  have  seen  in  India,  including  the  Taj  and  the  Hima- 
layas, nothing  has  impressed  me  more  than  Akbar's  noble 
mosque  at  Fatehpur  Sikri.  Over  the  right  doorway  of  the 
high  south  gate,  the  most  conspicuous  but  not  the  most  im- 
pressive feature  of  the  mosque,  is  the  inscription,  "His  Ma- 
jesty, King  of  Kings,  Heaven  of  the  Court,  Shadow  of  God, 
Jalal-ud-Din  Muhammad  Akbar,  Emperor,  He  conquered  the 
Kingdom  of  the  South  and  Dandes,  which  was  formerly  called 
Khandes  in  the  fifty-sixth  year  of  his  reign,  corresponding 
to  the  Higira  year  1010  (A.  D,  1602).  Having  reached  Fateh- 
pur he  proceeded  to  Agra.  Said  Jesus,  on  whom  be  peace, 
'The  world  is  a  bridge,  pass  over  it,  but  build  no  house  there. 
He  who  hopeth  for  an  hour  may  hope  for  eternity ;  the  world 
is  but  an  hour,  spend  it  in  devotion:  the  rest  is  worth  noth- 
ing.' "  Over  the  left  doorway  are  the  words,  "He  that  stand- 
eth  up  in  prayer  and  his  heart  is  not  in  it  does  not  draw  nigh 
to  God,  but  remaineth  far  from  him.  Thy  best  possession 
is  what  thou  givest  in  the  name  of  God;  thy  best  traffic  is 
selling  this  world  for  the  next."  I  shall  never  forget  the 
thoughts  or  the  prayers  of  the  moments  alone  under  the  cen- 
tral dome  of  the  mosque  before  Akbar's  pulpit  and  on  the 
very  spot  where  he  must  have  knelt  and  prayed.  The  man 
who  built  Fatehpur  was  not  miscalled  Akbar,  "The  Great." 

Only  second  to  the  old  forts  of  Delhi  and  Agra  in  historical 
interest  is  the  fort  of  Gwalior,  but  not  to  be  compared  with 
them  in  the  beauty  and  the  significance  of  its  palaces.  From 
its  great  rock  it  looks  down  on  the  three  neighboring  cities 
of  Lashkar  and  Gwalior  and  Morar.  Here  for  years,  after 
the  death  of  her  husband,  Mrs.  Joseph  Warren  carried  on 
the  work  of  our  Church  alone,  a  stalwart  and  fearless  char- 
acter. Many  a  time  she  had  held  the  present  Maharajah 
as  a  little  boy  on  her  knee  and  as  long  as  she  lived  he  treated 
her  with  respect  and  affection.  He  holds  her  memory  in 
reverence  still  and  has  sanctioned  the  continuance  of  our 
work  in  the  native  state  of  Gwalior  because  it  is  the  work 
of  the  Church  which  Mrs.  Warren  represented.  The  work 
of  the  Mission  consists  at  present  of  a  Sunday  School  and 
small  congregation  in  the  large  church  at  Morar  which  Mrs. 

Ill 


Warren  built,  largely  with  gifts  from  English  officials  and 
others  in  India  who  held  her  in  high  regard,  a  small  preaching 
place  and  tract  depository  with  street  preaching  in  the  heart 
of  Lashkar,  a  most  living  school  for  Hindu  girls  and  house 
visitation  and  village  work  carried  on  by  Miss  Hill,  formerly 
one  of  the  leaders  in  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  work  and  now  a  member 
of  our  Mission.  The  only  ordained  missionary  in  the  station, 
Dr.  Henry  Forman,  has  with  the  assent  of  the  Mission  under- 
taken at  the  Maharajah's  request  the  headship  of  the  Sardar's 
School  in  which  the  sons  of  the  noblemen  or  officials  of  the 
state  are  trained  for  service.  Dr.  Forman  has  felt  that  this 
was  a  unique  opportunity  to  be  of  help  to  these  young  men 
and  to  the  State,  by  influencing  the  lads  in  the  formation  of 
upright  character  and  true  ideals  of  honor  and  service. 
Whether  he  will  be  free  to  do  this  in  the  way  that  will  satisfy 
his  missionary  conscience  without  exceeding  the  allotted  re- 
sponsibilities of  his  position,  only  time  will  disclose.  The 
Gwalior  State  is  an  intensely  Hindu  section  of  India.  To  go 
about  the  temples  and  shrines  of  Lashkar  after  seeing  the 
Mohammedan  austerity  of  the  Punjab  is  like  a  return  to  the 
religion  of  southern  India  with  its  innumerable  temples  and 
idols  and  its  intense  popular  loyalty  to  the  Hindu  faith.  The 
Maharajah  wants  his  young  men  given  a  moral  and  religious 
training,  and  he  has  confidence  in  Dr.  Forman  as  a  Christian 
missionary,  although  he  himself  is  a  strong  Hindu  believer 
and  has  prescribed  a  remarkable  prayer  for  use  in  all  the 
schools  in  the  State  ending  with  the  petitions,  "Have  mercy 
on  us  children  and  bless  our  labors  with  success.  The  pur- 
port of  this  our  prayer  is  that  our  intelligence  be  directed 
always  toward  good  work  and  protect  it  from  evil.  In  re- 
membering Thy  most  holy  Name,  let  our  hearts  be  purified 
so  that  all  sins,  faults,  dangers  and  disasters  be  kept  away 
from  us.  Although  our  faults  are  innumerable,  yet  Thy 
Nature  is  not  to  look  at  or  consider  the  faults  of  Thy  Shara- 
nagat  (protected)  and  this  is  our  only  hope."  The  Maharajah 
has  working  with  him  in  the  service  of  the  State,  for  the  de- 
velopment of  agriculture  and  other  natural  resources  and 
the  improvement  of  machinery,  three  of  the  young  men  who 
came  out  for  service  of  this  kind  in  connection  with  the  agri- 
cultural work  of  the  Allahabad  Agricultural  Institute  and  who 
are  permanently  released  for  this  work  in  Gwalior. 

Another  of  the  great  forts  of  northern  India  looks  down 
from  its  rock  foundations  upon  the  mission  station  in  Jhansi. 
Memories  of  the  Mutiny  and  of  the  Rani  of  Jhansi,  who  was 

112 


its  great  female  inspiration,  cluster  around  the  fort  and  the 
Rani's  palace,  just  adjoining  the  big  brick  church  which  Dr. 
Holcomb  built  and  beside  which  Miss  Lawton  has  erected 
her  efficient  girls'  school,  opening  the  doors  into  the  hearts 
of  a  hundred  and  twenty  Hindu  girls  and  through  them  the 
doors  of  their  homes  and  the  hearts  of  their  mothers.  The 
Boys'  School  reaches  a  similar  number  of  boys,  about  a  third 
of  whom  are  Christian  lads.  Dr.  Pittman  with  his  medical 
equipment  is  working  with  Mr.  Cornuelle  in  Jhansi  and  the 
adjacent  city  of  Sipri  and  in  scores  of  villages  to  the  east  in 
which  the  seven  hundred  baptized  weaver  Christians  are  liv- 
ing. Here  as  in  Allahabad,  Cawnpore,  and  Fatehpur  and 
wherever  else  they  are  at  work  the  Missionaries  of  the  Wo- 
men's Union  Missionary  Society  are  joined  with  us  in  perfect 
unity  and  accord  and  are  carrying  on  their  admirable  hos- 
pital for  women  and  children.  Just  behind  the  hospital  is 
a  large  cluster  of  ancient  Hindu  temples  almost  totally  disused 
now  for  Hindu  worship  and  occupied  instead  as  homes  by 
a  squalid,  tenement  population  of  Mohammedans.  There  are 
other  Hindu  temples,  however,  nearby  which  witness  to  the 
living  hold  of  Hinduism.  One  of  them.  Dr.  Wilkie  of  the 
Canadian  Presbyterian  Mission  told  us,  is  devoted  to  the  left- 
handed  Tantric  worship  which  represents  the  basest  degra- 
dation to  be  found  in  Hinduism  and  perhaps  in  any  religion 
in  the  world.  This  is  the  only  temple  in  which,  after  scores 
of  inquiries,  we  have  been  able  to  locate  the  worship  of  the 
Tantras,  except  one  notorious  temple  in  Benares. 

On  a  rocky  prominence  in  Jhansi  there  is  a  stone  tower  al- 
leged to  be  the  central  pillar  of  India.  It  may  be  so.  At  any  rate 
the  India  Council  finds  Jhansi  to  be  the  most  central  point 
for  its  gatherings,  and  here  year  by  year  this  central  execu- 
tive committee  of  our  Missions  in  India  meets  to  bring  the 
work  of  the  Missions  and  the  requests  which  they  wish  to 
lay  before  the  home  Church  into  balanced  order  and  unity. 
Dr.  J.  C.  R.  Ewing,  C.  I.  E.,  is  the  trusted  and  beloved  head 
of  the  Council.  Under  his  leadership,  as  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Dr.  Griswold  who  preceded  him,  the  Council  has  grown 
year  by  year  in  influence  and  efficiency.  It  is  an  indispensable 
agency  in  the  wise  and  fruitful  administration  of  our  foreign 
missionary  work.  We  need  something  like  it  in  every  one  of 
our  mission  fields,  and  the  Church  at  home  seems  to  be  in- 
creasingly conscious  of  a  similar  need. 


113 


3.     SOME    ASPECTS    OF  THE    PRESENT    POLITICAL 

ENVIRONMENT  OF  THE  CHURCH 

AND  MISSIONS  IN  INDIA 

Among  the  chief  factors  in  determining  the  problems  of 
the  Church  and  the  success  of  missionary  effort  are  the  pre- 
vaihng  conditions  of  poUtical  thought  and  organization,  the 
measure  of  freedom  allowed  by  the  laws,  or  by  the  sentiments 
controlling  social  and  religious  movements,  and  the  concep- 
tions which  are  dominant  in  the  nation  and  which  neither 
individuals  nor  organizations  can  ignore  or  escape.  This 
was  true  in  the  Roman  Empire.  We  know  its  truth  from 
our  own  experience  both  at  home  and  in  all  the  fields  where 
we  have  sought  to  carry  on  missionary  work.  It  is  assuredly 
true  in  India  today.  The  tides  of  national  feeling  and  politi- 
cal activity  which  have  arisen  can  no  more  fail  to  influence 
the  Church  in  India  now  than  corresponding  tides  influenced 
the  Church  in  America  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  and  the 
Churches  of  Europe  and  Great  Britain  at  the  Reformation 
period,  with  its  awakening  of  peoples  to  the  sense  of  national 
personality. 

Every  such  time  is  marked  by  follies  and  excesses.  With 
each  such  new  awakening  one  hopes  that,  learning  wisdom 
from  the  past,  men  will  act  with  full  tolerance  and  patience 
and  judgment  as  well  as  with  boldness  and  courage.  But 
one  hopes  and,  I  suppose  will  always  hope  in  vain  for  any 
such  perfect  movement  of  human  forces.  Nevertheless,  what- 
ever the  imperfections,  one  can  only  rejoice,  as  the  wisest 
politicians  and  the  wisest  missionaries  are  rejoicing,  over  the 
present  growth  of  national  consciousness  in  India.  This  is 
what  the  best  British  administrators  in  India  hoped  for  and 
looked  forward  to  from  the  time  when  the  conscience  of 
Great  Britain  first  awoke  to  the  responsibilities  in  which  she 
had  become  involved  through  the  occupation  of  India  by  the 
East  India  Company.  Men  like  John  Lawrence,  Herbert  Ed- 
wards, and  Donald  MacLeod,  of  the  group  known  as  the  Pun- 
jab School,  who  saved  India  from  the  anarchy  and  disorgani- 
zation of  the  Mutiny,  the  Queen  in  her  proclamation  taking 
India  over  under  the  Crown  from  the  East  India  Company 
when  the  Mutiny  had  been  quelled,  and  the  voices  of  many 
Englishmen,  high  and  low,  who  have  given  their  lives  for 
the  service  of  India  across  the  century,  can  be  quoted  in  evi- 

114 


dence  of  the  hope  which  has  been  cherished  of  the  develop- 
ment in  India  of  a  true  freedom  and  national  life.  And  cer- 
tainly, though  the  rise  of  a  nationalistic  spirit  brings  with  it 
many  painful  and  perplexing  problems  for  Missions,  these 
are  greatly  to  be  preferred  to  any  situation  in  which  the 
Churches  resulting  from  Mission  work  are  satisfied  with  the 
relation  of  subjection  and  dependence  and  are  not  alive  to 
the  necessity  or  the  possibility  of  standing  on  their  own  feet 
and  determining  their  own  policies  and  relationships  and 
finding  their  right  place  among  the  guiding  forces  of  the 
nation.  It  ought  to  be  easier  to  develop  a  self-dependent 
Church  in  a  self-dependent  nation. 

But  while  one  rejoices  in  the  growth  of  national  conscious- 
ness in  India,  the  present  situation  is  beset  for  the  student 
of  missions  by  two  difficulties.  The  first  is  the  difficulty  of 
really  understanding  it,  of  estimating  the  true  character  and 
strength  and  direction  of  the  various  tendencies.  There  is 
a  great  deal  of  literature  on  the  subject  which  is  available, 
but  it  does  not  resolve  this  difficulty.  Books  like  Lovett's 
"A  History  of  the  Indian  Nationalist  Movement,"  Rushbrook 
Williams'  three  volumes  "India  in  1917  and  1918,"  "India  in 
1919,"  and  "India  in  1920,"  the  reports  of  the  Indian  National 
Congress,  the  "Resurrection  of  the  Congress"  by  D.  N.  Ban- 
nerjee,  Mr.  Athalaye's  "Life  of  Lokamanya  Tilak,"  and  the 
books  and  speeches  of  Sir  Rabindrinath  Tagore  and  most  of 
all  of  Mr.  Gandhi  and  Lajpat  Rai  are  only  a  fraction  of  the 
great  volume  of  literature  which  is  already  accessible.  But 
all  this  literature,  so  far  from  answering  our  questions  as  to 
the  character  and  strength  and  direction  of  the  present 
tendencies,  only  makes  the  difficulty  greater.  And  the  diffi- 
culty is  further  increased  by  a  careful  study  of  the  situation 
on  the  field.  During  the  past  three  months  we  have  traveled 
over  India  from  Ceylon  to  the  Himalayas  and  from  Calcutta 
to  Goa  and  Bombay,  and  I  suppose  there  are  few  who  in  so 
short  a  time  have  seen  more  of  India  or  have  talked  with  more 
people  of  every  class  and  type  than  we  have  done,  but  the 
mass  of  evidence  which  we  have  gathered,  instead  of  uniting 
in  support  of  any  one  view,  is  so  divided  that  it  could  be  cited 
in  support  of  almost  any  estimate  of  the  present  forces  and 
any  forecast  of  the  future.  The  second  difficulty  to  which 
I  have  referred  arises  from  the  incessant  and  rapid  change 
that  is  going  on  in  movements  and  in  the  attitudes  of  indi- 
viduals. It  is  easy  to  attribute  some  of  this  change  in  indi- 
viduals to  inconsistency  or  even  insincerity.  There  are  few 
who  would  charge  Mr.  Gandhi  with  insincerity,  but  both  his 

115 


opinions  and  those  of  Lajpat  Rai  appear  to  undergo  most 
remarkable  changes.  Lajpat  Rai,  for  example,  during  the 
war  could  say  nothing  too  bitter  against  Great  Britain  and 
was  deported,  taking  up  his  residence  in  New  York  City. 
Then  he  returned  to  India  in  an  apparently  different  frame 
of  mind  repudiating  the  idea  of  Indian  political  and  social 
reactionism  and  advocating  the  unity  of  India  with  the  British 
Empire.  In  his  book  on  ''The  Problem  of  National  Educa- 
tion in  India,"  he  wrote,  "The  process  of  self-praise  and  the 
glorification  of  our  past  has  its  dangerous  side  also.  It  has 
the  tendency  of  making  us  look  to  the  past  rather  than  to  the 
future,  thus  sometimes  blinding  us  to  the  progress  which 
the  world  has  made  since  Aryan  times.  If  modern  truths 
(truth  is  truth  and  is  neither  ancient  nor  modern)  are  to  be 
tested  by  the  sanctions  of  the  ancient  times  and  to  be  promul- 
gated only  if  they  accord  with  the  teachings  of  our  Rishis 
then  woe  to  India.  .  .  .  No  progress  is  conceivable  unless 
we  have  an  open  mind  and  do  away  with  the  superstition  that 
all  truth  was  revealed  to  us  in  the  beginning  of  the  world 
and  that  all  that  was  worth  knowing  was  known  to  our  an- 
cestors and  that  they  had  said  the  last  word  on  all  questions, 
be  they  religion  or  sociology  or  politics  or  economics  or  art 
or  even  science.  It  is  essential  that  we  should  realize  that 
we  are  living  in  a  new  world It  is  sheer  and  unjustifi- 
able waste  of  time  to  insist  on  the  dissemination  of  theories 
that  have  been  superseded  by  and  discarded  in  favor  of  others 

proved  to  be  better  and  truer  than  the  former For 

example,  it  would  be  sheer  folly  to  replace  the  modern  treatises 
on  arithmetic,  geometry,  algebra,  trigonometry,  and  kindred 
subjects  by  Lilawati  or  other  books  on  these  subjects  in  the 
Sanskrit  language.  .  .  .  Truth  is  neither  local  nor  national 
nor  even  international.  It  is  simply  truth."  The  aim  of 
India,  he  held,  should  be  "to  remain  a  part  of  the  British 
Commonwealth  on  terms  of  equality  with  other  parts  of  the 
British  Empire."  And  now  this  same  Lajpat  Rai,  though 
his  son  is  studying  in  America,  is  unqualifiably  denouncing 
Western  education,  preaching  Indian  social  reactionism  and 
entire  withdrawal  from  Empires,  and  just  before  we  reached 
Lahore  was  arrested,  and  imprisoned  for  sedition.  In  all 
great  human  movements  of  this  kind,  however,  one  must  be 
prepared  for  a  great  deal  of  inconsistency  and  still  more  for 
a  great  deal  that  looks  like  inconsistency  but  which  is  really 
only  the  readjustment  of  men's  minds  to  the  pressure  of  the 
social  forces  which  in  part  they  make  and  by  which  in  part 
they  are  made. 

116 


The  shifts  in  Indian  viewpoint  often  explain  and  justify 
themselves  by  the  changes  in  British  official  sentiment  and 
action.  Only  nine  years  ago,  for  example,  Lord  Crewe,  Sec- 
retary of  State,  expressly  disclaimed  in  Parliament  any  idea 
that  Great  Britain  was  prepared  to  contemplate  Indian  self- 
government  approaching  that  which  has  been  granted  in  the 
Dominions.  "I  see  no  future  for  India  on  these  lines.  The 
experiment  of  extending  a  measure  of  self-government  practi- 
cally free  from  parliamentary  control  to  a  race  which  is  not 
our  own,  even  though  that  race  enjoys  the  services  of  the 
best  men  belonging  to  our  race,  is  one  which  cannot  be  tried. 
It  is  my  duty  as  Secretary  of  State  to  repudiate  the  idea  that 
the  despatch  implies  anything  of  the  kind  as  the  hope  or  goal 
of  the  policy  of  Government.  At  the  same  time  I  think  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  nation,  and  of  the  Government  for  the  time 
being  of  the  nation,  to  encourage  in  every  possible  way  the 
desire  of  the  inhabitants  of  India  to  take  a  further  share  in 
the  management  of  their  country." 

Again,  he  said  on  June  29th,  1912:  "There  is  nothing 
whatever  in  the  teachings  of  history,  so  far  as  I  know  them, 
or  in  the  present  condition  of  the  world  which  makes  such  a 
dream  [as  complete  self-government  within  the  British  Em- 
pire] even  remotely  probable.  .  .  .  Is  it  conceivable  that  at 
any  time  an  Indian  Empire  could  exist,  on  the  lines,  say,  of 
Australia  and  New  Zealand,  with  no  British  officials,  and 
no  tie  of  creed  and  blood  which  takes  the  place  of  these  mate- 
rial bonds?  ....  To  me  that  is  a  world  as  imaginary  as 
any  Atlantis  or  any  that  was  ever  thought  of  by  the  ingenious 
brain  of  any  imaginative  writer.  ...  I  venture  to  think  that 
it  is  only  those  who  think  less  of  service  and  more  of  distinc- 
tion who  would  lose  heart  if  they  braced  themselves  to  set 
aside  this  vision  altogether  and  to  settle  down  to  closer  co- 
operation with  the  Western  race,  to  which  they  can  teach 
much,  and  from  which  they  can  learn  much,  in  co-operation 
for  the  moral  and  material  bettering  of  the  country  to  which 
they  are  so  deeply  attached  and  of  which  we  are  so  proud 
to  be  governors." 

Now  whatever  else  may  be  said  of  these  views,  it  is  certain 
that  they  were  not  the  view  of  many  earlier  British  statesmen, 
and  they  are  distinctly  repudiated  in  the  legislation  embodied 
in  the  Montagu-Chelmsford  reforms  under  which  India  is 
now  being  governed.  The  principle  of  these  reforms  is  clearly 
stated  in  the  instructions  issued  under  them  to  Governors, 
which  declare  that  by  these  reforms,  "provision  has  been 
made  for  the  gradual  development  of  self-governing  institu- 

117 


tions  in  India  with  a  view  to  the  progressive  realization  of 
responsible  government  in  that  country  as  an  integral  part 
of  our  Empire."  And  governors  are  instructed  to  execute 
their  office,  "to  the  end  that  the  institutions  and  methods  of 
government  shall  be  laid  on  the  best  and  surest  foundations, 
that  the  people  shall  acquire  such  habits  of  political  action  and 
respect  such  conventions  as  will  best  and  soonest  fit  them  for 
self-government."  There  are  many  Indians  who  believe  that 
the  shifts  of  British  attitude  are  due  wholly  to  the  extent  of 
pressure  exerted  by  India,  that  such  an  attitude  as  Lord 
Crewe's  was  due  to  Indian  supineness  and  servility,  and  dis- 
satisfied with  the  extent  to  which  the  present  reforms  have 
gone,  they  believe  that,  by  the  pressure  of  moral  if  not  physical 
forces.  Great  Britain  can  be  coerced  into  granting  complete 
and  immediate  independence.  A  few  years  ago,  it  is  said,  India 
would  have  been  satisfied  with  what  is  now  offered,  but  it  was 
not  offered  then  and  would  not  have  been  offered  later  except 
in  response  to  pressure.  Such  offers  are  always  tardy  and 
reluctant,  and  such  pressure  once  successful  will  not  be  satis- 
fied so  long  as  there  is  anything  further  to  be  pressed  for. 
The  struggle,  so  it  is  said,  between  the  reluctance  of  Great 
Britain  to  let  India  go  and  India's  demand  to  be  let  go  is  in- 
evitable and  will  continue  until  complete  independence  is 
secured. 

We  have  met  with  Englishmen  in  India  who  say  candidly, 
"Why  not  let  India  go?  Great  Britain  has  no  desire  to  rule  a 
reluctant  people.  India  is  not  essential  to  the  Empire.  We 
should  be  in  favor  of  saying  to  India,  Certainly,  if  you  do  not 
want  us  here,  we  do  not  want  to  stay.  On  the  31st  of  De- 
cember, 1924,  you  will  find  us  completely  gone."  There  are 
very  few,  however,  who  say  this,  fewer  probably  than  those 
who  take  the  directly  opposite  view  expressed  by  the  anony- 
mous writer  in  "Blackwood's  Magazine"  of  February  21,  1921, 
in  an  article  entitled  "India  on  the  Threshold,"  who  speaks 
contemptuously  of  the  present  political  reforms  and  holds  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  Great  Britain  to  rule  any- 
body whom  she  deems  unfit  for  self-rule:  "No  longer  are 
Indians  to  be  treated  as  the  children  they  are — to  be  kept  in 
order  by  straight  talking  and  punished  with  the  rod  when 
they  are  naughty.  .  .  .  We  have  done  a  great  work  in  the 
material  development  of  the  country  but  we  have  failed  in 
the  education  both  moral  and  intellectual  of  the  people  [pre- 
sumably the  people's  fault.]  .  .  .  When  Christ  said,  'Render 
unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,'  He  did  not  condemn 
but  approved  one  race  ruling  another  race  which  is  unfit  to 

118 


rule  itself."  It  is  the  amount  of  talk  of  this  kind  and  of 
the  spirit  which  it  embodies  both  at  home  in  Great  Britain 
and  in  India  which  has  intensified  the  nationalistic  movement 
and  been  responsible  for  a  good  deal  of  its  bitterness  and 
indignation.  It  has  made  vastly  more  difficult  also  the  task 
of  the  great  body  of  the  British  in  India  who  are  here  in  the 
way  of  duty  and  human  service,  who  do  not  believe  that 
India  is  ready  for  absolute  independence  or  that  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  desire  it  or  that  Great  Britain  could  in 
honor  and  fidelity,  before  either  God  or  man,  summarily  throw 
overboard  her  responsibility  in  India.  It  would  be  the  easiest 
course  to  fling  India  free,  but  what  would  be  the  judgment 
of  history  and  humanity?  "No,"  say  Englishmen  of  this 
type,  "such  a  course  would  be  easy,  but  it  would  be  cowardly. 
History  is  a  continuous  process.  To  run  a  knife  across  it  is 
to  cut  living  fibres.  Difficult  as  the  situation  is,  we  owe  it 
to  India  to  secure  to  her  the  best  conditions  of  an  independent 
national  life,  and  we  must  stay  and  see  the  thing  through." 

The  moderate  party  in  India  takes  this  same  view  and  de- 
sires to  co-operate  with  Great  Britain  in  carrying  forward 
and  enlarging  the  present  reforms.  They  were  adopted  for 
a  period  of  ten  years,  looking  toward  revision  and  enlarge- 
ment at  that  time.  Both  the  moderate  party  and  the  Gov- 
ernment of  India  believe  that  if  wisely  and  harmoniously 
carried  forward  the  time  of  complete  self-government  in  India 
may  be  greatly  hastened.  Against  all  this,  however,  the  ex- 
tremist party  which  has  control  of  the  All  India  Moslem 
League  and  the  Hindu  Indian  National  Congress  stands  op- 
posed, denouncing  the  present  Government  as  satanic  and 
demanding  immediate  and  complete  independence. 

The  outstanding  personality  embodying  the  whole  move- 
ment and  recognized  by  every  one  as  its  head  is  Mr.  Gandhi. 
One  meets  a  few  who  disbelieve  in  his  sincerity,  many  more 
who  wholly  distrust  his  judgment,  but  the  great  mass  of 
the  Indian  people  believe  in  him  absolutely,  and  even  most 
of  those  who  disagree  with  him  respect  deeply  his  character 
and  his  devotion.  The  literature  about  him  is  full  of  references 
to  his  Christ-like  qualities.  Some  of  the  characterizations  are 
very  bold: 

"Those  Christian  doctors  of  Europe  and  America  who  liken 
the  Mahatma  to  Christ,  are  not  mistaken.  I  have  been  closely 
observing  the  Mahatma's  movements,  his  preachings  and  prac- 
tices, his  words  and  deeds,  their  causes  and  effects,  and  I  am 
satisfied — thoroughly  satisfied,  of  the  similarity  of  these  two 
great  personages.  In  spite  of  the  opponents*  (I  was  an  oppon- 

119 


ent)  declaration  that  nothing  that  theMahatma  has  prophesied 
has  come  to  pass,  we  see  that  everything  that  he  has  prophe- 
sied has  been  fulfilled.  .  .  .  It  is  not  in  the  least  exaggerating 
if  I  say  that  the  life  of  Christ  is  being  re-enacted  by  the  Ma- 
hatma,  the  opponents  of  the  Mahatma  enacting  the  part  of 
the  opponents  of  Jesus  Christ,  seeking  how  they  may  arrest 
him  without  rousing  the  people,  his  followers.  .  .  I  am,  there- 
fore, absolutely  certain  that  when  the  Mahatma  is  arrested 
and  tried,  the  Judge  will  once  more  wash  his  hands  and  repeat 
the  same  verdict  that  Pontius  Pilate  had  pronounced  upon 
Jesus  Christ :  'I  am  innocent  of  the  blood  of  this  just  person.'  " 
(Letter  of  T.  Ruthnam,  "Bombay  Chronicle,"  December  24, 
1921.) 

"One  does  not  feel  it  blasphemous  to  compare  him  with 
Christ  and  Christ,  too,  one  suspects,  gave  infinite  trouble  to 
reasonable  and  respectable  followers.  For  Gandhi  is  a  philo- 
sophic anarchist — a  new  edition  of  Tolstoy  without  Tolstoy's 
past,  and  a  Tolstoy  who  has  long  since  subdued  Nature  and 
shrunk  into  simplicity."  (Colonel  Wedgewood,  "The  Indian 
Review,"  March,  1921.) 

"From  the  first  it  must  be  realized  that  consciously  his 
teaching  has  been  influenced  by  that  of  Christ,  for  whom  his 
admiration  has  long  been  the  almost  dominating  feature  of 
his  spiritual  life  and  probably  the  external  character  of  his 
daily  activity  has  been  modeled  also  upon  Him.  He  made  a 
curious  observation  during  our  conversation,  which  throws 
some  light  upon  his  interpretation  of  the  Galilean  Teacher. 
In  answer  to  a  remark  of  mine  that  Christ  strictly  abstained 
from  interfering  in  politics,  Mr.  Gandhi  answered,  'I  do  not 
think  so;  but,  if  you  are  right,  the  less  Christ  in  that  was 
He.'  "  (Percival  Landon,  "The  Indian  Review,"  March,  1921.) 

"The  key  to  Gandhi  and  Gandhism  is  wrapped  in  his  self- 
revealing  sentence:  'Most  religious  men  I  have  met  are  poli- 
ticians in  disguise :  I,  however,  who  wear  the  guise  of  a 
politician,  am  at  heart  a  religious  man.'"  (D.  P.,  "Indian 
Review,"  March,  1921.) 

"In  Mahatma  Gandhi  we  have  a  volcanic  personality,  a  moral 
genius  of  the  first  order,  who  has  revealed  to  us  all  the  hidden 
power  of  a  living  freedom  from  within,  who  has  taught  us 
to  depend  not  on  any  external  resources  but  on  ourselves. 
My  whole  heart  goes  out  to  his  appeal  and  I  have  a  great  hope 
that,  along  this  path,  independence  will  be  reached  at  last. 
....  Such  personalities  as  that  of  Mahatma  Gandhi  which 

120 


can  inspire  a  whole  nation  are  rare  indeed  in  human  history." 
(Mr.  C.  F.  Andrews,  "The  Indian  Review,"  March,  1921.) 

We  asked  a  great  many  Indians  what  they  regarded  as  the 
secret  of  Mr.  Gandhi's  influence,  and  they  invariably  replied, 
"His  asceticism."  And  this  is  the  element  in  his  character 
to  which  Dr.  Williams  attributes  his  power  in  his  report  to 
Parliament  entitled  "India  in  1921":  "It  has  often  been  re- 
marked that  every  Indian,  no  matter  how  Westernized,  will 
ever  retain  in  his  heart  of  hearts  a  reverence  for  asceticism. 
Even  educated  Indian  gentlemen  who  play  a  prominent  part 
in  public  life  cherish  before  them  the  ideal  of  worldly  re- 
nunciation and  retirement  to  the  practice  of  individual  au- 
sterities. Furthermore,  the  insistence  of  Mr.  Gandhi  upon 
the  supremacy  of  soul  force  in  opposition  to  material  might; 
his  advocacy  of  national  fasting  as  a  means  of  influencing 
Government;  his  conviction  of  the  irresistible  power  of  pas- 
sive resistance,  have  all  three  their  logical  basis  in  the  ancient 
Hindu  doctrine  of  Dharma,  that  is,  the  application  of  moral 
pressure  to  another  through  physical  austerities  deliberately 
endured  by  one's  self.  Hence  it  is  that  to  Indians  of  all  classes 
Mr,  Gandhi,  of  lowly  birth  though  he  be,  who  stands  forth, 
not  only  as  the  perfect  ascetic  but  also  as  the  perfect  exponent 
of  Hindu  tradition,  makes  an  appeal  of  well-nigh  irresistible 
force.  Even  those  who  are  most  profoundly  convinced  that 
his  political  opinions  are  unsound,  unpractical  and  even  disas- 
trous, can  rarely  be  found  openly  to  criticise,  far  less  to 
oppose,  him.  During  the  whole  of  the  year  1920,  the  tendency 
of  the  time  has  been  to  place  a  premium  upon  Mr.  Gandhi's 
opinions.  India  is  now  suffering  from  reaction  against  the 
more  materialistic  manifestations  of  Western  civilization.  In 
addition  to  this,  the  events  of  the  Punjab  disturbances  of 
1919,  which  only  became  fully  known  during  the  period  under 
review,  gave  rise  amongst  educated  Indians  to  feelings  of  in- 
tense and  bitter  humiliation.  Against  the  all-dominant  tide 
of  Western  materialism.  Western  might  and  Western  achieve- 
ment, Mr.  Gandhi,  with  his  explicit  scorn  for  that  which  we 
call  modern  civilization  stands  before  the  injured  national 
pride  of  many  of  his  countrymen  like  a  rock  of  salvation.  He 
embodies  an  other-worldliness  essentially  Indian,  a  spirit  the 
West  does  not  possess,  a  plane  of  detachment  to  which  it 
cannot  hope  to  aspire.  Hence  it  is  that  his  behests  have  the 
influence  of  semi-divine  commands;  and  even  those  whose 
intellects  are  too  keen  to  be  dominated  by  his  sway  can  rarely 
be  found  to  resist  the  appeal  which  he  makes  to  their  inner- 
most heart." 

121 


Just  as  we  were  leaving  India  this  amazing  influence  which 
Mr.  Gandhi  has  acquired  reached  its  highest  possible  expres- 
sion in  his  appointment  as  dictator  by  the  National  Congress 
in  its  meeting  in  Ahmedabad,  giving  him  the  full  powers  of 
the  Congress.  This  had  been  foreshadowed  by  many  articles 
in  the  Indian  press  from  both  Hindus  and  Mohammedans 
appealing  for  the  unquestioning  acceptance  of  Mr.  Gandhi's 
absolute  leadership.  There  were  some,  of  course,  who  fore- 
saw the  criticism  which  such  action  would  meet  from  those 
who  would  be  unable  to  reconcile  it  with  democratic  principles 
and  who  would  find  themselves  unable  to  respect  the  national- 
ist movement,  if  it  could  no  longer  respect  or  trust  itself 
but  should  abdicate  the  representative  and  responsible  popu- 
lar direction  of  the  movement  and  surrender  it  to  a  dictator- 
ship. Both  these  misgivings  and  the  repression  of  them  find 
expression  in  the  editorial  on  "The  Dictator,"  which  appeared 
in  "The  Bombay  Chronicle,"  the  leading  nationalist  newspaper, 
on  December  27th:  "Much  capital  will  be  sought  to  be  made 
by  the  opponents  of  India's  cause  of  the  election  to  virtual 
dictatorship  of  Mahatma  Gandhi,  of  the  vesting  in  him  of  all 
Congress'  authority.  Sudden  solicitude  for  the  principles  of 
democracy  will  animate  the  reactionary  Press  which  will  al- 
most tearfully  tell  the  nation  that  they  have  betrayed  them- 
selves and  the  liberties  of  individuals.  But  no  Nationalist 
will  question  for  a  moment  the  supreme  wisdom  of  the  step. 

"Mahatma  Gandhi  is  no  ordinary  man.  He  is  the  greatest 
man  in  the  world  today.  He  is  to  India  and  the  world  a 
prophet — the  Prophet  of  Freedom.  Those,  who  in  the  past 
put  implicit  trust  in  messengers  of  the  Truth,  did  not  act 
undemocratically  or  unwisely — for  if  they  had  acted  otherwise, 
there  would  be  today  no  religious  system  and  no  moral  code 
existing  in  the  world.  If  anything  were  wanting  to  secure 
India's  confidence  in  ultimate  triumph  of  her  cause,  the  Con- 
gress decision  to  delegate  all  authority  to  Mahatma  Gandhi 
has  supplied  the  deficiency.  Even  the  Mahatma's  bitterest 
enemies  proclaim  him  to  be  a  great  and  good  man.  The  worst 
they  can  say  of  him  is  that  he  is  an  idealist.  The  Mahatma 
and  India  will  admit  the  charge.  For  the  Mahatma  and  India 
have  resolved  to  prove  to  a  sceptic  world  (and  that  very 
shortly)  that  idealism  need  not  necessarily  be  divorced  from 
administration.  If  India  is  to  establish  an  ideal  government 
of  the  country,  who  but  an  idealist  should  lead  her?" 

This  is  a  very  dangerous  position  both  for  Mr.  Gandhi  and 
for  the  movement  in  India  toward  the  development  of  a  true 
national  consciousness.    India  is  seeking  for  self-government 

122 


and  here  on  the  very  threshold  surrenders  the  principles  of 
self-government  to  the  expedient  of  an  autocrat.  And  Mr. 
Gandhi  has  committed  himself  to  opinions  which  he  must 
retract  or  with  which  he  must  deal  insincerely,  because  they 
are  untrue  or  impossible.  I  shall  refer  to  his  religious  posi- 
tion in  another  chapter.  I  have  in  mind  here  the  economic 
and  social  views  which  he  has  expressed.  Let  any  one  read 
Mr.  Gandhi's  book,  "Indian  Home  Rule,"  or  extracts  from  it, 
and  he  will  see  what  a  sure  end  Mr.  Gandhi  has  prepared  for 
his  own  leadership.  These  are  some  of  the  views  expressed 
there:  "Parliaments  are  really  emblems  of  slavery."  "If 
money  and  time  wasted  by  the  Parliament  were  intrusted 
to  a  few  good  men  the  English  nation  would  be  occupying 
today  a  much  higher  platform."  "It  behooves  every  lover 
of  India  to  cling  to  the  old  Indian  civilization  even  as  a  child 
clings  to  its  mother's  breast."  "In  order  to  restore  India 
to  its  pristine  condition,  we  have  to  return  to  it."  "Machinery 
is  the  chief  symbol  of  modern  civilization.  It  represents  a 
great  sin."  "We  should  only  do  what  we  can  with  our  hands 
and  feet."  He  appeals  for  the  retention  of  "the  same  kind 
of  plow  which  existed  thousands  of  years  ago,"  "the  same 
kind  of  cottages  that  we  had  in  former  times."  "Railways 
accentuate  the  evil  nature  of  man."  They  should  be  given 
up  together  with  tram  cars  and  electric  lights.  "Hand-made 
earthen  saucers"  should  be  used  as  lamps.  "Where  this  cursed 
modern  civilization  has  not  reached,  India  remains  as  it  was 
before.  The  English  do  not  rule  over  them.  ...  I  would 
certainly  advise  you  to  go  into  the  interior  that  has  not  yet 
been  polluted  by  the  railways  and  to  live  there  for  six  months. 
You  might  then  be  patriotic  and  speak  of  home  rule.  Now  you 
see  what  I  consider  to  be  real  civilization."  He  opposes  mod- 
ern education.  "Tilak  and  Ram  Mohun  Roy,"  he  has  recently 
said  "would  have  been  far  greater  men  if  they  had  not  had 
the  contagion  of  English  learning."  And  in  his  paper,  "Young 
India,"  January  26,  1921,  he  wrote:  "My  conviction  is  deeper 
today  than  ever.  I  feel  that  if  India  would  discard  modern 
civilization  she  can  only  gain  by  doing  so."  Now  it  is  open 
to  any  man  to  hold  prejudices  and  theories  like  these  and  to 
lament  the  materialistic  temper  that  is  part  but  by  no  means 
the  whole  of  Western  civilization,  but  Mr.  Gandhi's  economics 
and  sociology  are  simple  reaction  and  futility.  He  would  per- 
petuate the  impossible  conditions  of  old  India,  "The  primi- 
tive condition  of  sanitation  in  rural  India  amounts  to  the 
virtual  negation  of  any  sanitation  at  all.  ...  It  has  been 
calculated  that  every  year  no  fewer  than  two  million  Indian 

123 


babies  die  while  many  others  survive  only  to  grow  up  weak 
and  feeble  from  unhygienic  surroundings  during  infancy." 
Yet  Mr.  Gandhi  would  not  have  doctors  and  hospitals,  for 
"hospitals  are  institutions  for  propagating  sin."  Mr.  Gandhi 
himself  has  begun  to  hedge  in  the  interest  of  practical  politics. 
In  "Young  India,"  January  26,  1921,  he  wrote  referring  to  his 
book  on  Home  Rule :  "I  would  warn  the  reader  against  think- 
ing that  I  am  today  aiming  at  the  Swaraj  described  therein. 
I  know  that  India  is  not  ripe  for  it.  It  may  seem  an  imperti- 
nence to  say  so.  But  such  is  my  conviction.  I  am  individually 
working  for  the  self-rule  pictured  therein.  But  today  my 
corporate  activity  is  undoubtedly  devoted  to  the  attainment 
of  Parliamentary  Swaraj  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of 
the  people  of  India.  I  am  not  aiming  at  destroying  railways 
or  hospitals,  though  I  would  certainly  welcome  their  natural 
destruction.  Neither  railways  nor  hospitals  are  a  test  of  high 
and  pure  civilization.  At  best  they  are  a  necessary  evil. 
Neither  adds  one  inch  to  the  moral  stature  of  a  nation.  Nor 
am  I  aiming  at  a  permanent  destruction  of  law  courts,  much 
as  I  regard  it  as  a  'consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished  for.' 
Still  less  am  I  trying  to  destroy  all  machinery  and  mills.  It 
requires  a  higher  simplicity  and  renunciation  than  the  people 
are  today  prepared  for. 

"I  offer  these  comments  because  I  observe  that  much  is  be- 
ing quoted  from  the  booklet  to  discredit  the  present  move- 
ment. I  have  even  seen  writing  suggesting  that  I  am  playing 
a  deep  game,  that  I  am  using  the  present  turmoil  to  foist  my 
fads  on  India,  and  am  making  religious  experiments  at  India's 
expense.  I  can  only  answer  that  Satyagraha  is  made  of  sterner 
stuff.  There  is  nothing  reserved  and  nothing  secret  in  it.  A 
portion  of  the  whole  theory  of  life  described  in  'Hind  Swaraj' 
is  undoubtedly  being  carried  into  practice.  There  is  no  danger 
attendant  upon  the  whole  of  it  being  practiced.  But  it  is 
not  right  to  scare  away  people  by  reproducing  from  my  writ- 
ings passages  that  are  irrelevant  to  the  issue  before  the 
country." 

One  studies  the  phenomenom  of  Mr.  Gandhi's  influence  and 
leadership  with  the  deepest  interest.  There  is  no  possibility, 
however,  that  India  will  follow  in  the  pathway  either  political 
or  economic  which  he  has  marked  out.  It  is  clear,  as  Mr. 
S.  N.  Agnihotri,  the  President  of  the  Dev  Samaj,  declares, 
that  Mr.  Gandhi  "considers  parliamentary  government,  that 
is  government  by  elected  representatives  of  the  people  for  the 
people  a  sign  of  slavery  and  waste  of  money  and  time  and 
instead  of  this  he  advocates  the  government  by  a  few  men. 

124 


In  short,  the  democratic  ideal  of  government,  ideal  of  govern- 
ment by  the  people  and  for  the  people,  is  rejected  by  Mr. 
Gandhi,  and  it  appears  that  in  place  of  the  English  bureau- 
cracy he  wants  an  autocracy  of  a  few  Indians."  But  even 
if  this  were  not  a  justified  charge,  it  is  none  the  less  clear  from 
Mr.  Gandhi's  writings  that  he  would  be  satisfied  with  forms 
of  government  with  which  the  great  body  of  educated  Indians 
who  have  breathed  the  spirit  of  English  freedom  will  never 
be  satisfied. 

Likewise  India  will  not  follow  on  Mr.  Gandhi's  economic 
pathway.  No  doubt  the  achievement  of  independence  at  pres- 
ent might  mean,  as  Mr.  Gandhi  argues  is  desirable,  the  disin- 
tegration of  railway  and  telegraph  service  and  the  deteriora- 
tion of  roads,  industries,  irrigation  canals,  and  the  innumer- 
able contributions  of  civilization  which  Great  Britain  has  in- 
troduced. But  India  will  never  consent  to  this  return  to 
"its  pristine  condition,"  to  economic  infancy.  One  can  only 
conclude  that  great  forces,  either  personal  or  impersonal, 
which  will  never  follow  Mr.  Gandhi  politically  or  economically 
are  still,  either  deliberately  or  unconsciously,  making  use  of 
him  and  of  the  tremendous  influence  which  he  wields  for  the 
sake  of  securing  ends,  which  once  secured  will  make  Mr. 
Ghandi's  disappearance  from  the  place  of  control  both  pos- 
sible and  inevitable.  All  this,  as  I  have  said,  may  be  un- 
conscious and  it  may  be  impersonal,  but  it  is  the  explanation 
which  would  suggest  itself  to  any  one  who  is  studying  the 
present  movement  dispassionately  and  who  has  to  account 
for  a  situation  which  is  full  either  of  intellectual  contradic- 
tion or  of  moral  insincerity.  This  second  alternative  one  de- 
sires to  reject.  In  so  far  as  he  is  able  to  do  so  the  intellectual 
paradox  is  intensified. 

The  problem  is  no  simpler  nor  the  difficulty  less  when  one 
turns  from  personalities  to  policies.  The  program  under 
which  the  nationalistic  movement  has  been  proceeding  the 
past  year  was  adopted  at  a  special  meeting  of  the  Indian 
National  Congress  held  in  Calcutta  in  September,  1920.  The 
Moderate  party  held  entirely  aloof  from  the  Congress.  They 
share  fully  in  the  present  national  spirit  in  India  and  in  the 
desire  for  independence,  but  they  want  this  independence 
within  the  Empire,  and  they  were  opposed  to  Mr.  Gandhi's 
program.  Many  of  Mr.  Gandhi's  own  party  were  opposed 
to  his  recommendations,  but  nevertheless  they  prevailed. 
They  called  for  the  surrender  of  titles  and  government  offices, 
the  refusal  to  attend  government  functions,  for  the  with- 
drawal of  students  from  schools  and  colleges  controlled  or 

125 


aided  by  the  government,  for  the  boycott  of  the  courts  by 
lawyers  and  Htigants,  for  the  refusal  of  military  service  in 
Mesopotamia,  for  abstention  from  candidacy  or  voting  in 
connection  with  the  political  reforms,  and  they  contemplated 
as  further  measures,  not  at  that  time  yet  adopted,  civil  dis- 
obedience, the  refusal  to  pay  taxes,  and  the  cessation  of  en- 
listment in  the  army  and  police.  At  the  regular  meeting 
of  the  Congress  at  Nagpur  at  the  end  of  December,  1920,  in 
spite  of  many  secessions  and  protests,  Mr.  Gandhi's  creed 
was  reaffirmed,  and  Article  1  of  the  Constitution  of  the  Con- 
gress as  adopted  in  1908  was  amended.  It  had  read:  "The 
objects  of  the  Indian  National  Congress  are  the  attainment 
by  the  people  of  India  of  a  system  of  Government  similar  to 
that  enjoyed  by  the  self-governing  members  of  the  British 
Empire  and  a  participation  by  them  in  the  rights  and  respon- 
sibilities of  the  Empire  on  equal  terms  with  those  members. 
These  objects  are  to  be  achieved  by  constitutional  means  by 
bringing  about  a  steady  reform  of  the  existing  system  of  ad- 
ministration and  by  promoting  national  unity,  fostering  pub- 
lic spirit  and  developing  and  organizing  the  intellectual,  moral, 
economic  and  industrial  resources  of  the  country."  This  article 
was  eliminated  and  the  new  Article  1  is  as  follows:  "The 
object  of  the  Indian  National  Congress  is  the  attainment  of 
Swaraj  by  the  people  of  India  by  all  legitimate  and  peaceful 
means."  Mr.  Gandhi  was  clear  in  his  teaching  that  the  means 
used  must  be  peaceful,  that  the  policy  to  be  followed  as  he 
repeatedly  insisted  was  to  be  one  of  "non-violent  non-coopera- 
tion," that  India  must  win  its  freedom  not  by  physical  force 
but  by  "soul  force."  He  held  that  the  real  trouble  with  India 
was  its  "slave  mentality,"  the  harlotry  of  its  spirit  with 
Western  civilization  and  modern  education,  that  salvation 
was  to  be  found  in  intellectual  and  economic  self-sufficiency, 
that  non-cooperation  though  a  negative  term  covered  a  deeply 
positive  policy,  a  policy  of  self-reliance,  self-purification,  self- 
discipline,  and  self-realization  (Vaswani,  "India  in  Chains"). 

It  was  pointed  out  by  the  Moderates  and  others  who  sym- 
pathized with  a  reasonable  principle  of  swadeshi,  or  develop- 
ment of  home  industries,  and  who  believed  in  Indian  self-gov- 
ernment and  who  approved  of  its  achievement  by  the  legiti- 
mate and  peaceful  means  of  constitutional  agitation  and  par- 
liamentary reform,  that  the  methods  which  Mr.  Gandhi  was 
advocating,  the  definitions  and  the  indefinitions  which  he  was 
putting  forward,  the  spirit  that  he  was  engendering,  and 
the  forces  which  he  was  releasing  were  certain  to  play  havoc 
with  his  principle  of  non-violence  and  to  rob  "soul  force" 

126 


of  its  spiritual  power.  The  events  of  the  year  have  proved 
that  these  forecasts  were  justified.  In  any  other  land  than 
India  the  consequences  might  have  been  far  more  grave  and 
disastrous;  how  grave  and  disastrous  they  have  been  even 
in  India  perhaps  does  not  yet  appear.  It  would  seem,  how- 
ever, that  the  bonfires  which  have  burned  up  foreign  cloth 
in  the  name  of  swadeshi  have  burned  up  some  other  things 
as  well.  It  has  become  clear,  as  Mr.  Gandhi  has  sorrowfully 
acknowledged,  that  his  name  and  the  cause  that  he  represents, 
in  spite  of  the  principle  of  non-violence,  may  be  made  to  cover 
gross  violence  and  wrong.  Posters  used  in  Lahore  at  the  time 
of  the  outbreak  in  April,  1919,  "called  upon  the  brave  people 
of  Punjab  to  enlist  in  the  Danda  Fauj  and  kill  the  English, 
who  were  described  as  pigs,  monkeys,  and  kafirs,"  and  the 
same  month  posters  were  put  up  in  Lyalpur  in  which  "In- 
dians were  called  upon  in  the  blessed  name  of  Mahatma 
Gandhi  to  fight  to  the  death  against  English  cheats  and  to 
dishonor  English  women."  No  one  lamented  such  outrageous 
proceedings  more  than  Mr.  Gandhi.  He  denounced  the  "mobo- 
cracy"  of  his  followers.  When  on  November  17th,  when  we 
were  in  Bombay,  on  the  day  of  the  arrival  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  riots  were  begun  by  men  who  call  themselves  Mr. 
Gandhi's  followers  and  who  wore  the  Gandhi  caps  and  home 
spun  cloth,  and  scores  of  lives  were  lost,  no  one  mourned 
more  deeply  than  Mr.  Ghandi.  But  Mr.  Gandhi  has  been 
warned  again  and  again  by  his  own  countrymen  and  by  those 
who  have  been  among  his  closest  followers,  both  that  the 
words  he  has  been  speaking  and  the  principles  he  has  been 
advocating  were  bound  to  result  in  bloodshed  and  violence. 
In  a  pamphlet  entitled  "Mr.  Gandhi  and  the  Light  of  Truth," 
Mr.  Agnihotri  wrote  last  November:  "Alas,  he  is  unable  to 
see  that  the  abominable  and  very  horrible  fire  of  race  hatred 
which  he  ...  is  kindling  into  flame,  will  surely  bring  great 
havoc  in  India,  of  which  the  riots  that  have  hitherto  occurred 
are  but  only  forerunners.  It  appears,  however,  that  he  him- 
self is  not  altogether  unaware  of  this,  and  he  is  not  at  all 
anxious  to  avoid  violence  in  future.  For  the  following  sig- 
nificant lines  appeared  lately  in  his  own  journal  called  'Young 
India'  over  his  familiar  initials  M.  K.  G. : 

"  *We  must  be  scrupulously  truthful  to  our  pledge.  We 
can  succeed  beyond  all  expectation  only  if  we  remain  non- 
violent in  thought,  word  and  deed.  It  need  not  be  our  final 
creed,  but  it  must  be  our  present  creed  for  the  attainment 
of  our  goal.     ('Tribune,'  17th  July,  1921.) 

"  'Again,  Mr.  Gandhi  said  in  his  'Young  India' : 

127 


"  'I  can  clearly  see  the  time  coming  to  me  when  I  must 
refuse  obedience  to  every  single  state-made  law,  even  though 
there  may  he  a  certainty  of  bloodshed.'  (Vide  'Indian  Mirror,' 
August,  1921.) 

"Do  not  Mr.  Gandhi's  words  that  have  been  italicised  by  me, 
give  sufficient  ground  to  strongly  suspect  that  the  creed  of 
non-violence  of  which  so  much  fuss  is  being  made  by  non- 
cooperators,  is  only  a  temporary  political  ruse,  as  long  as  they 
are  weak  in  physical  force,  but  as  soon  as  they  get  the  re- 
quired physical  force,  they  will  become  ready  to  wade  through 
blood  to  attain  their  goal  of  worldly  Raj  and  power,  and  it 
can  not  long  remain  Non-violent  Non-cooperation." 

And  Mrs.  Annie  Besant,  who  for  years  had  been  almost 
as  conspicuous  a  figure  in  the  National  Congress  as  Mr. 
Gandhi  has  become,  wrote  when  at  last  the  Government  felt 
that  it  was  forced  to  take  action  to  check  the  disorderly  forces 
released  by  Mr.  Gandhi's  policy:  "Many  have  been  blaming 
the  Government  of  India  for  a  policy  of  drastic  repression 
which  has  not  only  been  unduly  severe  but  leads  nowhere. 
Such  censure  ignores  the  fact  that  the  policy  of  Mr.  Gandhi 
has  been  deliberately  and  intentionally  provocative,  and  that 
defiance  of  the  law  for  the  mere  sake  of  defiance  encourages 
a  spirit  of  lawlessness  among  the  ignorant  and  the  criminal 
classes  which  strikes  at  the  very  foundations  of  society.  If 
the  present  Government  permitted  this  to  continue  unchecked 
they  would  bequeath  to  their  Indian  successors  the  painful 
task  of  reducing  to  order  the  chaos  they  had  permitted,  instead 
of  handing  over  to  them  a  well  ordered  and  law  abiding  people. 
....  The  whole  responsibility,  therefore,  now  rests  on  Mr. 
Gandhi  and  the  non-cooperators,  for  the  Government  cannot 
remain  quiescent  in  the  presence  of  intimidation  and  the  para- 
lyzing of  the  peaceful  life  of  the  community.  ...  He  might 
have  restored  peace  to  the  country  and  ensured  constitutional 
progress.  He  has  chosen  the  path  of  law-breaking  and  revo- 
lution, which  can  only  lead  to  bloodshed  and  anarchy." 

There  are  those  who  think  that  Mr.  Gandhi's  eyes  are  wide 
open  in  this  matter  and  who  believe  that  the  creed  of  non- 
violence is  not  a  creed  of  conviction  and  principle.  The  lead- 
ing Indian  in  West  India  told  me  that  Mr.  Gandhi  had  said 
to  him,  "If  I  had  arms,  I  would  use  them."  But  I  believe  that 
the  true  Gandhi  does  not  want  violence  and  would  count  it 
a  great  triumph  to  lead  India  along  peaceful  ways  to  Swaraj. 
But  one  difficulty  is  that  Swaraj  is  still  undefined.  And  ah- 
other  is  that  the  forces  which  appear  to  be  united  under  his 
leadership  are  not  united  on  the  principle  of  non-violence. 

128 


The  last  newspaper  which  we  saw  before  leaving  India,  the 
"Bombay  Chronicle"  of  December  27,  1921,  one  of  the  organs 
of  the  nationalist  party,  contained  significant  statements  on 
both  these  points  in  its  report  of  the  All  India  Congress  just 
beginning  its  sessions  in  Mr.  Gandhi's  home  city  of  Ahme- 
dabad : 

"At  five  this  evening,  the  All-India  Congress  Committee 
adjourned  till  Tuesday  morning  without  making  any  appreci- 
able progress  in  connection  with  the  main  resolution  which 
alone  was  discussed  today.  .  .  .  Almost  from  the  beginning. 
Maulana  Hasrat  Mohani,  President-elect  of  the  All-India 
Moslem  League,  led  the  opposition,  demanding  deletion  from 
the  resolution  of  those  phrases  which  excluded  the  possibility 
of  resort  to  violence,  or  even  the  thought  of  it,  so  long  as  the 
pledge  of  non-violence  was  in  force.  Mr.  Hasrat  Mohani 
emphasized  that  as  Islam  allowed  him  to  take  to  violence  he 
did  not  want  the  door  closed  against  him  by  insertion  of  the 
phrase  which  said  that  non-violence  alone  could  help  them  to 
achieve  their  end.  On  being  pointed  out  that  his  contention 
indirectly  involved  a  change  in  the  Congress  creed  the  Maulana 
observed  that  he  already  intended  to  move  in  the  open  Con- 
gress for  such  a  change Maulana  Hasrat  Mohani  is 

a  recognized  leader  of  the  minority  which  counts  among  its 
ranks  not  only  some  staunch  Mussalmans  but  several  equally 
staunch  Hindus.  .  .  .  Another  resolution  defines  the  meaning 
of  Swaraj,  and  declares  that  in  the  event  of  the  British  people 
making  common  cause  with  the  people  of  India,  in  securing 
the  redress  of  the  Khilafat  and  Punjab  wrongs,  the  Congress 
has  no  desire  to  declare  complete  independence,  but  in  the 
event  of  the  British  people  and  Government  remaining  hostile 
to  the  Khilafat  and  not  making  full  reparation  for  the  Punjab 
wrongs,  the  Congress  will  strive  to  sever  all  connection  with 
England  and  declare  complete  independence.  The  Congress  de- 
clares its  irrevocable  decision  not  to  enter  into  any  compromise 
or  settlement  with  Government  about  Swaraj  without  the  set- 
tlement of  the  Khilafat  question.  Another  resolution  congratu- 
lates Ghazi  Mustafa  Kemal  and  the  Turks  on  their  success 
and  assures  the  Turkish  nation  of  India's  sympathy  and  sup- 
port in  its  struggle  to  retain  its  status  and  independence." 

Often  in  talking  with  educated  Indians  we  told  them  that 
the  two  things  that  it  was  most  difficult  for  Americans  to 
understand  in  the  present  day  thought  of  India  were  the  Hindu 
idea  of  the  sacredness  of  the  cow  and  the  Khilafat  movement 
with  its  anxiety  for  the  restoration  and  preservation  of  Tur- 
key.    Regarding  the  sacredness  of  the  cow  I  shall  speak  in 

129 


5 — India   and  Persia 


a  chapter  on  present  religious  conditions  in  India.  With 
regard  to  the  Khilafat  agitation,  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to 
determine  how  much  of  it  is  genuine  and  how  much  of  it  is 
nothing  but  a  political  agitation  used  to  embarrass  the  Gov- 
ernment and  to  furnish  nourishment  for  the  program  of 
Hindu-Moslem  unity.  The  rottenness  and  incapacity  of  Turk- 
ish government,  the  oppression  and  massacre  of  its  Chris- 
tian subjects,  the  fictitious  character  of  its  religious  preten- 
sions, these  are  so  indisputable  and  so  notorious  that  it  is 
hard  to  see  how  intelligent  Indians  can  maintain  the  agitation 
without  a  blush  or  at  least  without  a  smile.  When  we  asked 
for  an  explanation  from  one  very  able  Hindu  lawyer,  he  re- 
plied that  he  felt  about  the  matter  just  as  we  did,  and  that 
if  things  were  settled  in  this  world  on  a  basis  of  righteousness, 
the  Turkish  government  would  be  wiped  out,  but  they  were 
not  settled  on  this  basis  but  on  a  basis  of  expediency.  India 
saw  this  with  perfect  clearness  and  intended  to  use  the  lever- 
age that  the  Turkish  situation  gave  it  to  put  pressure  upon 
the  British  Government  in  India.  And  they  have  done  so 
with  great  success,  as  witness  the  actions  of  the  Government 
of  India  in  response  to  the  Khilafat  demands,  the  answers 
of  the  Government  of  Great  Britain  both  to  these  demands 
and  to  the  Government  of  India,  in  connection  with  them,  and 
such  statements  as  Sir  Theodore  Morrison's  letter  in  the 
London  "Times"  and  the  editorial  which  accompanied  its  re- 
publication in  the  "Times  of  India"  of  December  23,  1921.  And 
without  one  word  regarding  the  history  and  character  of 
Turkish  rule  or  her  deliberate  murder  of  her  Christian  people, 
the  Indian  Nationalist  organ  calmly  demands  the  immediate 
and  unconditional  restoration  of  Constantinople  and  the  full 
and  undiscussable  recognition  of  Khilafat  claims,  and  the 
Indian  National  Congress  will  have  no  freedom  for  India 
that  is  not  preceded  by  the  freedom  of  Turkey.  It  is  not  to 
wondered  at  that  there  are  many  Christians  in  India  who  look 
with  misgiving  upon  such  a  Swaraj,  nor  is  it  surprising  that 
many  Hindus  look  with  amazement  upon  such  an  alliance. 

If  this  unity  of  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  were  real  it 
would  have  tremendous  significance  for  the  history  of  religion 
and  for  the  missionary  enterprise  and  the  Christian  Church 
in  India.  It  is  certainly  not  real.  Not  one  of  all  the  men  with 
whom  we  talked,  who  could  be  thought  of  as  taking  a  de- 
tached view  of  Indian  conditions,  believed  in  the  reality  of 
this  Hindu-Moslem  unity.  One  of  the  ablest  Hindus  said 
quite  bluntly,  "I  don't  believe  in  this  idea  of  Mohammedan 
democracy  or  brotherhood  at  all.     There  is  no  democracy 

130 


whatever  in  Islam  outside  of  the  mosque."  "Hindu-Moslem 
unity,"  said  one  of  the  leading  Mohammedan  Christians,  "will 
not  last  one  day  after  the  attainment  of  Swaraj."  These 
were  no  doubt  both  over-emphatic  statements.  Yet  all  over 
India  there  were  religious  clashes  between  the  Hindus  and  the 
Mohammedans  in  1920,  and  while  there  have  been  many  honest 
and  laudable  efforts  to  draw  the  two  communities  together 
and  while  they  must  learn  to  live  together  in  a  free  India, 
they  are  bound  together  now  by  a  negative  hostility  alone 
and  by  none  of  the  positive  unifying  influences  without  which 
the  attainment  of  Mr.  Gandhi's  Swaraj  will  bring  disaster  to 
both  of  them. 

There  are  many  other  elements  in  the  political  situation  in 
India  which  have  their  bearing  upon  the  problem  of  the 
Church  and  the  Missions,  but  this  discussion  has  already 
reached  undue  limits  and  has  perhaps  gone  beyond  the  ordi- 
nary bounds  of  such  a  report  as  this.  We  shall  certainly  be 
asked,  however,  several  questions  which  missionaries  and  In- 
dian Christians  are  asking  themselves  in  India. 

1.  What  is  the  British  Government  intending  to  do?  It 
can  safely  and  surely  be  said  that  it  will  try  to  do  what  is 
right.  The  Secretary  of  State  for  India  has  said  very  clearly 
in  Parliament  that  the  Government  intends  to  go  forward 
with  the  present  reform  scheme  in  the  orderly  development 
of  self-government  for  India  within  the  Empire,  and  although 
one  hears  British  officials  in  India  speak  as  though  something 
more  radical  than  this  is  to  be  expected,  and  although  people 
wondered  in  India  what  could  be  the  meaning  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales'  visit  if  he  were  not  coming  to  offer  India  some- 
thing more  than  had  been  promised  or  to  offer  it  more  expe- 
ditiously, nevertheless  the  official  utterance  both  at  home 
and  in  India  has  been  clear,  and  whatever  course  others  may 
take  it  is  within  the  bounds  of  that  utterance  that  the  Church 
and  the  Missions  should  do  their  thinking  and  plan  their  work. 
If  the  British  Government  of  India  were  an  oppressive 
tyranny  or  if  it  were  resisting  the  legitimate  aspirations  of 
the  people,  the  problem  of  the  Indian  Church  would  be  dif- 
ferent, but  while  the  Government  may  have  been  paternal- 
istic and  dilatory  in  its  past  recognition  and  development  of 
Indian  autonomy,  it  is  seeking  with  the  highest  conscience 
and  with  a  changed  attitude  of  mind,  which  is  as  wonderful 
as  it  must  have  been  psychologically  difficult,  to  abandon 
once  for  all,  as  Lord  Chelmsford  said,  the  old  principle  of 
autocracy  and  to  replace  British  rule  by  Indian  rule.  It 
would  be  a  great  day  for  India  if  the  forces  which  Mr.  Gandhi 

131 


leads  should  cordially  give  themselves  to  the  peaceful  work- 
ing out  of  this  program  and  abandon  the  agitation  of  hatred 
and  of  separation,  and  forego  the  substitution  of  exceptional 
grievances  or  mistakes  or  fabricated  agitations  like  the  Khila- 
fat  movement  for  the  steady  processes  of  justice  and  freedom 
which  are  under  way.  Americans  are  estopped  by  the  facts 
of  their  own  national  history  from  denying  the  right  of  revo- 
lution, but  they  have  learned  from  their  own  national  history 
also  how  much  wiser  are  the  constructive  processes  of  justice 
and  brotherhood  than  the  upheaval  and  ruin  of  rebellion. 

2.  Is  India  ready  for  self-government?  India  has  been  well 
governed  by  Great  Britain,  but  the  conviction  of  India  and 
the  policy  of  the  British  Government  now  agree  that  she  is 
ready  for  a  larger  measure  of  self-government  than  she  has 
had.  The  National  Congress  claims  that  she  is  ready  for 
complete  self-government  at  once.  The  student  class  take  the 
same  view.  In  one  sense  their  position  is  the  right  one.  It 
is  a  bad  thing  for  a  nation  to  be  told  or  to  tell  itself  that  it  is 
not  capable  of  self-government.  With  all  the  excesses  of 
thought  and  language  which  ever  accompany  in  history  such 
nationalistic  movements  as  this  one  that  is  now  going  on  in 
India,  one  nevertheless  rejoices  in  the  upheaval,  and  he  is 
sorry  to  hear  Indians  speak  of  their  slave  mentality,  their 
race  servility,  their  political  impotence.  These  certainly  are 
not  self-respecting  terms.  What  one  wants  to  see  is  just 
what  is  going  on  inside  the  Christian  Church  in  India.  Here 
with  far  less  to  be  regretted  than  is  to  be  found  in  politics, 
men  are  setting  themselves  to  the  building  in  Indian  life  of 
those  qualities  of  character  and  those  conceptions  of  human 
relationships  on  which  alone  a  true  and  free  state  can  be  built. 
Here  they  are  seeking  to  achieve  the  unity  which  has  never 
existed  in  India  and  without  which  there  can  not  be  a  united 
national  life  in  India.  I  know  that  there  are  those  who,  in 
the  interests  of  this  national  life,  are  glorifying  India's  past 
and  discovering  there  a  unity  which  they  think  will  suffice  for 
India's  present  need.  They  are  mistaken.  There  never  was 
such  a  unity  in  India,  and  there  is  not  now  a  unity  that  can 
stand  the  strain  of  a  modern  solidified  nationality.  The  great 
body  of  Indian  people  deride  the  idea,  but  it  is  a  fact  never- 
theless which  they  might  learn  from  a  book  which  many  of 
them  are  fond  of  quoting.  Sir  John  Seely's  "The  Expansion 
of  England,"  that  India  is  not  united  and  that  neither  Hin- 
duism nor  Mohammedanism  will  ever  unite  her,  and  that 
Christianity  can. 

3.     Will  the  future  unfold  in  peace  or  will  there  be  revolu- 

132 


tion  and  war?  One  hears  this  question  answered  in  both 
ways.  It  will  be  enough  if  I  give  the  reasons  which  we  heard 
in  India  for  the  hopeful  view,  (a)  The  responsible  men  in 
India  are  preparing  not  for  anarchy  but  for  order  and  pro- 
gress. The  number  of  people  who  would  profit  temporarily 
by  a  redistribution  of  wealth  in  India  is  enormous,  but  those 
who  possess  wealth  are  not  in  fear  of  any  such  upheaval.  In 
spite  of  Mr.  Gandhi's  denunciation  of  machinery  and  indus- 
try, Indians  are  buying  up  all  the  capital  stock  they  can  in 
British  mills  and  are  founding  constantly  new  enterprises  of 
their  own.  In  city  after  city  they  are  acquiring  land  and 
building  new  homes  of  the  most  modern  type.  Government 
loans  are  oversubscribed  at  once.  Land  owners  whose  titles 
run  from  the  British  Government  in  India  instead  of  getting 
rid  of  such  property  because  of  its  insecurity  are  eager  to 
acquire  more.  The  National  Congress  in  September,  1920, 
called  for  the  surrender  of  all  titles  and  government  offices. 
Out  of  an  approximate  total  of  5,000  title  holders,  up  to 
February,  1921,  titles  had  been  surrendered  by  twenty-one. 
In  one  large  city  we  were  accidentally  caught  in  the  midst 
of  a  great  mass  of  people  in  the  main  street  of  the  city  on 
the  great  day  of  the  Ramalila  festival.  We  were  able  barely 
to  make  our  way  through  the  crowd  to  the  police  station.  On 
either  side  of  our  car  gangs  of  young  men  wearing  Gandhi 
caps  and  carrying  lathies  were  shouting,  "Mahatma  Gandhi 
Ki  ji"  ("Victory  to  Saint  Gandhi"),  while  others  answered 
back,  "Angrezon  Ki  chhai"  ("Destruction  to  the  English"). 
I  asked  the  Deputy  Superintendent  of  Police  as  we  watched 
the  Ramalila  procession  go  by  with  its  floats  on  which  there 
were  cauldrons  burning  foreign  cloth,  and  representations 
of  General  Dyer  with  bloody  victims  lying  before  him  at 
Amritzar,  and  of  the  Ali  brothers  in  an  iron  cage,  and  of 
Mr.  Gandhi  proclaiming  Swaraj,  whether  trouble  would  not 
come  from  all  this.  "No,"  he  said,  "this  is  an  escape  valve. 
The  responsible  men  are  not  doing  this.  We  know  the  real 
facts,  and  we  know  that  the  really  responsible  people  of  India 
who  have  property  investment  in  the  country  at  stake  are 
not  financing  disorder."  Perhaps  he  was  over-optimistic,  but 
it  is  certainly  true  that  the  economic  forces  of  India  are 
expecting  not  anarchy  but  peace. 

(b)  "No,"  we  were  told  again  and  again,  "India  is  not  a 
land  of  violence.  The  Indian  people  are  a  mild  and  peace- 
loving  people."  Perhaps  such  views  forget  too  much,  includ- 
ing Nana  Sahib  and  the  Rani  of  Jhansi,  but  they  are  certainly 
true  of  the  Indian  people.    The  report  of  the  Government  of 

133 


India  on  the  disturbances  in  the  Punjab  in  the  spring  of  1919 
states  that  "It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  loyalty  of  India 
as  a  whole  remained  unshaken,  and  that  even  in  the  Punjab 
the  bulk  of  the  population  maintained  its  reputation  and  did 
not  fall  a  victim  to  the  infection  which  so  disastrously  affected 
a  portion  of  it.  .  .  .  The  vast  rural  tract  in  the  five  districts 
concerned  have  remained  tranquil  and  loyal."  Even  the  shout- 
ing crowds  of  whom  I  spoke  a  moment  ago  seemed  to  be  act- 
ing more  in  sport  than  in  anger  although  no  doubt  a  fanatic 
might  throw  a  match  into  such  powder  with  disaster,  as 
happened  in  the  riots  among  "the  hooligans  of  Bombay,"  as 
Mr.  Gandhi  called  them.  But  certainly  the  great  mass  of 
simple  village  people  in  India,  making  up  eighty-five  per  cent 
of  the  population,  are  not  people  of  violence,  and  they  know 
of  no  quarrel  which  they  have  with  the  Government.  No 
doubt  they  have  been  deeply  affected  by  Mr.  Gandhi's  cam- 
paign. Probably  no  single  name  is  known  so  well  through 
the  Indian  villages  as  his,  although  we  listened  to  many  in- 
teresting disputes  as  to  the  extent  to  which,  after  all,  the 
nationalistic  movement  has  affected  the  village  life  of  India. 

(c)  "There  will  undoubtedly  be  disturbance,"  said  the 
British  Resident  in  one  of  the  Native  States,  "but  it  will  be 
sporadic  and  the  Government  will  be  able  to  suppress  it  in 
one  section  before  it  emerges  in  another,  and  in  the  end  the 
transition  will  be  peacefully  made."  This  has  been  true  of 
the  situation  thus  far.  It  seems  likely  to  continue  to  be  true 
if  the  army  and  the  police  remain  loyal.  Some  say  that  they 
will  not,  especially  the  police.  Others  declare  that  they  will. 
And  it  is  always  to  be  remembered  that  one-third  of  India  is 
made  up  of  Native  States  and  that  one-fourth  of  the  population 
of  India  lives  in  these  States  and  that  for  various  reasons 
the  rulers  of  these  States  are  dead  set  against  the  nationalistic 
movement.  Mr.  Gandhi  would  not  be  allowed  to  set  foot  in 
some  of  them,  and  even  the  white  homespun  caps  which  bear 
his  name  are  forbidden. 

(d)  Ideals  of  justice  and  right  are  abroad  in  India.  It  is 
in  their  name  that,  justly  or  unjustly,  the  new  movements 
in  India  claim  that  they  are  proceeding.  Surely  they  will 
prevail,  and  the  new  day  dawn  in  peace. 

And  yet  this  whole  view  may  be  proved  false  before  this 
letter  reaches  America. 

S.  S.  Varsova, 

Persian  Gulf,  January  4,  1922. 


134 


4.     SOME    ASPECTS    OF    THE    PRESENT    ECONOMIC 

AND  RELIGIOUS  ENVIRONMENT  OF  THE 

CHURCH  IN  INDIA 

If  it  is  difficult  to  appraise  justly  the  present  social  and 
political  tendencies  in  India,  it  is  still  more  difficult  to  form  a 
just  judgment,  and  especially  a  just  comparative  judgment, 
as  to  religious  conditions.  The  facts  for  which  one  is  seeking 
are  intangible.  Both  the  witnesses  and  the  weigher  of  their 
testimony  are  inevitably  biased.  Even  neutrality  in  religious 
judgments  is  itself  a  bias.  In  any  comparison  of  the  present 
with  the  past  the  difficulty  of  fixing  the  first  term  of  the  com- 
parison is  insignificant  in  contrast  with  the  difficulty  of  fixing 
the  second  term.  Our  knowledge  of  the  actual  religious  con- 
ditions of  any  ancient  period  is  very  unsatisfactory  and  un- 
dependable  knowledge.  When  we  consider  what  opposite 
opinions  one  hears  in  America  as  to  whether  Christianity  is 
gaining  or  losing  ground,  whether  present  conditions  are  bet- 
ter or  worse  than  conditions  a  generation  or  a  century  ago, 
whether  men  are  losing  faith  or  regaining  it,  one  can  realize 
how  much  harder  it  is  to  form  a  right  judgment 
in  India  where  religion  is  unorganized  and  without  sta- 
tistics of  its  own,  where  there  are  no  fixed  creeds  or  defini- 
tions, and  where  almost  anything  may  be  allowed  or  denied 
the  name  of  religion. 

1.  Economic  conditions  may  be  more  surely  grasped,  and 
it  will  be  best  to  begin  with  these.  The  outstanding  fact  con- 
ditioning many  of  the  problems  of  the  Church  is  the  poverty 
of  India.  The  opponents  of  the  Government  compare  the 
present  with  an  idyllic  past  and  hold  that  the  masses  of  India 
are  becoming  ever  poorer  under  British  rule.  "The  evidence 
to  the  contrary,"  Dr.  Rushbrook  Williams  writes  in  his  1920 
"Report  to  Parliament,"  "is  apparently  very  strong,  even 
if  it  be  indirect.  The  increasing  popularity  of  railway  travel, 
as  witnessed  by  the  ever-growing  numbers  of  third-class  pas- 
sengers, would  seem  to  indicate  that  more  money  is  available, 
over  and  above  the  bare  necessaries  of  life,  than  was  previ- 
ously the  case.  The  recent  greatly  increased  absorption  of 
rupees,  which  two  years  ago  threatened  the  whole  currency- 
system  of  India  with  inconvertibility,  combined  with  the 
growing  employment  of  silver  for  purposes  of  adornment 
by  classes  of  the  population  previously,  and  within  living 
memory,  accustomed  to  brass  and  iron,  would  seem  to  point 

135 


in  the  same  direction.  Further,  the  gradual  substitution  of 
a  monetary  for  a  natural  system  of  economy,  with  its  accom- 
paniments of  dependence  upon  imported  cloth,  imported  min- 
eral oil  and  imported  metal  utensils  for  domestic  purposes, 
would  seem  to  show  that  those  who  advance  India's  claim  to 
increasing  prosperity  have  something  more  than  personal 
prejudice  upon  which  to  base  their  contention.  But  symptoms 
of  increasing  prosperity  such  as  have  been  described,  cannot 
blind  the  observer  to  the  poverty  which  besets  masses  of  the 
Indian  population — poverty  of  a  kind  which  finds  no  parallel 
in  the  more  exigent  because  less  tropical,  climate  of  Europe. 
That  the  resisting  powers  of  the  poorer  classes  are  on  the 
increase,  may  fairly  be  deduced  from  the  manner,  already 
mentioned,  in  which  the  famine  crisis  of  1919  was  sur- 
mounted ;  but  it  is  equally  true  that  the  recent  high  prices 
have  been  the  cause  of  much  suffering  which  is  not  the  less 
real  because  of  the  silent  endurance  of  the  suft'erers.  It  is 
little  indeed  that  any  administration  can  do  to  mitigate  the 
gigantic  problem  of  Indian  poverty,  although,  as  was  amply 
apparent  in  1919,  governmental  action  may  in  times  of  crisis 
avert  sudden  disaster.  Even  today  with  all  the  knowledge 
and  science  of  the  West  at  his  disposal,  man  can  in  India  do 
little  as  compared  with  the  monsoon.  As  time  goes  on,  it 
may  be  hoped  that  the  increased  development  of  India's  re- 
sources will  gradually  create  a  per  capita  figure  of  wealth 
which  will  suffice  for  her  needs  as  a  nation.  But  the  industrial 
regeneration  of  two  hundred  and  forty  millions  of  people, 
the  majority  of  whom  are  poor  and  helpless  beyond  Western 
conception,  is  not  a  matter  which  can  be  accomplished  in  a 
few  years." 

Primarily  the  problem  is  an  agricultural  problem.  Dr. 
Williams  sets  this  forth  in  his  report.  "For  many  years  to 
come,  the  prosperity  of  India  seems  destined  to  rest  upon 
agriculture  rather  than  upon  industries.  Three  persons  out 
of  every  four  in  India  gain  their  livelihood  directly  from  the 
soil.  Hence  it  is  that  the  improvement  of  that  livelihood  con- 
stitutes the  readiest  way  of  regenerating  the  economic  life 
of  India. 

"The  world's  progress  is  affecting  agriculture  equally  with 
other  occupations,  and  unless  the  agriculturist  can  be  equipped 
with  the  knowledge  as  well  as  the  capital,  for  developing  the 
resources  at  his  disposal,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  he  will 
in  future  support  his  share  of  the  economic  burden  from  which 
no  nation  on  the  road  of  self-government  can  escape.  More- 
over, the  economic  upheaval  resulting  from  the  war  has  thrust 

136 


agriculture  into  the  foreground,  and  has  intensifuMl  the  de- 
mand in  India,  as  in  the  rest  of  the  world,  for  higher  pro- 
duction. During  recent  years,  an  extraordinary  change  has 
taken  place  in  the  position  which  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture occupies  relative  to  the  agricultural  population.  In  many 
places,  the  cultivator  has  already  learned  to  look  on  the  agri- 
cultural expert  as  a  friend  and  a  guide,  and  his  old  attitude 
of  suspicion  towards  new  methods  is  beginning  to  be  substan- 
tially modified.  When  the  successes  of  such  methods  can  be 
(luickly  and  plainly  demonstrated,  they  spread  with  remark- 
able rapidity.  The  fact  is  that  the  conservatism  of  the  agri- 
cultural classes  is  in  many  ways  breaking  down  before  the 
economic  influence  of  high  prices.  The  return  received  by 
the  farmer  for  his  food-grains,  oil-seeds,  cotton  and  other 
fibers  has  been  of  late  so  large  that  he  is  awakening  to  the 
fact  that  he  is  not  extracting  from  his  land  all  that  it  is 
capable  of  producing.  In  Southern  India,  in  particular,  the 
willingness  of  the  agriculturist  to  learn  how  to  improve  the 
quantity  and  quality  of  his  crops  is  being  hailed  by  those 
in  a  position  to  form  a  sound  judgment  of  the  matter  as  the 
dawn  of  an  era  of  intensive  cultivation. 

"If  only  the  central  and  provincial  Departments  of  Agricul- 
ture can  be  expanded  proportionately  to  the  magnitude  of 
the  task  before  them,  the  future  prosperity  of  India  may  be 
regarded  as  assured.  Great  areas  of  land,  at  present  either 
wholly  unutilized  or  insufficiently  exploited,  lie  ready  to  yield, 
after  the  application  of  labour,  manure,  and  water,  tons  of 
valuable  crops.  Hitherto,  unfortunately,  it  has  not  been  found 
possible  to  expend  upon  scientific  agriculture  that  amount 
of  money  which  India's  necessities  really  require.  The  head- 
quarters of  the  Imperial  Department  of  Agriculture  at  Pusa, 
are  maintained  at  a  cost  of  only  60,000  pounds;  while  the 
total  expenditure  of  all  the  Provincial  Departments  amounted 
in  1919-20  to  the  comparatively  small  sum  of  700,000  pounds." 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  these  expenditures  with  cor- 
responding items  in  America  where  in  1921  the  National 
Government  spent  through  the  Department  of  Agriculture 
over  $300,000,000  and  the  State  Governments  many  millions 
in  addition  on  agricultural  research,  experiment  and  educa- 
tion. 

In  common  with  all  the  rest  of  the  world  India  has  felt  the 
trade  reaction  following  the  war,  and  this  as  well  as  the  pov- 
erty and  the  agricultural  backwardness  of  the  nation  has 
been  fuel  for  the  nationalist  agitation  against  the  Govern- 
ment.   The  net  exports  of  merchandise  which  were  127,000,- 

137 


000  pounds  sterling  for  the  year  1919  were  transformed  for  the 
year  1920  to  net  imports  of  27,000,000  pounds.  As  compared 
with  the  year  before  the  war  there  was  an  apparently  great  in- 
crease in  foreign  trade  both  imports  and  exports,  but  the  in- 
crease was  due  to  the  advance  of  prices.  In  actual  volume  the 
imports  decreased  in  1920  as  compared  with  1914  by  45%  and 
the  exports  by  199^.  Viewing  the  industrial  facts  somewhat 
in  detail,  it  may  be  noted  that  India  now  produces  about  one- 
fourth  of  the  world's  cane  sugar.  It  imported  94,000,000  gal- 
lons of  kerosene  of  which  48%  came  from  the  United  States, 
34%  from  Borneo,  and  16%  from  Persia.  So  far  from  going 
back,  in  response  to  Mr.  Gandhi's  appeal  to  saucers  of  oil 
with  wicks  in  them,  India  more  than  doubled  the  import  of 
metal  lamps  rising  from  800,000  to  1,600,000,  and  so  far  from 
confining  herself  to  ox-carts  brought  in  9,000  motors,  of  which 
94%  came  from  the  United  States,  as  against  400  motors  in 
the  previous  year.  So  far  from  returning  to  home-made  cot- 
ton cloth  the  production  of  piece  goods  showed  an  increase  of 
475,000,000  yards  or  41%  as  compared  with  the  pre-war  year. 
"It  is  interesting  to  note,"  reports  Dr.  Williams,  "as  an  ex- 
ample of  the  difficulty  of  immediately  applying  modern  indus- 
trial ideas  to  India  that  the  leather  industry  encounters  a 
considerable  degree  of  opposition,  partly  politically  inspired, 
based  upon  the  widespread  abhorrence  of  the  Hindu  popula- 
tion for  the  slaughter  of  cows."  Nevertheless  India  is  one  of 
the  largest  hide  and  skin  producing  countries  in  the  world. 
It  exported  last  year  raw  and  tanned  hides  valued  at  36,000,- 
000  pounds  as  against  19,000,000  in  1918,  the  United  States 
taking  the  lead  in  buying  India's  raw  cow  hides,  with  over 
15,000  tons.  The  export  of  tea  in  1919  and  1920  surpassed 
all  previous  records  and  amounted  to  379,000,000  pounds. 
"Despite  her  wealth  in  raw  materials,  India  is  poor  in  indus- 
trial achievement  and  in  several  important  branches  of  in- 
dustry she  is  compelled  to  buy  back  the  finished  product  to 
which  she  has  contributed  the  raw  material."  As  Mr.  Lowes 
Dickinson  has  pointed  out,  however,  India  is  sure  to  be 
dragged  along  the  road  of  organized  industrialism  so  familiar 
to  the  West,  with  an  all  too  rapid  movement.  Already  there 
are  in  India  270  cotton  mills  with  115,000  looms  and  248,000 
employees  and  76  jute  mills  with  40,000  looms  and  270,000 
employees.  In  Cawnpore  we  visited  the  great  Muir  Mills,  a 
third  of  whose  capital  is  held  by  Indians,  which  employ  3,000 
workmen  and  are  said  to  have  paid  last  year  dividends  of 
115%.  Unaffected  by  the  swadeshi  movement  they  were  sell- 
ing all  of  their  product  in  India,  80%.  of  it  in  the  native  ba- 

138 


zaars.     A  large  and  increasing  volume  of  Indian  capital  is 
going  annually  into  industrial  and  manufacturing  enterprises. 

2.  The  great  economic  problem  of  India  is  not  the  lack 
of  raw  materials  nor  of  capital.  The  industrial  potentialities 
of  India  in  these  respects  are  only  beginning  to  be  utilized. 
Perhaps  no  other  country  in  the  world  has  so  much  silver 
wholly  withdrawn  from  productive  uses  and  worn  as  orna- 
ments or  buried  for  security.  It  is  estimated  that  India  has 
locked  up  in  this  profligate  way  billions  of  rupees.  Between 
1835  and  1909  imports  of  gold  and  silver  into  India  exceeded 
exports  by  £346,000,000.  Where  is  it  all?  ''Within  the  past 
four  years  no  less  than  1,200,000,000  rupees  have  been  drawn 
from  the  India  mints.  Sir  James  Meston,  the  financial  mem- 
ber of  the  Government,  remarked  in  March,  1919,  that  unless 
this  continuing  panic  were  checked  and  the  hoarded  coin  were 
restored  to  circulation  the  whole  basis  of  Indian  currency  and 
exchange  policy  would  be  reconsidered."  (Lovett,  "A  History 
of  the  Indian  Nationalist  Movement,"  page  234.)  Great  as  this 
waste  is,  however,  India's  heaviest  economic  load  is  caste  and 
the  social  isolation  and  ineffective  use  of  nearly  a  third  of  the 
Hindu  population  of  India.  As  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
Indians,  Sir  Narayan  Chandavarkar,  recently  declared,  "With 
the  liberalizing  forces  of  the  British  Government,  the  problem 
is  leaping  into  full  light.  Thanks  to  that  Government,  it  has 
become  more  than  ever  before  an  all-India  problem.  The 
curse  of  untouchability  prevails  to  this  day  in  all  parts  of 
India.  It  is  not  mere  untouchability.  It  is  worse  than  that. 
While  all  of  the  depressed  classes  have  been  for  centuries  un- 
touchable, some  have  been  unshadowable,  some  unapproach- 
able and  some  even  unseeable  by  the  higher  castes,  and  this 
degradation  has  been  imposed  by  these  castes  of  Hindu  society 
on  one-fifth  of  the  total  population  of  their  own  country,  race 
and  creed — on  30  per  cent  of  the  Hindu  population  of  India. 
Out  of  every  ten  Hindus,  three  are  treated  as  beyond  the  pale 
of  decent  humanity."  And  to  this  statement  Dr.  Williams' 
"Report  to  Parliament"  adds,  "The  Madras  Presidency  in- 
cludes no  fewer  than  6,500,000  persons  belonging  to  the  un- 
touchable class.  Particularly  on  the  west  coast,  some  of  the 
restrictions  which  encompass  these  unfortunates  in  their  deal- 
ings with  the  higher  castes  are  almost  incredible.  In  nearly 
every  village  the  public  water  supply  is  absolutely  forbidden 
to  a  population  which  numbers  one-sixth  of  the  people  of  the 
Presidency.  The  report  of  the  Madras  Commissioner  of 
Labor  mentions  that  last  year  an  English  gentleman,  while 
driving  through  a  municipal  town  with  a  student,  was  sur- 

139 


prised  at  a  request  from  his  neighbor  that  he  might  be  allowed 
to  get  down  and  walk  and  join  him  later  on.  He  was  still 
more  surprised  to  find  from  his  companion  that  his  reason 
for  descending  was  that  owing  to  his  caste  he  was  not  allowed 
to  pass  through  a  particular  street.  Theoretically  all  Gov- 
ernment offices  are  open  to  persons  of  every  class  and  creed, 
but  a  rich  and  respected  gentleman,  recently  returned  from 
abroad,  was  made  to  go  outside  a  certain  public  office  when 
it  was  discovered  that  he  was  of  a  low  caste.  These  extra- 
ordinary social  restrictions,  so  it  is  related,  operate  so  power- 
fully that  on  a  respectable  Panchama  gentleman  being  ap- 
pointed to  a  seat  on  a  Municipality,  five  members,  including 
a  Mohammedan,  immediately  sent  in  their  resignations,  and 
were  with  difficulty  induced  to  withdraw  them.  The  disa- 
bility extends  also  to  education.  Though  in  theory  all  schools 
financed  with  public  money  are  open  to  every  class  of  the 
community,  in  practice  there  has  been  great  difficulty  in  giv- 
ing effect  to  this  policy.  The  administration  can  legislate 
as  much  as  it  likes,  but  until  the  social  sense  of  the  commu- 
nity in  general  has  advanced  to  a  level  which  will  enable  it 
to  disregard  these  heritages  of  a  more  primitive  age,  the  dis- 
abilities under  which  the  lower  castes  labor  will  persist.  As 
has  already  been  indicated,  the  disabilities  extend  at  present 
to  the  minutest  operations  of  daily  life,  and  a  laborer  or  small 
farmer  belonging  to  the  depressed  classes  is  continually  a  loser 
in  buying  his  ordinary  purchases  or  in  disposing  of  his  pro- 
duce, through  his  inability  to  enter  a  shop  or  even  to  pass 
through  many  streets  where  the  shopkeepers  live."  "In 
Bombay  Presidency  alone,"  said  the  "Times  of  India,"  Decem- 
ber 1,  1921,  "there  are  somewhere  about  a  million  people  who 
by  the  rest  of  the  population  are  regarded  on  religious  grounds 
as  pariahs  and  out-castes,  whose  touch  is  regarded  as  a  de- 
filement, who  are  not  allowed  to  draw  water  from  the  village 
well,  whose  children  are  not  allowed  even  to  enter  the  ordi- 
nary school.  These  disabilities  are  in  force  altogether  apart 
from  the  personal  cleanliness  or  position  of  the  individual 
and  are  solely  based  upon  caste."  Even  the  affliction  of  leprosy, 
which  is  contemptuous  of  caste  distinctions,  can  not  erase 
caste  consciousness.  In  the  leper  asylum  at  Miraj  the  women 
of  one  of  the  higher  castes  had  built  a  low  wall  across  the 
cooking  room  to  separate  themselves  from  ceremonial  defile- 
ment from  women  with  whom  they  shared  one  common  physi- 
cal pollution. 

A  shrewd  observer  of  Indian  society  expressed  to  us  his 
judgment  that  caste  had  weakened  as  a  religious  institution, 

140 


but  as  a  social  institution  was  stronger  and  stiff er  than  ever. 
Theoretically  this  may  be  true.  Some  of  the  worthier  religious 
movements  have  involved  the  condemnation  of  caste.  "Vaish- 
navism,"  said  Sir  C.  Sankaran  Nair,  "is  admittedly  what  is 
called  the  Bhakti  or  devotional  worship  which  is  inconsistent 
with  the  spirit  of  caste."  "India's  mission,"  says  Rabidranath 
Tagore,  "has  been  like  that  of  a  hostess  who  has  to  provide 
accommodation  for  numerous  guests  whose  habits  and  re- 
quirements are  different  from  one  another.  This  gives  rise 
to  infinite  complexities  whose  solution  depends  not  merely 
upon  tactfulness  but  upon  sympathy  and  true  realization  of 
the  unity  of  man.  Towards  this  realization  have  worked 
from  the  early  time  of  the  Upanishads  up  to  the  present 
moment  a  series  of  great  spiritual  teachers  whose  one  object 
has  been  to  set  at  nought  all  differences  of  man  by  the  over- 
flow of  our  consciousness  of  God."  Nevertheless  even  the 
strongest  of  these  movements  have  not  been  able  to  relax  the 
grasp  of  caste  both  as  a  religious  and  as  a  social  institution. 
The  Bhagavadgita,  the  great  text  book  of  Bhakti  and  the 
most  popular  religious  book  in  India,  sought  "to  give  all 
Vaishnavas  a  truly  spiritual  religion  by  bringing  'release' 
within  reach  of  all  men  and  women  of  the  four  chief  castes, 
in  itself  a  religious  revolution,  the  Gita  thus  becoming  'the 
laymen's  Upanishads',"  But  among  the  four  chief  castes  the 
Gita  has  not  democratized  society  or  dissolved  the  control  of 
the  Brahmans,  and  it  has  not  opened  the  doors  to  the  vast 
excluded  mass.  "No  out-caste  is  admitted  to  Bhagavatta 
temples  in  Maharashtra."  "Brahmans  who  recite  with  ad- 
miration the  verses  of  Tukaram  hold  jealously  to  caste  distinc- 
tions." ("The  Times  of  India,"  Oct.  8,  1919.)  "The  touch  of 
the  Bhangi,  Chamar,  Dhed,  Holiya,  Mhar,  Mang  and  Mochi 
is  unclean,  and  none  of  these  castes  are  allowed  within  the 
interior  of  the  ordinary  Hindu  temple."  ("Indian  Census  Re- 
port," 1911.)  Mr.  Gandhi  calls  himself  a  Sanatanist  Hindu, 
that  is  a  follower  of  orthodox  Hinduism,  and  he  gives  his 
strong  endorsement  to  caste  distinction,  "Caste  system,"  says 
he,  "is  the  chief  strength  and  basic  principle  of  Hindu 
Dharma." 

Mr.  Gandhi's  influence  is,  however,  a  powerful  democratic 
force,  and  he  is  supporting  in  the  most  unequivocal  way  the 
growing  movement  for  the  deliverance  of  India  from  the  eco- 
nomic incubus  of  the  caste  system  and  especially  from  the 
wrong  and  the  impoverishment  of  the  exclusion  of  the  low 
caste  people.  "I  should  consent  to  be  torn  to  pieces,"  he  says, 
"rather  than  disown  the  suppressed  classes.  .   ,   ,  Hindus  will 

141 


certainly  never  deserve  freedom  nor  get  it  if  they  allow  thieir 
noble  religion  to  be  disgraced  by  the  retention  of  the  taint 

of  untouchability Let  us  not  deny  God  by  denying  to 

a  fifth  of  our  race  the  right  of  association  on  an  equal  footing." 
Under  his  leadership  the  last  National  Congress  appealed  for 
support  of  the  cause  of  total  prohibition,  the  removal  of 
untouchability  and  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the 
submerged  classes.  There  are  some  who  see  more  clearly 
than  Mr.  Gandhi  that  the  nationalistic  movement  and  the 
movement  against  untouchability  both  demand  a  far  more 
radical  handling  of  the  whole  principle  of  caste.  On  the  day 
of  our  last  visit  to  Allahabad,  which  happened  to  be  the  birth- 
day anniversary  of  Keshub  Chandra  Sen,  founder  of  the 
Brahmo  Samaj,  Mr.  Chintamani,  the  minister  of  education 
of  the  United  Provinces  and  one  of  the  foremost  of  the  Mod- 
erate Nationalist  leaders,  delivered  a  memorial  address  on  the 
great  Indian  social  and  religious  reformer.  One  lesson,  said 
he,  that  they  must  all  learn  was  that  caste  and  nationality 
did  not  go  together.  The  greatest  reform  that  an  Indian 
nationalist  should  take  up  was  the  abolition  of  caste,  and 
while  it  was  true  that  Mr.  Gandhi  had  expressed  himself 
strongly  against  untouchability,  he  has  not  condemned  caste 
and  Mr.  Chintamani  maintains  that  that  greatest  evil  of 
untouchability  has  still  its  root  in  the  institution  of  caste. 

From  many  quarters  this  institution  is  now  under  attack. 
The  intelligent  young  men  are  assailing  it.  "These  53,000,000 
people,"  says  one  of  them,  "are  able  bodied  men.  They  have 
an  infinite  capacity  for  work,  and  without  them  the  big  and 
petty  landlords  of  India  would  come  to  grief"  ("Young  Men 
of  India,"  Dec,  1921,  page  565).  The  Gaekwar  of  Baroda 
has  built  separate  school  houses  for  them  or  insisted  on  their 
admission  to  the  regular  schools  and  has  required  their  equal 
treatment  by  the  teachers.  He  and  the  Rani  have  received 
them  personally  at  the  palace  and  have  eaten  with  them.  In 
western  India  the  Marathas  have  always  disputed  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  Brahmans,  and  the  humbler  classes  are  increas- 
ingly expressing  themselves  in  movements  like  the  Satya 
Shodhak  Samaj,  or  "Society  for  the  Search  of  Truth,"  which 
was  founded  "with  the  object  of  emancipating  the  non-Brah- 
man communities  from  the  state  of  intellectual  and  religious 
bondage  to  which  they  were  reduced  by  the  craft  of  the 
Brahman  priests."  All  the  communizing  influences  of  modern 
life  are  working  also  against  caste  isolation.  One  day  on 
a  dining  car,  on  the  great  Indian  Peninsula  Railway  we 
counted  at  the  tables  two  Mohammedan  men,  two  Sikhs,  sev- 

142 


eral  high  caste  Hindu  women  with  tlie  religious  mark  on  their 
foreheads,  several  Parsio,  four  or  five  Eurasians,  Hindu  men 
of  various  castes,  some  British  officers,  and  tommies,  and  two 
English  women.  We  watched  the  Mohammedans  and  the  high 
caste  Hindu  men  and  women  and  saw  them  refusing  none  of 
the  food.  The  Mohammedans  even  took  the  bacon  which 
was  served  with  the  omelette.  A  few  years  ago  a  dozen 
cleavages,  now  wholly  ignored,  would  have  cut  this  company 
into  fragments.  The  British  would  have  had  one  or  two 
dining  cars  of  their  own,  and  the  Indians  would  have  sepa- 
rated into  half  a  dozen  groups. 

In  one  of  the  native  states  I  called  upon  one  of  the  leading 
doctors  who  was  sent  some  years  ago  by  the  Maharajah  to 
study  homeopathy  in  New  York  City  where  I  had  met  him. 
He  had  come  to  America,  Brahman  though  he  was,  in  dis- 
regard of  the  caste  limitations  that  forbade  the  defilement 
of  such  a  trip.  I  asked  him  what  were  the  greatest  changes 
that  had  taken  place  in  India  since  I  had  seen  him  in  New 
York.  He  said  at  once  that  he  would  mention  two,  the  weak- 
ening of  caste  and  political  progress.  I  asked  him  what 
evidences  there  were  that  caste  had  been  weakened.  "I  will 
show  you  one,"  said  he.  "I  am  a  Brahman,  but  I  have  married 
a  wife  of  another  caste.  That  would  not  have  happened 
some  time  ago  or  if  it  had  happened,  it  would  have  made  my 
position  altogether  different.  And  I  will  introduce  my  wife 
to  you."  And  he  went  out  and  returned  with  a  handsome 
and  handsomely  dressed  Hindu  lady  who  shook  hands  with  us 
and  set  forth  tea  and  confections  of  which  we  all  partook 
together.  "We  have  an  out-caste  Chamar  as  our  municipal 
executive  now,"  he  went  on,  "not  a  Brahman  or  a  member  of 
one  of  the  higher  castes,  but  one  whom  a  few  years  ago  none 
of  us  would  have  touched  or  met.  Now  he  presides  in  the 
municipal  council,  and  every  one  receives  him.  The  Mahars 
and  Mangs  are  coming  steadily  forward  and  are  recognized 
more  and  more  not  as  out-castes  but  as  men.  We  have  a  long 
way  to  go,  but  we  are  making  progress.  And  India  is  making 
progress  politically  also.  The  attitude  of  the  British  Gov- 
ernment is  far  more  fair  and  generous  than  ever.  I  believe 
in  the  continuance  of  the  present  government  and  that  there 
will  be  a  peaceful  evolution  toward  the  rightful  self-govern- 
ment of  India.  I  do  not  anticipate  any  violence  unless  it 
should  come  from  the  Mohammedans.  You  have  made  a  great 
mistake,"  he  added,  "in  coming  as  you  have.  You  should 
have  let  me  know  and  come  and  stayed  with  me  in  a  Hindu 
home  where  we  could  have  eaten  together  and  talked  together 

143 


of  these  problems  of  the  life  of  India."  And  he  went  on  to 
praise  a  missionary  long  dead  who  had  influenced  his  boy- 
hood and  whom  he  numbered  among  the  saints. 

Great  changes  have  occurred,  but  as  my  friend  said,  there 
is  still  a  long  way  to  go.  "In  India,"  says  Dr.  Williams, 
"where  the  social  system  lends  itself  to  the  application  of 
social,  moral,  and  religious  pressure  in  a  degree  to  which  the 
more  materialistic  West,  with  its  cruder  forms  of  intimida- 
tion, can  supply  no  parallel,"  generations  must  elapse  before 
the  oppressions  of  caste  will  disappear.  Even  the  Christian 
Church  finds  it  difficult  to  exclude  the  caste  spirit.  The  Ro- 
man Catholics  let  it  in  years  ago  and  cannot  now  cast  it  out. 
In  Ahmednagar  until  recently  there  were  separate  churches 
for  the  Mahars  and  Mangs.  At  Kodoli  a  Mahar  elder  refused 
to  baptize  Mangs,  and  the  Mahars  and  Mangs  were  unwilling 
to  use  the  same  well.  The  Christian  spirit  has  enabled  both 
elder  and  people  to  transcend  these  old  prejudices.  There  is 
scarcely  a  Mission  station  where  the  Gospel  is  at  work  uplift- 
ing the  low  castes  where  the  bitterness  of  caste  prejudice  in 
seeking  to  hold  them  down  does  not  also  appear.  A  few  quo- 
tations from  the  reports  of  work  among  the  Chamars  in  North 
India  will  suffice: 

"A  young  Chamar  Christian,  who  was  newly  married,  was 
called  into  the  high-walled  courtyard  of  the  landlord  and 
forced  to  sign  a  stamped  promissory  note  for  Rs.  25,  on  24% 
interest,  as  he  had  married  with  Christian  ceremony  without 
the  landlord's  permission. 

"Another  as  he  had  sent  the  tax  due  from  him  by  money 
order  was  forced  to  sign  a  blank  eight  anna  stamped  paper 
by  which  he  could  be  sued  for  Rs.  50,  at  any  high  compound 
interest  the  landlord  might  choose  to  fix. 

"A  third  was  prosecuted  for  becoming  a  Christian  without 
the  landlord's  permission  on  a  false  charge  that  he  owed  him 
a  fabulous  amount. 

"A  fourth  was  called  into  the  courtyard  and  was  forced  to 
put  his  thumb  impression  to  papers  which  showed  that  he  had 
sold  his  excellent  pair  of  oxen  and  two  buffaloes  and  a  cow 
to  the  landlord  and  had  realized  the  full  amount,  when  he 
was  paid  not  a  single  pie. 

"A  number  of  temporary  tenants  were  dispossessed  of  their 
fields  as  they  had  become  Christians.  To  earn  a  livelihood 
they  took  to  cutting  grass.  When  they  took  the  grass  to  the 
town  for  sale  they  were  dragged  to  the  landlord's  courtyard 
by  his  sepoys  and  when  they  waited  inside  for  the  landlord, 
their  bundles  of  grass  which  they  had  left  outside  were  re- 

144 


moved  to  the  landlord's  stables  and  his  horses  and  cattle  were 
fed  freely. 

"If  fruits  were  missing  from  mango  trees  it  was  the  Chris- 
tian boy  who  had  picked  them.  If  a  child  accidentally  fell 
into  a  pond  it  was  the  Christian  boys  again  who  pushed  her 
down.  The  parents  were  called  and  fined  heavily  on  these 
and  similar  false  charges. 

"The  Christians  were  stopped  from  grazing  their  cattle  in 
the  open  maidan  and  gathering  fuel  in  the  jungle  where  they 
were  accustomed  to  go.  Wherever  they  went  they  were  looked 
down  on  with  sneers  and  were  called  sweepers,  the  lowest 
despicable  class. 

"The  question  naturally  arises  under  these  circumstances: 
Is  there  no  redress  for  these  grievances?  The  chief  difficulty 
lies  in  this  that  absolutely  no  witness  can  be  had  to  testify 
against  the  landlord.  The  Chamar  is  a  coward,  especially 
when  the  landlord  is  concerned.  Even  when  a  brother  is 
beaten  to  death,  the  Chamar  would  argue,  'Now  my  brother 
is  dead,  why  should  I  get  into  trouble  with  the  landlord — my 
bread  provider.' 

"However,  one  case  was  brought  forward  before  the  Col- 
lector by  a  Chamar  Christian  against  a  Bania  for  calling 
him  a  sweeper  and  threatening  to  beat  him;  unlawfully  de- 
taining him  in  the  house  and  for  laying  a  blackmail  of  Rs.  50. 
Though  the  witnesses  proved  the  charges  made,  the  accused 
was  acquitted  to  the  utter  surprise  and  disappointment  of 
all  interested.  The  trial  was  summary  in  its  kind  and  a  re- 
vision of  the  case  in  a  higher  court  was  useless.  This  has 
cast  a  great  gloom  on  the  hearts  of  the  people  and  has  dis- 
heartened even  the  bravest  of  the  lot.  It  is  impossible  for 
the  people  to  understand  why  a  Christian  Government  cannot 
help  a  poor  Christian  when  he  is  persecuted.  Chunni,  the 
plaintiff,  is  obliged  to  pull  down  his  house,  the  home  of  the 
family  for  several  generations,  and  go  and  live  in  another 
village." 

3.  India's  educational  problem  is  a  problem  not  of  the  out- 
caste  only  but  also  of  the  huge  uneducated  caste  population. 
Indeed  one  reason  for  the  new  interest  of  Hinduism  in  the 
out-caste  is  the  steady  rise  of  the  out-caste  population  to  which 
Christian  Missions  have  brought  those  influences  of  the  church 
and  the  school  which  are  lifting  the  out-castes  to  an  economic 
and  intellectual  level  above  even  a  portion  of  the  Brahman 
community.  I  cannot  state  the  general  facts  with  regard  to 
the  achievements  and  the  shortcomings  of  education  in  India 
better  than  they  have  been  stated  by  Mr.  Rallia  Ram,  head- 

145 


master  of  the  Rang  Mahal  School  in  Lahore  and  one  of  the 
best  type  of  leaders  in  the  new  India,  and  by  Dr.  Rushbrook 
Williams.  Mr.  Rallia  Ram  writes:  "One  of  the  foremost 
and  greatest  deficiencies  which  India  is  to  make  up  is  her 
lack  of  facilities  for  securing  a  speedy  program  of  education. 
Today,  three  villages  out  of  every  four  are  without  a  school- 
house,  and  about  30,000,000  children  of  school-going  age  are 
growing  up  without  receiving  any  instruction.  No  doubt,  in 
some  provinces  the  Government  has  passed  an  Act  authorizing 
the  Local  Bodies  to  introduce  free  and  compulsory  education 
up  to  the  primary  standard,  but  for  want  of  proper  funds, 
initiative,  and  public  spirit,  very  few  Municipalities  or  Dis- 
trict Boards  have  taken  advantage  of  the  said  Act.  Of  the 
315  million  people  living  in  India,  only  18,500,000  persons, 
16,900,000  men  and  1,600,000  women  were  returned  as  literate 
in  the  census  of  1911,  giving  a  percentage  of  5.8  of  the  popu- 
lation in  point  of  literacy.  The  corresponding  percentage  of 
literacy  in  Japan  is  95,  United  Kingdom  94,  and  the  United 
States  of  America  90.  The  number  of  existing  schools  for 
primary  education  in  British  India  amounts  to  142,203  and 
the  number  of  pupils  attending  them  comes  to  5,818,730,  of 
whom  5,188,411  are  boys  and  630,319  girls.  If  we  take  all 
classes  of  educational  institutions  together  we  find  that  there 
is  only  one  institution  for  every  1,717  persons  of  the  popula- 
tion. The  school-going  population  in  more  advanced  countries 
varies  from  15  to  20  per  cent. 

"The  expenditure  in  British  India  from  all  sources,  includ- 
ing fees,  in  1916-17  was  11.2  crores  or  rupees.  This  gives 
a  rate  of  Rs.  14.4  per  head  of  school-going  population,  or  7 
annas  of  the  entire  population.  The  corresponding  expendi- 
ture in  other  countries  is  as  follows :  United  Kingdom,  Rs.  38 
per  head;  Canada,  Rs.  104;  Japan,  Rs.  13;  United  States, 
Rs.  114.  The  provision  for  technical  and  commercial  educa- 
tion in  India  is  sadly  low.  It  was  found  in  1917-18  that  only 
16,594  throughout  the  whole  country  were  receiving  any  tech- 
nical and  industrial  education." 

And  Dr.  Williams  writes:  "There  are  still  only  8,200,000 
in  all  the  educational  institutions  put  together.  That  is  to 
say,  only  3.36'/r  of  the  population  is  under  instruction,  this 
figure  being  made  up  of  5.5%  of  the  males  and  1.2%  of  the 
females.  And  although  expenditure  had  increased  by  15% 
the  total  sum  expended  upon  education  in  India  during  the 
year  1919-20  amounted  to  only  14,890,000  pounds.  About 
2.5 %i  of  the  population  is  enrolled  in  primary  schools,  and 
less  than  3%  is  undergoing  elementary  instruction  of  any  kind. 

146 


In  secondary  schools  on  the  other  hand  0.5' f  of  the  popula- 
tion is  under  instruction,  an  abnormal  figure  comparing  very 
remarkably  with  the  0.6%  which  has  been  estimated  as  the 
figure  in  Great  Britain.  Considering  that  the  female  popu- 
lation of  the  secondary  schools  is  very  small,  it  would  seem 
that  if  the  male  population  alone  be  reckoned,  no  less  than 
0.9%  is  found  in  the  secondary  schools — a  proportion  far 
greater  than  the  corresponding  figure  for  England  and 
Wales,  and  approximately  equal  to  that  of  Germany  before 
the  war.  In  University  education,  the  percentage  of  the 
Indian  population  undergoing  instruction  is  no  less  than 
0.027%,  which,  considering  that  here  again  the  female  popu- 
lation of  India  may  be  almost  eliminated,  compares  remark- 
ably well  with  the  0.054'/,'  of  England  and  Wales.  As  was 
mentioned  in  last  year's  Report,  an  examination  of  the  pro- 
portion of  the  college-going  population  to  the  total  popula- 
tion of  single  tracts  like  Bengal,  indicates  that  with  a  popu- 
lation approximately  that  of  the  United  Kingdom,  the  propor- 
tion of  the  educated  classes  who  are  taking  full-time  univer- 
sity courses  is  in  such  tracts  almost  ten  times  as  great  as  in 
England 

"Out  of  her  revenue  of  something  ov§r  180,000,000  pounds, 
at  the  new  ratio  of  the  rupee,  India  is  already  spending 
15,000,000  pounds  upon  education,  and  inadequate  as  is  this 
sum  in  proportion  to  the  calls  made  upon  it,  it  represents  a 
fraction  of  her  public  resources  which  compare  not  unfavor- 
ably with  that  devoted  by  other  countries  to  the  same  pur- 
pose. But  India  is  a  poor  land,  and  the  section  of  her  small 
revenue  available  for  education  is  inadequate  to  the  demands 
made  upon  it.  However,  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  the  figure 
can  be  substantially  increased.  As  was  pointed  out  in  pre- 
vious reports,  there  are  many  heavy  charges  upon  the  re- 
sources of  the  country;  of  which  the  most  important  are  the 
defence  of  a  long  land  frontier  and  the  maintenance  of  law 
and  order  among  great  masses  of  a  widely  varying  population. 
Vital  as  educational  progress  may  seem,  its  foundations  will 
sink  in  shifting  sand  unless  there  are  certain  pre-requisites 
to  its  existence.  The  stability  of  the  administration  and  the 
security  of  the  individual,  whether  from  external  aggression 
or  from  internal  disorder,  must  first  be  achieved.  It  is  charges 
for  these  ends  that  have  hitherto  crippled  the  eff'orts  of  ad- 
ministrators to  set  the  educational  structure  of  India  upon  a 
foundation  sufficiently  extensive  for  the  requirements  of  the 
country.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  Indian  agencies  henceforth 
in  charge  will  be  able  to  solve  this  problem.     Conviction  on 

147 


their  part  of  the  necessity  of  a  great  educational  campaign 
directed  towards  preaching  the  gospel  of  Indian  nationhood, 
can  alone  awaken  those  upon  whom  the  pecuniary  sacrifices 
will  fall  to  the  benefits  which  will  be  derived  both  at  the 
present  and  in  the  future  from  such  a  project.  The  difficulty 
lies  not  merely  in  the  magnitude,  but  also  in  the  urgency  of 
the  problem.  If  the  funds  cannot  be  found  and  the  educational 
structure  of  India  cannot  expand  in  proportion  to  her  needs, 
the  realization  of  responsible  government,  with  all  which 
that  realization  implies  in  the  way  of  national  progress,  may 
be  long  delayed.  Nor  is  it  merely  necessary  to  consider  the 
population  of  school-going  age,  of  whom  at  present  roughly 
two-thirds  never  make  their  way  into  an  educational  institu- 
tion of  any  kind.  A  very  large  part  of  the  education  needed 
in  India  is  adult  education — education  which  will  supply  the 
great  new  electorates  with  some  guidance  in  the  use  of  the 
power  which  constitutional  reforms  have  placed  in  their 
hands ;  which  will  encourage  them  to  efi'ort  on  behalf  of  their 
own  communities,  and  impel  them  to  grapple  with  the  pov- 
erty which  now  hangs  like  a  miasma  over  so  large  a  part  of 
India."  ("India  in  1920,"  pp.  163,  165.) 

4.  And  the  educaMon  which  India  needs  today  is  not  only 
an  education  of  the  children  in  school.  It  is  an  education 
also  of  every  community  in  sanitation  and  hygiene.  Mr. 
Gandhi  praises  the  ancient  village  life  of  India  and  deprecates 
the  introduction  of  modern  ideas  including  medicine  and 
hospitals,  and  the  advertisements  in  the  periodicals  of  some 
of  the  most  enlightened  groups  of  social  and  religious  re- 
formers are  scandalous  in  their  exploitation  of  Ayur  Vedic 
medicines,  but  nothing  is  more  necessary  than  that  India 
should  be  rid  of  her  old  ignorance  and  superstition  in  these 
matters.  Human  life  should  be  conserved  under  new  ideals 
of  its  sacredness  and  value  both  to  God  and  to  the  State. 
"It  is  an  acknowledged  fact,"  says  Mr.  Rallia  Ram,  "that 
the  sanitation  of  most  of  the  towns  and  villages  is  abominably 
bad.  The  average  death-rate  for  all  India  for  th^  past  ten 
years  has  been  31.8,  while  the  corresponding  recorded  death- 
rate  for  Japan  is  21.9,  Canada  15.12,  United  Kingdom  14.6, 
United  States  14.0  and  Australia  10.5.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  the  average  life  of  an  Indian  is  supposed  to  figure 
out  23  years,  as  compared  with  45  to  55  years  in  Western 
countries.  No  doubt  this  is  influenced  to  a  certain  extent 
by  the  climatic  conditions  and  other  causes,  but  one  cannot 
pass  by  the  stern  fact  that  a  low  standard  of  living  and  un- 

148 


healthy  and  insanitary  environments  are  chiefly  responsible 
for  this  palpable  shortness  of  life  in  India." 

5.  "The  three  great  hindrances  and  retardations  which 
hold  India  back  today,"  said  an  Indian  teacher  in  one  of  the 
colleges,  "are  caste,  untouchability,  and  purdah."  And  he 
meant  by  purdah  not  only  the  seclusion  of  woman  in  the  home 
but  the  loss  from  society  of  the  forces  which  the  emancipation 
and  the  education  of  women  release.  The  progress  that  has 
thus  far  been  made  in  female  education  in  India  is  not  in- 
considerable, but  what  has  been  done  is  wholly  inadequate. 
The  task  is  no  easy  one.  As  Dr.  Williams  writes  in  "India 
in  1920"  (page  168) : 

"The  problem  of  female  education  is  beset  by  many  dif- 
ficulties. .  .  .  Rapid  expansion  depends  first  upon  an  ade- 
quate supply  of  competent  women  teachers,  secondly,  upon 
devising  a  course  that  shall  commend  itself  to  conservative 
opinion  which  regards  female  education  suspiciously;  and 
thirdly,  upon  an  alteration  of  the  existing  structure  of  educa- 
tion, which  is  unsuited  to  the  needs  of  Indian  women.  The 
main  difl[iculty  remains,  as  hitherto,  the  lack  of  effective  de- 
mand. During  the  last  few  years  there  has  been  a  substantial 
improvement  in  the  number  of  women  under  training,  and  in 
the  provision  of  women's  colleges.  At  the  present  moment 
in  India  there  are  16  women's  colleges  and  118  training 
schools  for  women.  Altogether  there  are  a  little  over  1,200 
women  undergoing  university  education,  and  about  3,500  in 
training  schools.  It  will  be  difficult  to  increase  this  number 
to  any  considerable  degree  throughout  India  at  large  until 
such  institutions  as  purdah,  early  marriage  and  the  like,  can 
be  modified  by  the  growing  enlightenment  of  public  opinion. 
The  importance  of  overcoming  the  existing  female  illiteracy 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  throughout  India  only  1,380,000 
women  and  girls  are  under  instruction  of  any  kind.  Female 
illiteracy  constitutes  a  serious  bar  to  educational  progress, 
since  with  half  the  population  growing  up  almost  without 
education,  the  incentive  to  education  in  the  other  half  must 
be  appreciably  lowered.  Mention  was  made  in  last  year's 
report  of  a  resolution  issued  by  the  Government  of  India  out- 
lining the  main  difficulties  to  be  overcome  in  this  sphere  and 
indicating  the  lines  along  which  future  expansion  might 
proceed.  The  two  principles  which  underlie  the  proposals 
of  the  Calcutta  University  Commission  in  regard  to  female 
education,  namely,  modification  of  the  curriculum  to  suit  the 
needs  of  different  classes  and  the  utilization  of  the  advice 
of  ladies  in  formulating  a  suitable  scheme  for  instruction, 

149 


have  been  accepted  by  the  administration.  Unfortunately, 
there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  public  opinion  is  far  from 
realizing  the  importance  of  educating  Indian  womanhood.  But 
now  that  the  problems  of  education  are  made  over  to  Indians 
for  solution,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  means  will  be  found  to  break 
down  the  apathy  which  has  hitherto  operated  to  hinder  the 
expansion  of  female  education.  Only  a  great  social  change 
can  call  forth  the  teachers  who  are  the  primary  requisite 
for  such  expansion.  The  Calcutta  University  Commission 
pointed  out  that  peculiar  difficulties  and  dangers  surround 
young  women  who  set  out  to  teach  in  lonely  village  schools. 
'The  fact  has  to  be  faced,'  the  Commission  reported,  'that 
until  men  learn  the  rudiments  of  respect  and  chivalry  towards 
women  who  are  not  living  in  zenana,  anything  like  a  service 
of  women  teachers  will  be  impossible.'  It  will  therefore  be 
seen  that  the  problem  does  not  merely  depend  for  its  solution 
upon  the  good  will  of  the  administrators." 

It  depends  upon  a  new  religious  conception  of  woman. 
"Woman  never  did  have  a  vedic  value,"  declared  Cornelia 
Sorabji.  Of  the  most  popular  religious  poet  in  Western  India 
his  latest  expositor  declares,  "His  poems  have  no  recognition 
of  woman's  true  place  in  society  and  of  her  needed  restoration 
to  her  proper  position  in  the  world"  (Frazer  and  Edwards, 
"Life  and  Teaching  of  Tukaram,"  page  264).  And  of  the 
failure  of  Hinduism  in  its  treatment  of  women  no  one  has 
spoken  more  plainly  or  more  bitterly  than  the  great  Indian 
reformers  of  the  last  century. 

6.  The  earnest  leaders  of  India  today  are  struggling  for 
the  emancipation  and  education  of  women  with  all  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Government  supporting  them.  In  their  struggle 
against  the  growth  of  the  liquor  evil  in  India  they  have  had 
the  influence  of  the  Government  against  them.  The  ordinary 
Englishman  is  utterly  unable  to  understand  the  prohibition 
movement.  It  is  a  question  of  unfailing  interest  and  often 
of  extreme  irritation.  Not  only  is  the  example  of  individual 
Englishmen  in  India  antagonistic  to  the  suppression  of  the 
liquor  traffic,  but  many  of  them  openly  and  violently  oppose 
the  movement.  The  editor  of  the  "Indian  Temperance  News" 
reports  an  illustrative  incident  concerning  a  temperance  meet- 
ing in  the  South  India  High  School  crowded  with  Indian 
hearers : 

"Using  charts  and  a  few  other  demonstrations,  we  centered 
our  attention  for  nearly  an  hour  on  the  'Reasons  for  and 
the  Results  of  Prohibition  in  U.  S.  A.'  At  the  conclusion  of 
this  lecture  one  of  the  most  intelligent  and  one  of  the  most 

150 


attentive  of  the  audience  rose.  He  was  not  an  intelligent 
villager  whose  domain  was  his  village,  but  the  District  Magis- 
trate, a  British  official  of  wide  experience  and  culture.  At 
some  length  he  brought  forth  counter-arguments  to  disprove 
the  lecture  of  the  evening.  He  used  all  the  stock  arguments 
which  have  been  worn  threadbare  by  opponents  of  prohibition 
since  agitation  began,  such  as  'Prohibition  does  not  Prohibit,' 
'Personal  Liberty,'  'Revenue,'  'Employment,'  etc.  He  was  sin- 
cere in  his  argument  and  our  debate  lasted  for  nearly  another 
hour." 

The  income  from  liquor  licenses  has  been  a  large  and  grow- 
ing item  in  the  government  and  provincial  budgets.  In  1919- 
20  the  revenue  from  excise  in  the  Madras  Presidency  was 
Rs.  53,142,317.  More  than  a  ninth  of  the  income  of  the  Na- 
tional Indian  Government  was  from  excise  and  opium.  In 
Bihar  and  Orissa  the  revenue  derived  from  excise  increased 
in  fifteen  years  from  nearly  70  lakhs  of  rupees  to  150  lakhs, 
the  largest  income  under  a  single  head.  A  Hindu,  a  Christian 
and  a  Mohammedan  member  of  the  Bihar  and  Orissa  Legisla- 
tive Council  brought  in  resolutions  to  stop  the  sale  and  manu- 
facture of  liquor,  and  all  were  lost.  Regarding  temperance 
legislation  in  Madras  the  Rev.  D.  G.  M.  Leith  wrote  in  "Young 
Men  of  India,"  September,  1921:  "Undoubtedly  the  new  Gov- 
ernment is  afraid  of  loss  of  revenue  and  those  who  previously 
were  pronounced  temperance  reformers  but  are  now  respon- 
sible members  of  Government  are  afraid  lest  by  the  loss  of 
the  excise  revenue  they  will  be  compelled  to  impose  a  new  tax 
upon  the  people,  thereby  incurring  unpopularity  and  possibly 
early  political  defeat.  As  so  often,  it  is  the  case  of  money 
versus  morality."  Nevertheless  with  economic,  moral  and 
religious  reasons  supporting  it  the  prohibition  movement  is 
sure  ultimately  to  prevail  in  India,  as  in  the  United  States. 
Already,  thanks  to  Christian  leadership,  local  option  measures 
have  been  adopted  in  the  Punjab.  Both  the  Indian  National 
Congress  at  Ahmedabad  and  the  All  India  Christian  Confer- 
ence at  Lahore  in  their  meetings  in  the  last  week  in  Decem- 
ber spoke  vigorously  in  behalf  of  entire  prohibition. 

One  tragic  feature  of  the  present  political  situation  in  India 
has  been  the  identification  of  some  forms  of  prohibition  propa- 
ganda with  sedition.  The  non-cooperators  have  picketed  the 
liquor  shops  to  keep  customers  away,  partly  in  a  temperance 
interest  and  partly  to  cut  down  the  government  revenues. 
This  picketing  has  been  punished  as  seditious,  and  the  anti- 
excise  agitation  has  been  denounced  as  unpatriotic.  The 
saloons,  on  the  other  hand,  have  set  up  their  cause  as  the 

151 


cause  of  order  and  patriotism,  and  we  saw  over  one  liquor 
shop  in  Bombay  the  impudent  sign  in  large  English  letters, 
"If  God  Be  For  Us,  Who  Can  Be  Against  Us?"  It  will  have 
to  be  admitted  that  this  shameless  doctrine  of  religion  was 
borrowed  from  the  West. 

7.  But  India  has  her  own  amazing  inversions  of  religious 
ideas.  None  of  these  is  more  strange  to  us  than  the  worship 
of  the  cow.  Mr.  Gandhi  himself  has  set  forth  the  place  which 
this  idea  has  in  Hinduism  in  language  that  is  almost  in- 
credible : 

"Every  Hindu  believes  in  God  and  his  oneness,  in  rebirth 
and  salvation,  but  that  which  distinguishes  Hinduism  from 
every  other  religion  is  its  cow  protection. 

"The  central  fact  of  Hinduism  is  cow  protection. 

"Cow  protection  to  me  is  one  of  the  most  wonderful  phe- 
nomena in  human  evolution. 

"Cow  protection  is  the  gift  of  Hinduism  to  the  world,  and 
Hinduism  will  live  so  long  as  there  are  Hindus  to  protect  the 
cow.    The  way  to  protect  is  to  die  for  her. 

"Cow  protection  means  conquering  the  Mussulmans  by  our 
love. 

"Hindus  will  be  judged  not  by  their  tilaks,  not  by  the 
correct  chanting  of  Mantras,  not  by  their  pilgrimages,  not  by 
their  most  punctilious  observance  of  caste  rules,  but  by  their 
ability  to  protect  the  cow. 

"I  have  made  the  Khilafat  cause  my  own  because  I  see  that 
through  its  preservation  full  protection  can  be  secured  for 
the  cow." 

These  are  not  mere  figures  of  speech.  There  are  temples 
like  the  temple  of  Vithoba,  at  Pandharpur,  the  great  place 
of  pilgrimage  in  the  Dekkan,  where  the  cow  is  actually  used 
as  an  object  of  worship.  The  belief  that  the  excreta  of  the 
cow  has  power  to  cleanse  men  from  sin  is  a  belief  well  nigh 
universal  among  Hindus  (Frazer  and  Edwards,  "Life  and 
Teaching  of  Tukaram,"  page  159).  It  cannot  be  said  that 
these  conceptions  have  been  helpful  to  India.  They  have  de- 
graded religion,  and  by  hindering  veterinary  science  and  the 
hygienic  care  of  animals  they  have  injured  and  not  advantaged 
the  useful  creature  whose  products  and  service  entitle  her 
to  the  care  and  gratitude  of  the  people.  It  is  not  a  trifling 
thing  to  say  that  India  must  learn  to  think  differently  of 
cows  as  well  as  of  women. 

How  can  India  think  as  she  does  in  these  and  other  matters  ? 
We  asked  these  questions  of  a  very  clever  Indian  lawyer  with 
whom  we   spent   a  pleasant  afternoon   on   a   railroad   train 

152 


between  two  north  Indian  cities,  passing  through  one  of  the 
most  fertile  and  thickly  settled  parts  of  India  where  the  fields 
were  full  of  husbandmen  and  the  whole  world  was  bathed 
in  the  glorious  unclouded  sunshine  of  an  Indian  winter  day. 
He  was  glad,  he  said,  of  the  opportunity  to  talk.  One  of  his 
complaints  against  the  average  Englishman  was  that  he  did 
not  care  to  talk  with  the  Indian  people  and  knew  very  little 
of  their  real  life  and  thought.  He  believed  that  the  common 
people  had  now  been  thoroughly  reached  by  the  nationalistic 
agitation.  He  did  not  share  its  non-cooperation  principle. 
He  believed  that  the  majority  of  the  intelligent  people  of  India 
held  his  own  convictions  that  Great  Britain  should  not  with- 
draw from  India,  that  India  was  not  ready  for  complete  self- 
government.  Divided  within  and  weak  without,  she  could 
not  yet  go  alone.  The  right  solution,  he  believed,  was  Dominion 
status  for  India  within  the  Empire.  But  Great  Britain  had 
mishandled  the  situation.  It  had  been  folly  to  pass  the  Row- 
latt  Act.  At  the  right  time  it  might  have  been  a  legitimate 
precautionary  measure  against  a  seditious  or  inflammatory 
press,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  had  accomplished  nothing 
except  to  irritate  the  people  and  to  give  the  non-cooperators  a 
new  and  effective  weapon.  It  had  been  especially  foolish  to 
pass  such  an  act  when  no  concessions  had  yet  been  made  in 
the  direction  of  self-government  and  when  the  popular  tem- 
per was  raw.  If  the  reforms  had  been  given  first  that  Act 
and  other  Acts  might  have  been  safely  passed  afterwards. 
We  asked  him  whether  he  was  convinced  that  the  political 
ferment  had  reached  the  vast  quiet  mass  of  the  village  people, 
and  I  told  him  of  some  old  village  head  men  whom  we  had 
asked  regarding  the  Khilafat  and  Swaraj  and  Gandhi  who 
had  professed  ignorance  of  them  all.  Perhaps  the  old  chaud- 
hris  might  not  have  known  of  the  Khilafat  and  Swaraj,  he 
replied,  but  they  could  hardly  have  been  ignorant  of  Mr. 
Gandhi,  whom  everywhere  the  people  knew  and  rightly  rever- 
enced. The  real  trouble,  he  went  on,  was  that  good  British 
government  did  not  reach  down  deep  enough.  It  was  the  na- 
tive police  who  represented  Government  to  the  great  mass  of 
the  people.  If  he  had  his  way  he  would  abolish  the  native 
police  and  substitute,  if  it  were  possible,  a  pure  British  police 
force  instead  of  the  corrupt  and  tyrannical  native  police  who 
made  Government  feared  and  hated  among  the  people.  We 
asked  him  whether  he  would  be  willing  to  explain  two  matters 
which  Americans  could  not  understand  in  India,  namely,  how 
intelligent  Indians  could  worship  cows  and  how  they  could 
support  Turkey  in  the  Khilafat  movement  without  one  word 

153 


of  reprobation  of  her  bad  government  and  of  the  massacres 
with  which  she  had  again  and  again  defiled  her  history.  "As 
to  Turkey,"  he  rephed,  "I  wholly  agree  with  you,  Turkish 
rule,  at  least  over  Christian  populations,  should  have  been 
wiped  out  long,  long  ago.  In  London  I  had  an  Armenian 
friend,  and  I  often  wept  with  him.  At  the  end  of  the  war 
all  India  would  have  accepted  any  righteous  dealing  with 
Turkey.  But  we  saw  at  once  that  Turkey  was  not  to  be  dealt 
with,  any  more  than  she  had  been  in  the  past,  on  a  basis  of 
righteousness.  When  some  Indian  Mohammedans  spoke  in 
behalf  of  lenient  treatment  of  Turkey,  England  answered, 
'We  are  dealing  less  severely  with  Turkey  than  with  Ger- 
many.' What  did  that  have  to  do  with  it?  It  was  not  a 
matter  of  lenience,  less  or  more.  It  was  a  matter  of  justice. 
If  England  had  replied,  'We  intend  to  do  justice  by  Germany 
and  Turkey  alike  though  the  heavens  fall,'  all  of  India  would 
have  been  satisfied,  but  we  saw  that  now  as  always,  Europe 
did  not  intend  to  proceed  on  a  basis  of  righteousness,  but  on 
a  basis  of  policy  and  expediency.  Indian  Mohammedans  per- 
ceived that  it  was  clamor  and  politics  that  would  prevail 
and  not  righteousnenss.  If  the  problem  of  Turkey  was  to 
be  used  by  England  and  France  as  a  mere  counter  in  the 
game  that  they  were  playing  for  national  advantage,  why 
should  not  India  use  it  too?  That  is  the  meaning  of  the  Khila- 
fat  agitation.  India  is  more  sincere  in  it  than  England  has 
ever  been  in  her  Turkish  policy.  As  to  the  cow,  I  will  tell 
you  frankly,  that  I  do  not  eat  the  meat  of  cows,  but  I  do  not 
disapprove  at  all  of  the  use  of  meat  by  those  who  care  for  it. 
The  religious  idea,  which  you  do  not  understand  and  which 
has  grown  into  grotesque  forms,  was  originally  only  the  recog- 
nition of  the  value  of  the  cow  to  man,  its  worth  as  the  source 
of  five  products  essential  to  his  comfort  and  life  in  this  tropical 
land.  What  is  worship  but  worthship,  the  according  to  an 
object  of  its  real  worth?  Ultimately  this  true  feeling  was 
superstitionized  into  the  silly  religion  of  today.  I  disapprove 
of  these  Cow  Protection  Societies  which  oppose  veterinary 
science  and  destroy  the  very  creatures  they  purport  to  pro- 
tect." Did  he  think  that  Hinduism  was  in  any  respect  losing 
its  grasp  upon  the  people?  "Indeed  I  do,"  he  replied.  "I 
believe  that  caste  is  relaxing  and  that  religion  is  declining. 
Brahmans  are  not  entering  the  priesthood  as  they  did  in 
former  days,  because  priests  receive  no  such  support  from  the 
people  now  as  they  did  in  former  times.  Personally  I  am  a 
Hindu,  but  I  am  not  a  religious  man,  and  I  think  I  am  detached 
enough  to  see  the  tendencies  which  are  at  work.    In  this  part 

154 


of  India  it  is  the  Arya  Samaj  and  the  Christian  missionaries 
who  are  responsible  for  the  dechne  of  Hinduism,  but  they 
do  not  offer  anything  very  attractive  as  a  substitute  for  the 
old  Hinduism.    The  high  caste  people  do  not  see  that  the  new 
movements  offer  them  anything  of  practical  material  advant- 
age.    So  the  old  religion  is  dying  and  nothing  is  taking  its 
place.     Among  the  low  castes  it  is  very   different.     There 
your  missionaries  have  done  a  wonderful  work  in  lifting  up 
these  depressed  masses.     I  see  this.     I  think  we  are  losing 
our  old  life  and  that  we  are  not  taking  over  the  good  from  our 
western  teachers  as  we  ought.     We  are  not  learning  your 
persistence,  your  pertinacity,  your  enterprise,  your  sacrifice, 
your  spirit  of  adventure  and  service,  your  determination  upon 
great  and  good  purposes  and  the  subordination  of  life  and 
all  of  life's  resources  to  their  accomplishment.     We  do  not 
learn  these  things.    We  learn  collars  and  these  clothes.    There 
is  no  teaching  of  religion  in  the  homes  as  in  the  old  days.    If 
I  were  to  have  it  in  my  home,  I  suppose  I  should  look  to  the 
Arya  Samaj  for  it.   There  have  been  other  deteriorations  too 
in  India.     The  British  who  come  to  India  today  are-  far  in- 
ferior to  the  old  type."     We  drew  him  back  to  the  subject 
of  religion.    "Oh,"  said  he,  "a  man  can  be  a  good  man  in  any 
religion.    I  don't  see  any  essential  difference  in  the  great  re- 
ligions.    No,  I  know  you  would  not  agree.    As  to  the  modern 
education  of  women,  I  disapprove  of  it.    I  am  not  a  rich  man, 
but  I  have  comfortable  means.    I  gave  Rs.  30,000  to  the  war 
funds.     I  raised  many  millions  in  the  loans,  and  I  kept  five 
men  at  my  own  expense  recruiting  troops.    We  can  have  serv- 
ants, but  we  live  in  the  old  Indian  style.    My  wife  gets  up  at 
five  in  the  morning  and  works  till  eleven  at  night.     I  think 
we  ought  to  train  our  girls  for  the  old  frugal  life."     He  was 
opposed  to  free  trade.     He  would  keep  India  simple  and  real 
and  maintain,  as  far  as  possible  in  this  new  day,  the  old  indus- 
tries.   It  was  the  Sikhs  in  the  Punjab,  who  had  formerly  been 
a  great  stronghold  of  loyalty,  who  were  now  seditious.     As 
for  himself,  he  was  loyal  to  the  government  and  was  not  afraid 
of  the  unpopularity  and  opposition  he  had  met  in  supporting 
it,  but  he  did  not  believe  that  it  had  handled  India  wisely.    It 
ought  to  do  more  to  win  the  good  will  and  to  promote  the 
interest  of  the  common  people.    Was  it  not  the  common  peo- 
ple, we  asked  him,  who  had  profited  by  the  establishment  of 
order,  by  fixity  of  land  tenure  and  taxes,  by  roads,  and  most 
of  all  by  the  wide  and  ever-widening  system  of  irrigation 
works?    "Yes,"  said  he,  "but  look  at  the  government  budget. 
Compare  what  it  spends  on  mechanical  and  trade  schools  with 

155 


Birmingham  University."  He  had  lived  once  in  England  and 
had  known  well  some  of  the  most  earnest  Christian  men,  Lord 
Radstock  and  others.  We  asked  him  what  he  would  think 
of  the  suggestion,  which  we  had  heard  a  British  official  make 
a  few  evenings  before,  that  the  British  should  offer  definitely 
to  leave  India  at  the  end  of  five  years.  "Futile,"  said  he. 
"In  the  first  place,  India  would  not  believe  them.  Look  at 
Ireland.  And  in  the  second  place,  the  agitators  would  not 
cease  their  agitations.  They  would  redouble  them.  No,  in- 
stead of  the  British  leaving  India  every  one  of  the  native 
states  of  India  should  be  made  British  territory."  He  had 
lived  in  them,  and  he  knew  the  conditions,  the  fall  in  real 
estate  values  the  moment  one  crossed  the  boundary  line  be- 
tween British  India  and  a  native  state,  the  inferior  govern- 
ment, and  the  different  atmosphere.  There  might  be  excep- 
tional native  states,  but  he  was  speaking  of  what  he  knew. 
Had  we  been  surprised  at  his  views  about  woman's  place  in 
India?  We  had  intimated  as  much  and  had  asked  him  about 
suttee  and  child  marriage.  "No,"  he  answered,  "suttee  will 
never  be  revived.  And  in  the  old  days  when  it  was  practiced 
it  was  an  atrocious  thing  when  it  was  forced  upon  the  widow. 
But  was  it  not  noble  when  it  was  voluntary — life  given  up 
in  joy  and  freedom  for  love?  As  to  child  marriages,  whether 
of  young  boys  to  women  or  young  girls  to  men,  I  would  hang 
all  who  are  concerned  in  them  to  the  nearest  tree." 

What  can  one  say  of  such  views  except  that  it  was  the 
same  kind  of  positive  entertaining  opinion  that  one  might 
hear  from  an  intelligent  man  of  any  nation  looking  out  criti- 
cally upon  the  society  which  had  produced  him.  I  began  to 
quote  this  conversation  for  its  reference  to  the  Hindu  wor- 
ship of  cows,  but  it  bears  on  a  good  deal  else  besides  and  may 
well  lead  on  to  the  little  that  there  is  room  to  say,  even  in 
a  report  that  is  growing  as  voluminous  as  this,  on  the  illimit- 
able subject  of  Indian  Religion,  especially  on  some  of  the 
phases  of  chief  interest  to  Missions. 

8.  The  initial  difficulty  is  that  Hinduism  is  incapable  of 
definition.  "Occasionally  law-givers  have  found  themselves 
compelled  to  try  to  define  a  Hindu,  The  attempt  has  always 
failed,  since  in  practice  those  Indians  are  Hindus  who  are 
neither  Mohammedans  nor  Jews  nor  Parsis  nor  Christians 
nor  members  of  any  other  Indian  community  that  can  be  de- 
fined or  disposed  of .  .  .  .  If  we  use  the  word  of  the  prevalent 
type  of  life  and  belief  which  the  Mohammedans  found  in  India 
we  may  describe  Hindus  as  marked  by  the  following  charac- 
teristics:   Their  social  system  is  based  on  caste  and   they 

15G 


recognize  the  spiritual  ascendancy  of  the  Brahmans.  They 
venerate  the  Vedas  and  the  cow.  They  worship  and  believe  in 
one  or  more  of  the  usual  Hindu  gods,  in  Vishnu  or  his  Ava- 
taras,  in  Siva,  or  in  others.  They  believe  in  the  cycle  of  re- 
birth. They  use  images  in  religious  worship"  (Frazer  and 
Edwards,  "Life  and  Teaching  of  Tukaram,"  page  25,  Far- 
quhar,  "Primer  of  Hinduism,"  chapters  XIII  and  XIV).  This 
would  seem  to  be  a  clear  and  satisfactory  definition,  but  the 
Indian  census  takers  are  unable  to  make  it  or  any  other  defi- 
nition work.  The  Census  Report  of  1911  refers  to  "the  im- 
possibility of  framing  a  comprehensive  definition  of  Hinduism 
intelligible  to  the  average  enumerator  and  of  drawing  a  hard 
and  fast  line  between  Hinduism  and  other  religions,  Jainism, 
Islam,  Animism  and  Sikhism."  In  Bombay  Presidency  there 
were  "35,000  Hindu-Mohammedans  whose  creed  and  customs 
partake  of  both  religions."  The  "Census  Report"  states, 
"various  tests  have  been  suggested  to  fix  what  constitutes 
a  Hindu,  but  finally  it  was  decided  to  treat  all  who  call  them- 
selves Hindus  as  Hindus."  Indian  religion  does  not  like  defi- 
nitions. It  is  the  erasure  of  distinctions  and  the  obliteration 
of  clear  boundaries  which  is  characteristic  of  it.  As  one  of 
its  greatest  poets  has  sung, 

"My  heart  has  never  trod  the  Pilgrim  way  • 

The  vows  I  make  I  know  not  how  to  pay. 
'Ah,  God  is  here,'  I  cry.     Not  so,  not  so, 
For  me  distinctions  have  not  passed  away." 

What  Missions  meet  in  India,  accordingly,  is  an  attitude 
of  mind  which  believes  that  all  that  is  essential  and,  for  that 
matter,  all  that  is  unessential  also,  exists  within  the  amorphous 
comprehension  of  Hinduism,  and  that  resents  only  the  West- 
ern habit  of  intellectual  exactness  and  the  Christian  principle 
of  the  singleness  and  exclusiveness  of  truth.  "I  have  always 
felt,"  wrote  a  Hindu  gentleman  of  the  highest  character,  on 
the  occasion  of  our  visit  to  his  city,  "that  the  well  meaning 
and  earnest  activities  of  the  foreign  missions  in  India  were 
wholly  misdirected.  To  bring  religion  to  India  from  the  West 
showed  an  extraordinary  knowledge  of  India,  for  religion  is 
ingrained  in  us.  It  is  in  our  very  blood  and  bone.  Religion 
is  still  a  rule  of  life  with  us  that  should  govern  every  activity. 
And  so  it  is  that  today  in  our  fight  for  freedom  against  British 
imperialism,  religion  is  our  sheet  anchor.  We  fight  with  the 
unique  and  matchless  weapon  of  non-violence,  for  we  feel 
that  victory  will  at  last  come  to  those  who  suffer  for  the  sake 
of  truth  and  not  to  those  who  inflict  the  suffering.  .  .  .  The 
basis  of  Indian  art  is  the  representation  of  the  ideal,  of  the 

157 


soul  of  a  thing.  The  student  who  wishes  to  understand  it 
must  not  go  by  externals.  He  must  dive  deep  and  find  the 
spirit  behind  the  form.  Even  so  those  who  desire  to  know 
what  India  is,  what  India  thinks,  and  what  India  seeks  must 
not  be  misled  by  forms  and  appearances." 

This  identification  of  Hinduism  with  the  whole  of  life,  its 
tropical  richness  of  form  and  symbolism,  its  want  of  intel- 
lectual definiteness  and  precision  explain  various  features 
of  the  present  day  resistance  of  Hinduism  to  Christianity, 
such  as  its  defense  of  idolatry,  the  new  apologetic  for  im- 
moral symbolism,  the  dislike  of  clear  Christian  doctrine,  and 
the  spirit  of  syncretism  and  assimilation. 

(1)  Under  the  powerful  and  uncompromising  attack  of  Ram 
Mohun  Roy  upon  Hindu  idolatry,  as  not  merely  symbolic 
but  literal,  and  moved  by  the  influence  of  Western  education 
and  of  the  Christian  view  of  God  and  the  world,  there  grew 
up  in  India  a  great  shame  and  disavowal  of  idols.  That 
shame  and  disavowal  are  sure  to  increase,  but,  instead  of  the 
frank  confession  and  condemnation  of  idolatry,  one  finds  to- 
day both  in  the  nationalistic  movement  and  in  the  most  ad- 
vanced of  the  Samajes  a  new  spirit  of  defense  and  apology. 
"I  do  not  disbelieve  in  idol  worship,"  says  Mr.  Gandhi.  "An 
i(fol  does  not  excite  any  feeling  of  veneration  in  me,  but  I 
think  that  idol  worship  is  a  part  of  human  nature.  ...  I 
do  not  consider  idol  worship  a  sin."  The  Prarthana  Samaj 
is  perhaps  the  most  enlightened  of  all  the  reform  groups, 
but  it  has  members  who  "have  banished  neither  idolatry  nor 
caste  from  their  homes."  Its  Bombay  branch  in  1920  carried 
by  a  vote  of  only  19  to  12  a  resolution  requiring  each  appli- 
cant for  admission  to  declare  at  the  time  of  becoming  a  mem- 
ber, "I  undertake  to  perform  all  domestic  and  other  cere- 
monies according  to  theistic  rites  discarding  idolatry."  A 
second  resolution  proposing  to  add  to  the  rules  of  the  Samaj 
the  following:  "Any  member  who  performs  a  domestic  or 
any  other  ceremony  with  idolatrous  rites,  or  worships  any 
idols  while  performing  such  rites,  will  ipso  facto  cease  to 
be  a  member  of  the  Bombay  Prarthana  Samaj,"  was  lost, 
only  seven  members  voting  for  it.  ("Encyclopedia  of  Religion 
and  Ethics,"  Vol.  9,  Article  "Prarthana  Samaj,"  "Dnyano- 
daya,"  July  17,  1920.)  There  has  undoubtedly  been  a  great 
diminution  of  blind  idolatry  in  India.  Many  have  given  over 
idolatry  altogether,  and  many  who  practice  or  allow  the  use 
of  idols  truly  conceive  them  as  mere  symbols.  But  Mr.  Gandhi 
is  mistaken  when  he  says,  "No  Hindu  considers  an  image  to 
be  God."     Millions  of  Hindus  worship  images  as  gods  or  as 

158 


God,  and  I  do  not  see  how  the  thousands  of  pure  spirited 
Indians  Hke  Mr.  Gandhi  can  visit  Benares  or  Allahabad  or 
any  one  of  a  hundred  thousand  temples  in  India  or  see  the 
place  of  idolatry  in  home  and  village  life  without  a  feeling 
of  sickness  and  almost  utter  hopelessness  of  soul. 

(2)  Another  feature  of  present-day  religious  thought  in 
India  supported  in  part  by  Western  tendencies  in  philosophi- 
cal and  ethical  teaching,  in  part  by  the  patriotic  defense  of 
everything  Indian,  and  in  part  by  what  is  animal  in  the 
human  spirit  is  the  new  apology  for  the  immoralities,  or  un- 
moralism,  which  the  life-embracing  character  of  Hinduism 
has  gathered  up  into  its  indiscriminating  bosom.  Even  Mr. 
Gandhi  says,  "I  know  the  vice  that  is  going  on  today  in  all 
the  great  Hindu  shrines,  but  I  love  them  in  spite  of  their 
unspeakable  faihngs"  ("Kaukab  i  Hind,"  Oct.  14,  1921).  And 
writers  are  now  found  both  in  and  out  of  India  who  defend 
the  Tantras,  which,  until  recently,  no  one  has  even  dared  to 
translate  into  English,  and  Tantric  worship  as  representing 
a  higher  and  fuller  religious  view  than  Christianity.  "Chris- 
tianity," they  say,  "as  ordinarily  interpreted,  puts  an  impass- 
able gulf  between  the  ideal  and  human  nature.  The  Agama 
(that  is  the  Tantra)  on  the  contrary  throws  its  circumference 
around  the  whole  circle  of  human  activity.  ...  It  includes 
worship  with  flesh  foods,  intoxicants,  and  sex  because  it  recog- 
nizes that  these  are  inherent  in  certain  stages  of  human  de- 
velopment and  because  it  believes  that  they  are  more  certain 
to  be  transcended  through  being  associated  with  the  religious 
idea  than  through  being  left  alone  or  in  an  antagonistic  rela- 
tionship to  religion.  .  .  .  Simple  religion  such  as  Christianity 
removes  God  from  His  creation  and  removes  Him  also  from 
full  contact  with  a  complete  humanity,  by  speaking  of  Him 
as  single-sexed  and  so  vitiating  the  whole  superstructure  of 
commentary  and  custom.  Simple  philosophy,  on  the  other 
hand,  reduces  everything  to  abstraction.  The  Tantrik  teacher, 
however,  declares,  'It  is  as  impossible  to  hold  the  firmament 
between  a  pair  of  tongs  as  it  is  to  worship  an  atributeless 
Brahman  by  a  mind  with  attributes.*  Tantra  replaces  the 
attributeless  as  an  object  of  contemplation  by  Shakti  (the 
Creative  Energy  in  all  its  forms  personified  as  feminine)  as 
an  object  of  worship  and  holds  that  the  subtler  aspects  of 
Shakti  can  only  be  reached  through  her  physical  and  mantra 
forms"  ("The  Modern  Review  "  Feb.,  1918,  article  "The  Aga- 
mas  and  the  Future") .  This  is  a  view,  however,  which  India  is 
certain  to  abandon  unless  she  is  induced  to  retain  it  by  West- 
ern  influence.     Against  the   teaching  and   influence   of  the 

159 


Tantras  every  other  religion  of  the  world,  including  all  that 
is  good  in  Hinduism,  has  been  a  protest.  This  new  apologetic 
represents  a  pathological  aspect  of  the  human  mind. 

(3)  One  meets  in  India  today  just  as  at  home  the  easy  deri- 
sion of  "creed  and  dogma."  In  the  West  one  has  to  recog- 
nize that  such  talk  represents  an  inevitable  reaction  against 
the  distorted  religious  teaching  which  gave  a  disproportionate 
place  to  the  intellectual  and  doctrinal  elements  of  religion 
and  forgot  the  full  truth  of  Christianity.  The  religion  of 
character  and  conduct  might  not  have  spurned  the  religion 
of  creed  if  the  latter  had  not  also  erred.  But  whatever  the 
cause  of  the  reaction,  it  has  been  real  enough  or,  at  any  rate, 
the  expressions  which  have  become  its  shibboleths  are  com- 
mon enough.  We  met  them  in  some  of  the  addresses  which 
were  presented  to  us  by  the  sympathetic  but  non-Christian 
students  in  some  of  the  great  high  schools.  Here  are  two 
illustrative  passages  from  two  of  the  schools  each  of  which 
had  in  the  neighborhood  of  700  students: 

"Your  schools  were  founded  primarily  for  religious  instruc- 
tion and  for  the  propagation  of  the  Christian  Faith.  Judged 
from  the  standard  that  the  goal  of  missionary  enterprise  is 
to  add  as  many  converts  to  the  Church  as  possible,  it  appears 
that  their  efforts  have  failed,  at  least  in  the  educational  insti- 
tutions. We  who  belong  to  other  religions  find  it  hard  to  ac- 
cept certain  metaphysical  dogmas  of  Christianity.  But  after 
all  what  should  be  the  object  of  missionary  effort?  Is  it  the 
spreading  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  or  is  it  the  spreading  of  the 
dogmas  of  Christianity.  The  love,  sympathy  and  in  many 
cases  the  self-sacrifice  of  the  teachers,  and  the  daily  reading 
of  the  teachings  of  Christ  from  the  Bible  never  fail  to  intro- 
duce the  essential  spirit  of  Christianity  into  the  mind  of  even 
the  dullest  student." 

"With  these  brilliant  records  of  success  in  secular  instruc- 
tion, religious  instruction  has  by  no  means  been  ignored; 
rather,  it  has  been  attended  to  with  redoubled  zeal,  and  we 
honestly  believe,  that  our  success  in  one  branch  is  primarily 
due  to  the  purity  of  thought  resultant  from  devoted  attention 
to  the  other  branch.  We  have  regular  Bible  readings  and 
even  if  certain  metaphysical  dogmas  of  Christianity  may 
not  be  acceptable  to  certain  minds  yet  these  lessons  never 
fail  to  impress  us  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity — the  spirit 
of  love,  sympathy  and  self-sacrifice." 

One  meets  constantly  this  rejection  of  the  historic  Christian 
doctrine  coupled  with  the  expression  of  highest  admiration 
for  Christ  and  His  Spirit.    It  is  characteristic  of  India  as  it 

160 


is  common  in  the  West  today  to  hold  the  sheer  fallacy  that 
the  teaching  and  spirit  of  Christ  are  separable  from  the  New 
Testament  valuation  of  the  person  of  Christ.  We  met  this 
view  in  conversation  with  two  high-minded  and  earnest  Indian 
gentlemen  with  whom  we  talked  one  morning  on  a  wide 
veranda  in  western  India  looking  off  across  a  wealth  of  waving 
cocoanut  trees.  They  were  both  Hindus,  one  a  retired  judge 
and  another  the  most  respected  lawyer  in  the  neighboring 
district,  from  which  he  had  come  down  to  meet  us.  Conver- 
sation began  with  an  attempt  to  define  religion.  These  two 
friends  were  agreed  in  conceiving  it  to  be  the  ecstatic  spiritual 
consciousness  of  God.  But,  we  asked  them,  ought  not  religion 
to  be  conceived  in  terms  of  service  rather  than  of  ecstasy. 
No,  they  replied,  this  was  just  the  radical  difference  between 
their  religious  view  and  Christianity,  or  at  any  rate  the  Euro- 
pean interpretation  of  Christianity.  In  Christianity  spiritual 
ecstasy  was  recognized  but  it  was  a  means  to  the  end  of  ser- 
vice. In  Hinduism  service  and  worship  were  only  means  to 
the  end  of  ecstasy.  Idolatry  was  a  darkening  shadow  upon 
the  essence  of  Hindu  religion.  They  themselves  made  no 
use  of  idols.  It  was  Buddhism,  they  held,  which  was  respon- 
sible for  idolatry  in  India.  It  was  not  in  the  Vedas,  and  it 
was  not  in  the  teaching  of  Buddha,  but  when  after  Buddhism 
had  prevailed  in  India  for  a  few  centuries  the  Vedanta  move- 
ment destroyed  it,  it  left  idolatry  as  its  bequest.  By  a  strange 
irony  Buddha,  who  had  taught  that  there  was  no  god,  was 
himself  deified,  and  his  effigies  were  worshipped  all  over  the 
Buddhist  world.  It  was  an  evil  legacy  which  he  had  left  to 
India.  But  had  he  not  also  left  the  doctrine  of  the  sacredness 
of  life  and  had  not  mild  and  benign  influences  flowed  from  his 
teaching?  On  the  other  hand,  they  held  that  it  was  the 
Jains  whose  religion  was  older  than  Buddhism  who'  had 
taught  the  doctrine  of  the  sacredness  of  life.  Caste  also  was 
unessential  to  religion,  and  it  was  slowly  but  surely  disappear- 
ing. After  all  it  represented  little  more  than  the  notions 
of  social  distinction  embodied  in  the  British  nobility.  All 
ideas  of  class  hatred  and  pride  had  been  imported  into  caste 
either  by  Western  imagination  or  by  Western  influence.  A 
distinction  had  been  drawn  in  our  conversation,  they  said, 
between  Christianity  and  Hinduism,  but  in  reality  they  were 
prepared  to  recognize  all  religion  as  essentially  one.  They 
were  joyfully  ready  to  acknowledge  Christ  as  a  saint  like 
Tukaram,  but  perhaps  not  superior,  and  certainly  they  were 
not  ready  to  acknowledge  any  exclusive  claim.  Christ  they 
could  accept  but  not  the  European  gloss.     But,  I  reminded 

161 

6 — India   and  Persia 


them,  Christ's  exclusive  claim  was  not  a  European  gloss.  The 
same  records  which  gave  us  the  picture  of  Him  that  they  were 
ready  to  accept  gave  us  also  and  with  equal  authenticity  His 
exclusive  claims.  "What  claims  have  you  in  mind?"  they 
asked.  I  quoted  them:  "I  am  the  Way  and  the  Truth  and 
the  Life.  No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  me;"  "No 
man  knoweth  the  Son  but  the  Father,  neither  knoweth  any 
man  the  Father  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son 
will  reveal  Him;"  "I  am  the  Light  of  the  world;"  "Verily, 
verily  I  say  unto  you,  except  you  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of 
Man  and  drink  his  blood,  you  have  no  life  in  you.  Whoso 
eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood  hath  eternal  life,  and 
I  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day."  "I  cannot  accept  those 
sayings,"  said  the  older  man.  We  returned  to  what  they 
had  said  about  caste,  and  they  expressed  their  conviction  that 
caste  as  an  influence  of  social  segregation  was  declining 
through  social,  intellectual  and  economic  changes.  Plague, 
which  had  been  such  a  sorrow  to  India,  had  nevertheless  mixed 
all  the  people  together  in  the  democracy  of  disease.  Many 
like  themselves  were  ready  to  break  caste  and  did  not  do  so, 
simply  because  others  were  not  ready  for  it  and  would  be 
offended.  As  to  Swaraj,  it  would  not  come  for  fifty  years. 
We  passed  back  to  the  subject  of  religion  again  and  the  idea 
that  all  religion  is  essentially  one.  Surely  this  was  so,  they 
urged.  For  example,  they  disagreed  widely  between  them- 
selves, these  two  friends.  One  was  a  monist,  the  other  was 
a  dualist.  One  of  them  longed  to  be  one  with  God ;  the  other 
longed  to  be  nearer  to  God.  They  were  both  Hindus. 
Were  they  not  both  longing  for  the  same  thing?  Were  not 
all  religions  after  all  but  different  ways  of  reaching  God? 
But  what  did  they  mean  by  God,  we  asked.  "Ishwar,  the 
Divine  Essence."  Why  did  India  not  worship  Ishwar  then? 
In  all  India  there  was  not  one  temple  of  such  worship  nor 
one  to  Brahma,  the  Creator.  How  could  this  be?  They  re- 
plied that  God  conceived  as  Brahma,  the  Creator,  is  really 
outside  of  human  life.  His  work  is  done.  What  is  the  use 
of  worshiping  him, — so  the  heart  of  India  felt.  It  worshiped 
God  conceived  as  Preserver  in  Vishnu  and  as  Destroyer  in 
Siva.  To  the  extent  that  men  worshiped  idols  they  worshiped 
foolishly,  and  such  foolish  worship  would  inevitably  disappear. 
Some  of  their  best  friends,  they  said,  were  missionaries,  es- 
pecially American  missionaries  whom  they  regarded  as  toler- 
ant and  just  men.  They  said  that  in  their  judgment  Mission*" 
had  greatly  improved.  They  used  to  say,  "Your  religion  is 
false  and  mine  is  true."    Now  they  say,  "Mine  is  better."    The 

162 


judge  said  he  had  read  a  Httle  book  which  I  had  written  on 
comparative  rehgion  entitled  'The  Light  of  the  World,"  and 
that  he  liked  the  sentence,  "Westerners  are  worse  than  their 
religion."  He  thought  this  was  true.  I  asked  him  with  re- 
gard to  the  rest  of  the  sentence,  which  embodied  an  opinion 
which  I  had  heard  Sir  Andrew  Frazer  express,  "In  the  East 
men  are  better  than  their  religions."  The  judge  said  that 
he  was  not  aware  of  that.  After  the  manner  of  such  friendly 
talk  as  we  were  having  we  returned  to  the  beginning,  and  I 
cited  from  the  Epistle  of  James  his  conception  of  religion  as 
purity  and  service.  "It  is  not  satisfying,"  said  they.  As  to 
truth,  what  were  its  criteria?  I  cited  Christ's  judgment, 
"By  fruits  ye  shall  know."  Not  so,  they  held.  The  full 
ecstasy  of  spiritual  experience  was  the  true  criterion,  and  this 
was  the  longing  of  men  rather  than  their  possession.  There 
were  not  five  men  in  India  who  had  experienced  religion,  the 
full  satisfaction  of  the  spiritual  consciousness.  They  were 
glad  to  have  had  this  meeting,  for  they  were  hunting  for  the 
truth.  We  discussed,  before  they  left,  the  different  ways  in 
which  men's  minds  were  moving  in  different  parts  of  India 
and  the  changes  that  had  taken  place  in  their  own  part  of 
India  within  their  memory.  "I  can  remember,"  said  the 
younger  man,  "when  as  a  boy  the  shadow  of  an  untouchable 
out-caste  fell  upon  me  my  mother  would  send  me  home  to 
bathe.  It  is  not  so  now."  Some  weeks  later  I  received  from 
the  older  man  a  letter  which  he  had  promised  to  write  giving 
his  impressions  after  re-reading  the  Christian  Gospels.  His 
letter  concluded,  "The  Gospels  do  not  contain  the  whole  of  the 
real  teachings  of  Jesus,  what  He  privately  taught  to  His  dis- 
ciples, in  other  words.  His  religion.  That  teaching,  that  re- 
ligion is  lost." 

(4)  This  kindly  attitude  towards  Christ  which  is  at  once 
so  critical  and  so  uncritical  is  very  characteristic  of  present 
religious  thought  in  India.  The  doctrines  both  of  the  Incar- 
nation and  of  the  Atonement  are  a  stumbling  block,  the  for- 
mer to  Mohammedans  and  the  latter  to  the  Hindus,  but  the 
comprehensive  spirit  of  Hinduism  is  very  ready  to  respect 
and  admire  Jesus.  "In  it  (Hinduism)  there  is  room  for  the 
worship  of  all  the  prophets  of  the  world,"  says  Mr.  Gandhi. 
And,  admitted  on  any  terms  even  though  not  His  own,  Christ 
inevitably  asserts  His  moral  supremacy.  A  generation  ago, 
in  spite  of  all  that  Keshub  Chandra  Sen  said  with  courage 
and  love,  which  yet  fell  short  of  full  faith,  with  regard  to 
Jesus,  the  thought  of  India  was  cold  to  Him.  The  influences 
which  have  been  at  work,  however,  of  which  Mr.  Gandhi 
'*'  163 


has  been  one  of  the  strongest,  have  brought  the  thought  of 
India  to  the  recognition  of  Christ's  moral  authority. 

Mr.  Gandhi  has  again  and  again  exalted  the  authority  and 
moral  glory  of  Christ.  It  is  quite  true  that  he  rejects  our 
conception  of  Christ's  Person  and  nature,  but  he  has  ever 
referred  to  Him  with  reverence  and  even  when  he  has  not 
mentioned  Christ's  name  or  perhaps  been  at  all  conscious 
that  his  thought  was  influenced  by  Christ  he  has  upheld  the 
ethical  ideals  and  principles  which  historically  owe  their 
vitality  to  our  Lord.  In  these  respects  and  in  a  great  deal 
of  his  moral  and  social  influence  Mr.  Gandhi  has  been  a  very 
great  and  a  very  righteous  force  in  India. 

Indians  complain  of  government  action  which  is  not  in  ac- 
cord with  Christianity.  They  make  this  complaint  not  only 
because  the  Government  purports  to  be  a  Christian  govern- 
ment, but  also  because  they  are  coming  to  recognize  Christ's 
standard  and  ideal  as  the  ultimate  basis  of  moral  judgment. 
Mr.  Natarajan,  one  of  the  leading  Indians  in  Bombay,  editor 
of  the  "Indian  Social  Reformer,"  recently  presided  over  one  of 
Dr.  Stanley  Jones'  meetings  on  "Jesus  Christ  and  Present 
Day  Problems,"  and  declared,  at  the  close  of  the  lecture, 
that  he  entirely  agreed  that  the  pressing  problems  of  society 
can  be  solved  only  by  acting  on  the  principles  of  Jesus'  life 
and  teachings  ("Dnyanodaya,"  December  22,  1921).  The 
"Bombay  Chronicle,"  the  leading  nationalist  newspaper,  in  an 
editorial  on  December  24,  1921,  appealed  to  the  example  of 
Christ  in  support  of  the  non-cooperation  movement.  It  pic- 
tured the  attitude  which,  in  its  view,  Christ  would  take  if  He 
returned  to  India.  It  appealed  to  His  authority  in  support 
of  Mr.  Gandhi's  policy  as  embodying  "the  truths  of  Christi- 
anity and  of  all  religions  as  applied  to  politics  and  statecraft." 
"The  Servant  of  India,"  another  nationalist  paper,  in  an  edi- 
torial on  cowardice  and  non-violence,  held  up  before  the  non- 
cooperators  the  example  of  Christ  in  His  trial :  "When  Christ 
was  brought  before  Pilate,  His  reply  to  all  the  latter's  im- 
pertinent and  irreverent  questions  was  a  dignified  silence. 
This  is  a  significant  indication  of  how  we  should  meet  the 
insulting  outbreak  of  irresponsible  power.  We  must  make  it 
feel — how,  only  the  actual  circumstances  can  suggest — that 
it  is  in  the  wrong"  (Quoted  in  the  Delhi  "Eastern  Mail,"  Oct. 
25,  1921). 

9.  The  influence  of  Christianity  on  religious  thought  in 
India  is  evidenced  in  many  movements  where  it  is  not  ac- 
knowledged, or  where  it  may  even  be  resisted  or  denied.    The 

164 


earlier  samajes  joyfully  recognized  their  indebtedness  to 
Christianity.  They  began,  and  their  first  inaugurators  recog- 
nized that  they  had  begun,  directly  under  Christian  inspira- 
tion. The  later  movements  like  the  Arya  Samaj,  which  arose 
in  direct  opposition  to  Christianity  and  which  is  now  the 
most  vigorous  of  all  the  Samaj  movements,  and  the  Dev 
Samaj,  which  some  would  regard  as  deistic  or  even  atheistic 
in  its  theology,  but  which  represents  a  definite  humanizing 
and  moral  tendency,  both  owe  their  best  elements,  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  to  Christianity.  The  other  strongest  re- 
ligious movements  in  India  which  long  antedated  the  modern 
missionary  era,  namely,  Vaishnavism  and  Vedantism,  likewise 
have  been  deeply  influenced  in  many  of  their  expressions  and 
their  advocates  by  Christian  truth  and  by  the  Christian  spirit. 
No  one  better  illustrates  in  his  own  statements  and  in  his 
own  person  the  view  which  the  sentiment  of  India  has  come 
to  take  of  Christ  than  Sir  Narayan  Chandavarkar,  President 
of  the  Bombay  Legislative  Council  and  one  of  the  most  highly 
respected  men  in  India,  a  man  of  noble  mind  and  noble  char- 
acter. "The  best  minds  of  India,"  he  wrote,  were  "striving 
to  diffuse  among  the  masses  the  best  that  is  in  the  Indian 
religion  and  to  show  that  the  best  is  not  different  from,  but 
is  the  same  as  Christ's  teachings"  ("The  Times  of  India,"  June 
8,  1921).  Sir  Narayan  is  one  of  the  leading  spirits  in  the 
Prarthana  Samaj,  a  theistic  society  whose  theology  would 
not  differ  greatly  from  that  of  some  members  of  the  left  wing 
of  American  Unitarianism.  The  Bhagavadgita  is  their  New 
Testament,  supplemented  by  the  poems  of  the  devotional 
school,  especially  Tukaram.  There  is  one  of  these  entitled 
"Santi,"  or  calm,  which  Dr.  McNicol,  of  the  Scotch  Mission 
in  Poona,  has  translated  under  the  title  "He  Leadeth  Me." 

"Holding  my  hand  thou  leadest  me, 

My  comrade  everywhere. 
As  I  go  on  and  lean  on  thee, 

My  burden  thou  dost  bear. 

"If,  as  I  go,  in  my  distress 

I  frantic  words  should  say, 
Thou  settest  right  my  foolishness 

And  tak'st  my  shame  away. 

"Thus  thou  to  me  new  hope  dost  send, 

A  new  world  bringest  in; 
Now  know  I  every  man  a  friend 

And  all  I  meet  my  kin. 

"So  like  a  happy  child  I  play 

In  thy  dear  world,  O  God, 
And  everywhere — I,  Tuka,  say 

Thy  bliss  is  spread  abroad." 
165 


Sir  Narayan  made  this  poem  the  theme  of  one  of  his  ser- 
mons to  the  Prarthana  Samaj.  "Mark  the  succession  of 
changes  of  the  relation,"  he  said.  "We  start  in  life  with  God 
as  our  Master ;  we  begin  by  obeying  him ;  His  will  is  our  law ; 
and  soon  the  Master  develops  into  our  Friend  as  we  go  on 
serving  Him;  then  the  Master  and  the  Servant  begin  to  be 

familiar ;  and  the  Master  stoops  to  serve  the  Servant 

The  nectar  of  Tukaram's  hymns  is  shed  for  us  when  they  are 
sung;  and  of  this  hymn  it  is  especially  true.  It  has  no  falls — 
line  rises  upon  line,  thought  grows  with  thought,  and  the 
poet  pictures  to  us  our  God  changing  from  Master  into  Friend, 
Teacher,  Lover  until  at  last  His  companionship  turns  Him 
into  our  very  being.  .  .  .  And  growth  from  within  means 
walking  with  God,  feeling  His  touch,  realizing  His  presence 
and  communing  with  Him,  filling  ourselves  with  the  spirit  of 
what  the  Bible  speaks  of  as  the  Holy  Ghost." 

I  went  to  call  upon  Sir  Narayan  in  Bombay.  While  waiting 
for  him  I  was  interested  to  see  on  the  wall  a  large  picture  of 
Spurgeon.  When  he  came  in  I  spoke  of  it,  and  he  expressed 
his  great  admiration  for  Spurgeon,  whom  he  had  gone  to 
hear  preach  in  London.  He  said  he  liked  the  earnestness  of 
his  conviction,  but  he  did  not  like  one  sermon  which  he  heard 
describing  the  penalty  and  judgment  on  sin,  and  he  thought 
unfavorably  of  the  way  in  which  Mr.  Spurgeon  sometimes 
announced  the  collection,  "If  any  one  is  not  willing  to  part 
with  something,  let  him  leave."  He  thought  that  Christianity 
would  not  be  accepted  by  India  as  Europe  had  accepted  it, 
as  a  new  religion  from  without,  but  that  Hinduism  would 
discover  in  itself  the  principles  and  values  of  Christianity, 
not  reading  these  into  Hinduism  but  discovering  that 
they  were  already  there.  There  was  no  Hindu  book, 
however,  like  the  New  Testament.  And  Hinduism  was 
not  like  the  Western  systematic  construction  of  Christianity, 
but  was  full  of  confusions  and  illogicalness.  He  thought,  if 
we  rightly  understood  him,  that  idolatry  and  caste  were  likely 
to  endure.  He  told  us  of  a  visit  which  he  had  made  to  Pand- 
harpur  and  of  his  falling  down  thrilled  before  the  feet  of 
Tukaram.  He  admitted  that  his  feeling  was  not  one  of  re- 
ligion. It  was  veneration  and  affection.  Yet  his  act  had  been 
just  like  the  act  of  the  people  in  idolatry.  He  had  visited 
the  nearby  temple  of  Vithoba,  but  he  did  not  even  clasp  his 
hands  or  bow  there.  He  had  no  belief  in  the  reality  of  Hindu- 
Moslem  unity.  The  Moslem  was  a  democrat  in  the  mosque 
but  an  aristocrat  outside,  using  the  words  in  a  political  sense. 
He  had  no  patience  with  the  Khilafat  agitation,  but  he  thought 

166 


the  Turkish  question  should  be  dealt  with  in  a  conference 
of  the  Turks  and  Europeans  sitting  down  together.     Many 
people  thought  India  could  govern  itself,  just  as  his  two-year- 
old  grandchild  thought  he  could  rule  the  house.     India  was 
not  ready  for  such  Swaraj,  but  she  was  ready  and  had  a 
right  to  ask  for  self-government  within  the  Empire.    Sooner 
or  later  the  Government  and  Mr.  Gandhi  would  have  to  come 
to  an  issue.     He  thought  some  measure  of  violence  was  sure 
to  come,  that  history  had  shown  that  great  political  develop- 
ments were  seldom  achieved  without  the  spilling  of  blood, 
but  he  did  not  believe  that  there  would  be  any  general  violence. 
The  agitation  which  Mr.  Gandhi  represented  must  surely  be 
put  down.     I  ventured  to  bring  forward  what  seemed  to  me 
to  be  the  fundamental  distinction  between  Christianity  and 
the  non-Christian  religions,  namely,  the  fact  and  meaning  of 
the  Resurrection.     No,  he  replied,  there  was  no  resurrection 
in  Hinduism,  neither  of  God  nor  saint,  but  he  held  that  all 
that  is  of  moral  value  in   the  conception  was   supplied   by 
apparitions  and  that  the  idea  of  apparitions  in  the  body  was 
very  familiar  to  Hindus.    But  I  asked  how  the  idea  of  trans- 
migration could  be  reconciled  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Resur- 
rection or  how  the  moral  values  of  the  Resurrection  could 
be  drawn  from  apparitions  in  a  religion  of  transmigration. 
He  replied  that  Hinduism   was   a   philosophical  and   vague 
religion,  not  logical  and  accurate,  that  the  English  temporized 
in  politics  and  the  Indians  in  religion,  that  Hinduism  could 
not  be  pressed  into  any  logical  exactitude.     Those  who  have 
come  as  far  as  Sir  Narayan  has  come  towards  Christ  are 
preparing  the  way  for  a  generation  who  will  come  further. 

The  evidences  of  the  filtration  of  Christian  views  into 
Indian  thought  might  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  I  could 
quote  from  my  notebooks  conversations  with  all  types  of  men 
indicating  the  place  to  which  Christ  has  been  already  admitted 
in  the  mind  of  India  and  to  which  He  cannot  be  restricted. 
Groups  like  the  Chet  Rami  sect  arise,  small  in  themselves  and 
often  transitory,  but  all  of  them  eddies  on  the  surface  which 
show  the  movement  of  deep  undertides.  There  is  one  of  the 
native  states  in  which  the  visitor  feels  the  weight  of  a  pecu- 
liarly distressing  and  oppressive  idolatry  where  nevertheless 
in  all  the  schools  of  the  state  a  strange  prayer  is  offered  which 
mingles  the  ideas  of  a  sort  of  Hindu  Shintoism  with  a  Chris- 
tian thought  of  God. 

10.  I  have  spoken  eieewhere  of  the  significance  of  the  sup- 
posed alliance  of  Hinduism  and  Mohammedanism  in  relation 

167 


to  Indian  politics.  Such  a  unity  would  have  profound  signifi- 
cance also  for  religion  in  India.  Is  this  unity  real?  The  All- 
India  Congress,  made  up  of  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  alike, 
was  united  in  making  Mr.  Gandhi  dictator  of  the  Nationalist 
Movement,  with  authority  to  appoint  his  successor  and  in- 
vested him  and  his  successor  and  all  subsequent  successors, 
appointed  in  time  by  their  predecessors,  "with  the  full  powers 
of  the  All-India  Congress  committee."  The  only  limitation 
imposed  was  that  "the  present  creed  of  the  Congress  shall 
in  no  case  be  altered  by  Mahatma  Gandhi  or  his  successors 
except  with  the  leave  of  the  Congress  first  obtained."  So 
creeds  do  matter  after  all.  It  would  be  interesting  to  hear 
Mohammed  express  his  mind  on  this  acceptance  of  a  Hindu 
as  the  absolute  political  leader  of  the  62,500,000  Moham- 
medans of  India.  The  resolutions  of  the  Congress  set  forth 
as  one  of  its  goals  the  "consolidation  of  unity  among  all  the 
races  and  communities  of  India  whether  Hindu,  Mussulman, 
Sikh,  Parsi,  Christian  or  Jew."  It  remains  to  be  seen  whether 
this  alliance  of  Hindu  and  Mussulman  is  real  or  not  and 
whether  any  Hindu-Moslem  unity  is  permanently  possible 
that  does  not  mean  either  the  conversion  of  Hindus  to  Islam 
or  the  absorption  of  Islam,  as  Buddhism  was  absorbed,  into 
Hinduism.  An  Indian  gentleman  in  the  Punjab,  who  ex- 
pressed his  own  opinion  to  me  that  Hindu-Moslem  unity  was 
a  pure  fiction,  toid  me  that  he  had  not  long  before  asked 
Lala  La j  pat  Rai  whether  he  thought  there  was  any  reality 
in  this  union  and  that  Lajpat  Rai  had  tapped  him  on  the 
shoulder  and  said,  "Don't  ask  such  questions."  One  could  wish 
that  there  were  reality  in  these  movements.  After  Christ 
one  of  India's  greatest  needs  is  unity.  One  of  the  things  she 
needs  Christ  for  is  the  unity  which  He  alone  can  bring.  There 
is  no  unity  today.  "The  Hindu-Moslem  entente  is  only  super- 
ficial," writes  a  friend  in  India,  in  a  letter  which  we  received 
in  Persia.  "The  feeling  among  Hindus  themselves  is  any- 
thing but  a  feeling  of  unity.  The  Marathas  are  against  the 
Brahmans  and  even  the  barber  caste  is  claiming  that  it  is  as 
good  as  the  Brahman  caste  and  as  much  entitled  to  wear 
the  sacred  thread."  An  enemy  of  India  might  desire  the 
perpetuation  of  the  old  anarchy  of  Hinduism.  One  reason 
why  those  who  love  India  want  to  see  her  come  to  Christ  is 
because  they  are  convinced  that  it  is  only  through  Christ 
that  a  solid  and  veracious  unity  can  ever  come  to  her. 

11.     No  mistake  is  greater  than  that  of  the  friend  whose 
letter  I  have  quoted  earlier  in  this  chapter  who  thought  that 

168 


Christian  Missions  were  an  intrusion  in  India  because  India 
already  has  religion.     She  does,  but  not  a  religion  that  will 
meet  her  needs.     The  Viceroy  made  a  speech  while  we  were 
in  India  before  the  University  of  Benares,  the  new  Hindu 
University,  commending  the  great  objects  of  the  institution, 
"to  preserve  and  foster  all  that  is  noblest  in  Hindu  ideals,  in 
Hindu  life,  in  Hindu  thought,  in  Hindu  religion,  tradition, 
culture,  and  civilization.    You  have  also  implanted,  in  its  nat- 
ural soil,"  he  added,  "what  you  think  beneficial  for  your  pur- 
pose of  Western  science.  Western  industry,  and  Western  art, 
so  that  your  young  men  when  they  go  out  into  the  world 
should   not  only  be  e(iuipped   with   the  teachings   of   Hindu 
tradition  but  also  with  other  knowledge  which  somehow  or 
other  we  in  the  Western  world  have  managed   to  acquire. 
And  consequently  when  they  have  to  take  up  their  avocations 
in  life,  they  will  not  only  be  fitted  religiously  and  ethically 
to  fight  the  battle  of  life  but  will  also  have  the  necessary  equip- 
ment for  more  material  progress."     It  is  desirable  that  all 
that  is  noble  in  India's  past  should  be  conserved.     That  is 
one  reason  why  India  should  be  Christian.    Only  Christianity 
can  conserve  her  noble  past  for  her.    But  that  is  not  the  only 
reason.    Neither  for  their  avocations,  which  is  a  small  matter, 
nor  for  their  vocations,  which  is  a  matter  of  consequence, 
will  the  young  men  of  India  be  fitted  by  what  is  noblest  in 
their  past  or  by  what  they  may  borrow  of  Western  science, 
industry  and  art.     India  needs  one  thing  more,  greater  than 
all  these,  of  which  any  viceroy  and  especially  Lord  Reading 
might  have  found  it  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  speak  to 
the  University  of  Benares.     She  needs  Jesus  Christ,  the  only 
Saviour  and  Lord.     "I  have  tried  to  show,"  says  Sir  William 
Hunter  in  the  preface  to  his  most  sympathetic  little  book, 
"A  Brief  History  of  the  Indian  Peoples,"  "how  an  early  gifted 
race,  ethically  akin  to  our  own,  welded  the  primitive  forest 
tribes  into  settled  communities.     How  the  nobler  stock,  set 
free  from  the  severer  struggle  for  life  by  the  bounty  of  the 
Indian  soil,  created  a  language,  a  literature,  and  a  religion 
of  rare  stateliness  and  beauty.    How  the  absence  of  that  very 
striving  with  nature  which  is  so  necessary  a  discipline  for 
nations  unfitted  them  for  the  great  conflicts  which  await  all 
races.     How  among  the  most  intellectual  class  the  spiritual 
and  contemplative  aspects  of  life  overpowered  the  practical 
and  the  political.     How  Hinduism  while  sufficing  to  organize 
ohe  Indian  communities  into  social  and  religious  confederacies 
■failed  to  knit  them  together  into  a  coherent  nation." 

Modern  India  is  full  (h  great  and  worthy  visions.     One  of 

169 


her  best  loved  and  most  justly  trusted  leaders  has  put  them 
in  words,  "With  a  liberal  manhood,  with  buoyant  hope,  with 
a  faith  that  never  shirks  duty,  with  a  sense  of  justice  that 
deals  fairly  to  all,  with  unclouded  intellect  and  powers  fully 
cultivated,  and  lastly  with  a  love  that  overleaps  all  bounds, 
renovated  India  will  take  her  proper  rank  among  the  nations 
of  the  world  and  be  the  master  of  the  situation  and  of  her 
own  destiny.  This  is  the  goal  to  be  reached.  This  is  the 
promised  land."  (Ranade.)  What  will  thus  renew  India?  Not 
the  vision  of  it,  not  the  longing  for  it.  Only  He  who  says, 
"Behold  I  make  all  things  new,"  and  who  makes  nations  new 
by  making  new  men.  The  renewal  of  India  depends  on  the 
renewal  of  Indians  by  the  one  Redeemer  who  can  cut  away  the 
barnacles  of  retarding  and  debilitating  sin  and  who  can  re- 
produce Himself  in  men  as  the  spring  of  a  new  joy  in  their 
spirits  and  as  the  power  of  a  new  life  in  their  nation. 

S.  S.  Constantinople, 

Atlantic  Ocean,  May  11,  1922. 


170 


5.     PROBLEMS  OF  THE  CHURCH  AND  OF  EVAN- 
GELIZATION 

I.      RELATIONS  BETWEEN  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  AND  THE 
INDIAN  CHURCH 

It  was  not  because  of  the  vivid  emergence  of  this  question 
in  1920  that  the  Board  instructed  us  to  visit  India  to  confer 
with  the  Missions  and  the  Indian  Church  this  year.  Our 
visit  to  the  India  Missions  had  been  planned  long  before  the 
present  discussion  began.  But  this  was  one  of  the  foremost 
questions  which  we  were  instructed  to  take  up  in  the  fullest 
conference  both  with  the  Indian  Church  and  with  our  Mis- 
sions. 

(A)    EARLY   HISTORY   OF  THE   QUESTION 

This  problem  of  relations  between  the  Missions  and  the 
Church  and  the  missionaries  and  Indian  Church  leaders  be- 
gan with  the  beginning  of  the  mission  work.  It  was  one  of 
the  most  living  and  painful  questions  with  which  Alexander 
Duff  and  his  associates  had  to  deal  at  the  outset  of  their 
work  in  Calcutta.  The  same  questions,  the  same  contentions, 
the  same  difficulties,  and  the  same  efforts  for  a  just  and  true 
solution  with  which  we  meet  today  were  met  also  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Scotch  Mission  in  Calcutta  a  hundred  years  ago. 
It  would  be  a  good  thing  if  all  who  are  working  at  the  prob- 
lem now  were  to  reread  Smith's  "Life  of  Duff"  and  Day's 
"Recollections  of  Duff."  It  was  the  discussion  of  this  ques- 
tion in  Calcutta  which  led  the  late  Dr.  K.  C.  Chatter] ee  and 
others  of  Duff's  converts  to  leave  Calcutta  and  go  on  to  the 
United  Provinces  and  the  Punjab  in  the  search  for  different 
conditions.  Dr.  Chatter jee  often  remarked  toward  the  close 
of  his  life  that  it  was  a  curious  thing  that  he,  who  had  left 
Calcutta  to  escape  from  a  situation  where  the  Scotch  Mission 
held  everything  under  its  control,  should  have  come  to  a 
Mission  which,  while  fostering  the  entire  ecclesiastical  inde- 
pendence of  the  Indian  Church,  pursued  the  policy  of  the  dis- 
tinct responsibility  of  the  Mission  in  missionary  administra- 
tion, and  had  lived  his  life  with  the  greatest  happiness  and 
contentment  under  this  system. 

Our  own  Missions  in  India  were  begun,  however,  on  the 
principle  of  making  the  Presbytery,  of  which  American  and 
Indian  ministers  would  be  members  on  an  equality  and  which 
would  be  organically  related  to  the  General  Assembly  of  the 

171 


Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  the  general  administra- 
tive missionary  body.  The  early  theory  of  our  missionaries 
on  the  subject  and  the  historical  process  through  which  that 
theory  was  abandoned  may  be  studied  in  Dr.  Lowrie's  "Mis- 
sionary Papers"  and  Dr.  Fleming's  ''Devolution  in  Missions." 
Dr.  Lowrie,  who  was  one  of  the  first  missionaries  of  our 
Church  in  India,  where  he  served  for  three  years,  and  who 
was  then  for  more  than  fifty  years  secretary  of  the  Board, 
held  the  view  that  a  mission  was  a  human  device,  but  that 
the  Presbytery  was  a  divine  institution  and  that  the  admin- 
istration of  Missions  should  vest  in  the  Presbytery,  that  the 
Presbytery  should  be  composed  of  the  male  foreign  mission- 
aries as  well  as  of  the  Indian  ministers  and  elders,  that  the 
whole  Presbytery  should  administer  funds  given  by  the  native 
churches  but  that  the  foreign  members  should  administer 
the  funds  from  America,  that  the  Presbyteries  on  the  field 
should  be  organically  and  ecclesiastically  related  to  the  Church 
in  America  until  they  "reach  the  ground  or  stage  of  self- 
support."  Dr.  Lowrie's  views  are  set  forth  in  detail  in  "Mis- 
sionary Papers"  and  in  condensed  form  in  his  notes  on  Dr. 
Ashbel  Green's  "Presbyterian  Missions."  The  Missions  on 
the  field  developed,  however,  as  bodies  separate  from  the 
Presbyteries,  and  handled  matters  of  missionary  administra- 
tion and  provided  for  the  care  of  work  supported  from 
America  and  for  the  work  of  women  who  were  not  members 
of  Presbyteries.  The  Presbyteries  on  their  part  cared  for 
the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  the  Church.  Many  questions  arose 
through  the  years.  1.  There  was  discussion  at  various  periods 
with  regard  to  the  dissolution  of  the  Mission  and  its  absorp- 
tion by  the  Presbytery.  The  policy  of  separate  organization 
has,  however,  been  maintained.  In  1891  this  question  was 
carefully  considered  by  the  Punjab  and  North  India  Missions 
at  the  time  of  Dr.  Gillespie's  secretarial  visit  and  the  pro- 
posal to  turn  over  all  the  work  of  the  Missions  to  the  Pres- 
byteries was  earnestly  discussed  and  rejected  on  this  ground : 
"We  believe  the  giving  over  of  all  or  even  a  great  part  of 
the  business  of  the  Missions  to  Presbytery  would  injure  the 
Church."  2.  There  was  discussion  as  to  what  functions  be- 
longed to  the  Missions  and  what  to  the  Presbytery.  3.  There 
was  long  discussion  as  to  whether  the  Presbyteries  should  be 
Presbyteries  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.  sub- 
ject to  its  General  Assembly,  or  whether  the  Church  in  India 
should  be  independent.  The  latter  view  prevailed  and  the 
Indian  Presbyteries  of  the  Church  joined  with  other  Pres- 
byteries founded  by  other  Presbyterian  and  Reformed  Mis- 

172 


sions  in  establishing  the  independent  Presbyterian  Church 
of  India  in  1904.  4.  There  was  long  discussion  as  to  whether 
Indians  should  become  members  of  the  Foreign  Missions  and 
whether  foreign  missionaries  should  be  members  of  the  Pres- 
byteries. Prior  to  1904  all  were  members  of  one  Church, 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.  How  could  the 
missionaries  justify  themselves  in  refraining  from  transfer- 
ring their  relationships  when  they  came  to  live  in  India?  Ought 
they  not  to  act  in  India  just  as  they  would  have  acted  at  home 
in  moving  from  one  part  of  the  Church  to  another?  When 
the  anomaly  of  this  foreign  connection  of  the  Indian  Church 
came  to  an  end  and  the  congregations  and  Presbyteries  which 
had  grown  out  of  our  mission  work  became  part  of  the  inde- 
pendent Presbyterian  Church  in  India,  the  Indian  Church  still 
earnestly  desired  that  the  missionaries  should  be  an  integral 
part  of  it.  Much  has  been  said  on  both  sides  of  this  question 
as  to  whether  it  is  wise  for  missionaries  to  join  the  native 
Presbyteries,  and  both  in  Japan  and  Brazil  the  national 
Churches  and  the  Missions  have  decided  the  question  in  the 
negative.  In  India,  however,  both  the  Church  and  the  Mis- 
sions have  taken  the  contrary  view,  and  the  constitution  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  India  embodies  this  view,  while 
recognizing  the  desire  of  some  Churches,  such  as  the  Scotch 
Churches,  that  their  missionaries,  while  free  to  act  as  asses- 
sors in  the  Indian  Church,  should  retain  their  home  ecclesi- 
astical connection.  The  provision  of  the  constitution  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  India  on  the  subject  is  as  follows: 

"While  ordained  Foreign  Missionaries  and  Ministers  would 
ordinarily  be  expected  to  be  full  members  of  the  Presbyteries 
within  whose  bounds  they  live,  yet,  owing  to  the  objection  of 
some  Churches  to  the  severance  of  the  connection  which  sub- 
sists between  them  and  their  Missionaries  (Ordained  Minis- 
ters and  Elders)  who  represent  them,  and  also  on  account 
of  the  peculiar,  varied  and  temporary  position  of  Foreign 
Missionaries,  each  Presbytery  shall,  in  conjunction  with  the 
Home  Church  or  Churches  concerned,  determine  the  nature 
of  their  relationship  to  the  Presbytery." 

With  very  few  exceptions  our  missionaries  have  transferred 
their  membership  from  the  home  church  and  have  become  full 
members  of  the  Indian  Presbytery.  Whether  this  has  been  a 
wise  course,  whether  it  has  tended  and  will  tend  to  develop 
the  Indian  Church  and  to  promote  its  attainment  of  the  full 
ideal  of  an  independent,  national  Church  "self-propagating, 
self-governing,  self-supporting,"  only  time  will  show.  Neither 
the  Church  nor  the  Missions  would  consent  to  make  any  change 

173 


at  the  present  time,  and  both  believe  that  it  would  be  well 
if  the  few  missionaries  who  have  still  refrained  from  trans- 
ferring their  membership  should  now  under  present  conditions 
and  until  the  Missions  are  agreed  as  to  the  wisdom  of  a  gen- 
eral contrary  policy  attach  themselves  in  full  membership  to 
the  Indian  Presbyteries, 

In  accepting  this  view  we  are  yielding  to  a  situation  in 
which  the  fact  with  which  we  have  to  deal  is  the  almost  unani- 
mous judgment,  desire  and  practice  of  the  Missions  and  the 
Presbyteries.  It  is  a  course  at  variance  with  the  policy  of 
the  churches  in  Brazil  and  Japan  and  with  the  view  expressed 
by  Dr.  Chatterjee  in  1905  with  regard  to  the  organization  of 
the  new  united,  independent  Indian  Presbyterian  Church: 

"I  am  strongly  in  favor  of  the  proposal  (that  missionaries 
should  not  join  the  new  Church,  but  should  help  and  influence 
it  from  without),  as  its  adoption  is  sure  to  develop  the  new 
Church.  What  is  our  object?  If  I  mistake  not,  it  is  to  start 
a  strong  National  Presbyterian  Church  in  India,  and  this 
could  be  only  accomplished  by  allowing  the  Indians  to  do 
their  own  work,  without  being  hampered  by  the  presence  of 
men  of  superior  intelligence,  and  many  of  whom  stand  to- 
ward Indian  members  in  the  relation  of  master  and  servant. 
They  may  at  first  work  awkwardly  and  unsatisfactorily,  but 
will  soon  overcome  all  difficulties,  every  fall  bringing  new 
experience  and  new  strength." 

Ten  years  later  Dr.  Chatterjee  wrote  of  the  Church:  "Its 
constitution  and  canons  ought  to  be  revised  so  as  to  secure  a 
larger  representation  of  Indian  members  and  a  larger  election 
of  Indian  Moderators."  One  would  give  a  great  deal  to  have 
Dr.  Chatter jee's  judgment  on  the  present  situation  in  India. 

If  missionaries  were  to  be  members  of  the  native  Presby- 
teries, the  question  naturally  arose  as  to  whether  Indian 
ministers  should  not  be  members  of  the  Foreign  Mission. 
For  many  years,  however,  this  question  did  not  go  further  in 
our  Missions  than  the  case  of  Dr.  Chatterjee.  Everybody 
recognized  that  he  was  the  peer  of  any  foreign  missionary 
in  India.  In  all  questions  his  judgment  was  consulted  by 
foreign  missionaries  as  if  he  were  one  of  their  number.  He 
was  president  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Forman  Chris- 
tian College  and  sat  with  the  missionaries  in  equal  conference 
in  all  things.  For  years  the  Punjab  Mission  and  Dr.  Chatter- 
jee's  friends  were  aggrieved  because  the  Board  steadfastly  re- 
fused to  denominate  Dr.  Chatterjee  a  foreign  missionary  in 
his  own  land  of  India  but  insisted  that  that  there  was  a  far 
more  glorious  position  for  him  as  an  Indian  leader  of  an  In- 

174 


dian  Church,  unseparated  in  any  way  whatsoever  from  the 
Indian  Church  and  the  Indian  people.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  the  Board's  position  on  the  matter  is  now  unreserv- 
edly accepted  and  approved  both  by  the  Missions  and  by  the 
Church  and  by  none  more  heartily  than  those  who  are  the 
spokesmen  of  the  Church  in  the  present  discussions. 

The  pressure,  however,  for  a  solution  of  the  problem  of 
relations  between  the  Church  and  the  Missions,  by  the  process 
of  having  missionaries  members  of  the  Presbyteries  and  In- 
dians members  of  the  Missions,  continued  for  many  years, 
and  was  one  of  the  living  issues  at  the  time  of  Dr.  White's 
visit  to  India  in  1912  and  1913.  It  was  clearly  seen  then 
that  such  a  course  of  action  would  result,  first,  in  creating 
two  bodies  practically  identical  so  far  as  their  male  member- 
ship was  concerned,  which  would  meet  in  one  capacity  as  an 
Indian  Presbytery  to  deal  with  the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of 
the  Church  and  in  another  capacity  as  a  Foreign  Mission  to 
administer  the  missionary  work;  and  secondly,  inasmuch  as 
such  a  division  of  activity  of  the  same  group  of  persons  was 
not  likely  to  continue  long  there  was  every  probability  that 
the  Presbytery  would  fade  into  the  Mission  or  that  the  Mis- 
sion would  fade  into  the  Presbytery;  and  thirdly,  it  seemed 
likely  that  either  result  would  debilitate  the  Church  and 
blur  its  national  personality  and  weaken  its  vision  of  respon- 
sibility and  its  autonomy  of  action,  while  if  the  Mission  faded 
into  the  Presbytery  the  great  body  of  American  women 
would  be  left  without  any  controlling  voice  in  the  direction  of 
their  work.  The  conference  which  Dr.  White  held  with 
representatives  of  the  three  Missions  faced  the  question  as  it 
presented  itself  at  that  time,  and  adopted  the  following  state- 
ment of  policy: 

"I.  (a)  The  Indian  Church  and  not  the  Mission  is  the  per- 
manent agency  in  the  evangelization  of  the  people 
of  India. 

(b)  The  work  now  carried  on  by  the  Missions,  especially 
pastoral  and  evangelistic  work,  should  be  trans- 
ferred gradually  to  the  sessions,  presbyteries,  synod 
and  General  Assembly  of  the  Church. 

(c)  Positions  of  responsibility  should  be  related  to  the 
courts  of  the  Church  rather  than  to  the  Missions. 

(d)  The  highest  and  most  responsible  positions  in  every 
department  of  work  carried  on  by  the  Missions  should 
be  open  to  members  of  the  Church  whose  gifts  and 
character  show  them  worthy  of  trust  and  honour. 

(e)  The   Presbytery   should   supervise   the   evangelistic 

175 


work  within  its  bounds  without  control  of  the  Mis- 
sion or  Council,  provided  half  the  evangelistic  force 
and  three-fourths  of  the  pastors  are  supported  by 
the  churches  of  the  presbytery,  subject  to  the  con- 
ditions of  grant-in-aid  which  the  mission.  Council 
or  Board  may  lay  down, 
(f)  Foreign  missionaries  who  are  ordained  should  unite 
with  the  presbytery  within  whose  bounds  they 
labor,  and  lay  missionaries  with  the  church  where 
they  reside. 
"II.  As  a  measure  looking  toward  the  drawing  into  the 
management  and  control  of  the  work  of  our  Mis- 
sions and  Church  the  sympathy  and  practical  help 
of  the  stronger  and  more  devoted  of  the  members  of 
the  Indian  Christian  community,  we  suggest  the 
adoption  of  the  following  plan: 

(1)  Let  each  Mission  organize  itself  into  departments 
or  boards  such  as,  one  for  district  work,  one  for 
boys'  schools,  one  for  girls'  schools,  another  for 
medical  work,  etc.,  after  the  method  now  in  more 
or  less  successful  operation  in  the  Punjab  Mission. 

(2)  On  these  boards  or  departments  there  should  be  ap- 
pointed selected  Indian  workers,  and  to  them  should 
be  given  all  the  privileges  of  full  membership. 

"In  this  capacity  these  brethren  will  be  in  a  position  to 
become  familiar  with  the  work  of  administration,  giving 
meanwhile  most  valuable  aid. 

"We  believe  this  plan  will  result  in  the  positive  preparation 
of  a  considerable  number  of  Indian  brethren  for  the  time 
when  the  pastoral,  evangelistic  and  other  work  of  the  missions 
may  be  taken  over  in  whole  or  in  part  by  the  several  Presby- 
teries of  our  Church  in  India. 

"III.  That  the  following  explanatory  statement  be  recorded. 
We  believe  that  acceptance  by  the  Board  of  the  principles 
and  policy  thus  outlined,  and  their  sympathetic  application 
by  the  Missions  and  Council  will  more  and  more  encourage 
young  men  of  education  and  spiritual  gifts  to  enter  the  min- 
istry and  prepare  them  for  leadership  in  the  Church.  We 
recognize  that  there  are  difficulties  in  transferring  the  evan- 
gelistic work  carried  on  by  the  Mission  to  the  presbyteries. 
One  is  that  many  of  the  ministers  and  elders  are  on  the  evan- 
gelistic staff  of  the  Mission.  To  transfer  the  evangelistic 
grant  to  a  presbytery  whose  members  draw  their  salaries 
from  this  fund,  they  as  its  administrators  having  power  to 
increase  or  decrease  one  another's  salaries  and  allowances, 

176 


would  be  to  create  discord  and  divisions.  Tlie  Board  in  New 
York  does  not  commit  to  tiie  Mission  the  iixing  of  the  salaries 
and  allowances  of  the  members  of  the  Mission ;  and  so  a  board 
outside  the  presbytery,  or  the  Council,  should  lix  the  scale 
of  pay  of  each  grade  of  workers  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest. 

"Through  the  patient  and  sympathetic  application  of  the 
principles  and  policy  outlined  above  the  wall  of  distinction 
between  the  Indian  and  foreign  laborers  built  largely  by  the 
present  policy  will  be  broken  down  within  the  Church.  Posi- 
tions of  trust,  responsibility  artd  honor  will,  by  the  proposed 
policy,  be  given  to  the  members  of  presbytery,  session  and 
church  by  their  fellow  members  irrespective  of  their  nation- 
ality. The  diverse  gifts  of  the  nationalities  in  the  Church 
will  thus  find  a  field  for  their  exercise.  Above  all  we  may 
confidently  expect  the  Head  of  the  Church  to  give  us  apostles, 
prophets,  evangelists,  pastors,  teachers,  helpers;  the  church, 
the  session,  the  presbytery,  the  synod  and  the  General  Assem- 
bly, with  the  boards  organized  by  these  courts  of  the  churches, 
in  time  furnishing  ample  scope  and  opportunity  for  the  exer- 
cise of  every  gift  of  the  Spirit." 

The  Missions  moved  forward  much  more  actively  than  the 
Presbyteries  in  carrying  out  these  measures.  They  developed 
the  plan  of  departmental  committees  under  which  they  divided 
the  work  into  the  three  sections,  evangelistic,  educational  and 
medical.  Indian  Christians  were  made  members  of  these  de- 
partmental committees.  Each  committee  considered  the  work 
falling  within  its  sphere  and  made  its  report  to  the  Mission. 
This  scheme  was  not  adopted  by  the  Western  India  Mission 
until  the  meeting  at  which  we  were  present.  It  has  been  in 
operation  for  several  years,  however,  in  the  North  India  Mis- 
sion and  for  a  longer  period  in  the  Punjab.  It  had  the  ad- 
vantages of  bringing  Indians  into  the  mission  councils  in 
connection  with  the  work  in  which  they  were  engaged  and 
their  judgment  was  indispensable.  It  enabled  the  workers 
in  each  department  to  deal  with  their  work  more  adequately 
and  effectively  than  could  be  done  in  general  mission  meeting. 
And  it  greatly  abbreviated  the  length  of  the  Mission  meet- 
ings. On  the  other  hand,  it  did  not  satisfy  the  Indian  feel- 
ing. The  Missions  might  traverse  and  annul  in  their  separate 
meetings,  when  Indians  were  not  present,  the  conclusions 
of  the  departmental  committees. 

The  Punjab  Mission  especially  sought  to  think  its  way  to 
some  more  radical  and  comprehensive  solution,  and  at  its 
meeting  in  October,  1917,  adopted  a  careful  report  of  a  com- 
mittee "On  the  Relation  of  the  Mission  and  the  Indian  Church" 

177 


which,  though  it  has  been  left  behind  by  the  rapid  movement 
of  the  discussion  of  the  last  few  years,  deserves  to  be  studied 
both  because  of  the  careful  and  conscientious  work  spent 
upon  it  and  as  a  historic  document  in  the  consideration  of 
this  central  and  unavoidable  question,  which  we  are  disposed 
to  believe  can  never  be  solved  in  any  theoretical  or  absolute 
way  and  will  only  disappear  when  the  work  of  foreign  mis- 
sions is  done.     (Appendix  I.) 

(B)     CORRESPONDENCE    BETWEEN    THE    FOUR    ALLAHABAD 
BRETHREN  AND  THE  BOARD 

The  steady  growth  of  the  Indian  Church,  the  logical  con- 
tinuance and  evolution  of  the  discussion  of  the  problem  which 
could  only  disappear  with  the  disappearance  either  of  the 
Church  or  of  the  Mission  or  some  satisfactory  solution  which 
would  provide  for  the  continuance  of  both  in  right  relations, 
and  the  new  spirit  which  was  abroad  in  India,  soon  issued 
in  a  fresh  development.  In  June,  1920,  four  of  the  ablest 
and  most  respected  leaders  of  the  Allahabad  Presbytery, 
through  their  secretary,  N.  K.  Mukerji,  Esq.,  B.A.,  addressed, 
under  date  of  June  15th,  two  letters  to  me  as  secretary  of 
the  Board  for  India,  attaching  to  the  second  letter  a  most 
instructive  appendix.  These  were  followed  by  two  further 
letters  by  Mr.  Mukerji,  one  to  me,  dated  July  8,  1920,  and 
the  other  addressed  to  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions  and  dated  July  27th.  To  these  letters  I  replied  in 
behalf  of  the  Board  under  date  of  September  21,  1920.  Mr. 
Mukerji  acknowledged  my  letter  under  date  of  January  6, 
1921,  and  asked  for  further  information  with  regard  to  the 
discussion  of  the  question  of  co-operation  between  Mission 
and  Church  in  Japan  to  which  I  had  made  reference  in  my 
letter  of  September  21st.  I  sent  Mr.  Mukerji  this  informa- 
tion under  date  of  July  18,  1921,  accompanying  my  letter 
with  copies  of  two  communications  from  the  Church  of  Christ 
in  Japan,  one  dated  February  26,  1906,  and  addressed  "To 
the  Boards  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  and  Re- 
formed Churches,"  and  the  other  dated  July  3,  1906,  and 
addressed  "To  the  Ministers  and  Elders  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  in  Japan."  I  believe  that  all  these  documents  should 
be  made  available  and  preserved,  and  as  they  are  essential 
to  this  report  of  our  dealing  with  this  matter  in  the  Board's 
behalf  both  at  home  and  in  India,  I  cite  them  in  full  as  ap- 
pendices to  this  account.  It  would  be  well  if  readers  of  the 
report  would  turn  to  these  documents  and  read  them  at  this 
point. 

178 


1.  Letter  from  Mr.  N.  K.  Mukerji,  June  15,  1920,  Ap- 
pendix II. 

2.  Letter  from  J.  M.  David,  A.  Ralla  Ram,  N.  C.  Mukerji 
and  N.  K.  Mukerji,  June  15,  1920,  Appendix  III. 

3.  Letter  from  Mr.  N.  K.  Mukerji,  July  8,  1920,  Appendix 
IV. 

4.  Letter  from  Mr.  N.  K.  Mukerji,  July  22,  1920,  Appen- 
dix V. 

5.  Letter  from  Mr.  Speer  to  Mr.  David,  et  al.,  Sept.  21, 

1920,  Appendix  VI. 

6.  Letter  from  Mr.  Speer  to  Mr.  N.  K.  Mukerji,  July  18, 

1921,  Appendix  VII. 

7.  Communication  from  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  Feb. 
26,  1906,  Appendix  VIII. 

8.  Communication  from  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  July 
3,  1906,  Appendix  IX. 

(C)    THE  SAHARANPUR  CONFERENCE 

The  letter  written  -M^  behalf  of  the  Board,  under  date  of 
September  21,  1920,  met  with  the  approval  and  satisfaction 
of  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed.  They  brought  the  mat- 
ter before  the  Synod  of  North  India  at  its  meeting  in  De- 
cember when  a  commission  was  appointed  made  up  entirely 
of  Indian  members  representing  the  different  Presbyteries 
with  instructions  to  prepare  a  scheme  for  the  consideration 
of  the  India  Council,  which  is  the  central  committee  of  our 
three  India  Missions  made  up  of  two  representatives  from 
each  Mission  with  the  addition  of  Dr.  J.  C.  R.  Ewing,  CLE., 
as  chairman  and  secretary.  I  have  not  been  able  to  learn  defi- 
nitely of  any  action  taken  by  this  commission. 

The  question  was  considered  also  at  the  Punjab  and  North 
India  Mission  meetings  in  the  fall  of  1920,  and  their  actions 
were  reviewed  and  embodied  in  the  following  action  taken  by 
the  India  Council  at  its  seventh  annual  meeting  in  Jhansi  in 
December,  1920: 

Action  of  India  Council,  1920 
The  question  of  the  relations  of  the  Indian  Church  and  the 
Mission  has  received  careful  attention  this  year,  though  it  can- 
not be  said  that  any  large  conclusions  have  been  reached  that 
can  be  considered  generally  acceptable.  The  action  taken  by 
the  North  India  Mission  was  as  follows: 

1.  "The  work  of  the  Mission  should  have  in  view  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  independent  Church  in  India. 

2.  For  the  best  development  of  the  Church  the  functions  of 
the  Church  and  Mission  should  be  separate. 

179 


3.  Also  for  the  best  interests  of  the  Church  there  should  be 
close  and  sympathetic  co-operation  between  the  Church 
.and  the  Mission.  To  this  end  the  Mission  should  so 
arrange  its  organization  as  to  efficiently  avail  themselves 
of  the  opinion  and  help  of  the  Indian  Church. 

4.  In  the  development  of  the  Departmental  Committee  plan 
of  the  Mission,  increasing  power  should  be  given  to  these 
Committees  and  an  increasing  amount  of  Indian  opinion 
should  be  admitted. 

5.  To  this  end  these  Committees  should  be  encouraged  to 
meet  at  some  other  time  than  Mission  Meeting.  This 
will  give  greater  time  for  full  consideration  of  policy  and 
work  and  will  give  an  entity  and  importance  to  the 
Committees  that  they  do  not  now  have." 

The  Punjab  Mission  took  the  following  action: 
"That  in  order  to  secure  fuller  co-operation  between  the 
Church  and  the  Mission,  the  following  steps  be  taken : 

"Representation  of  the  Presbyteries  in  the  Mission 

"That  the  Mission  request  the  Lahore  and  Ludhiana  Presby- 
teries to  select  eight  representatives  each,  of  whom  the  Mis- 
sion shall  elect  four  from  each  of  the  two  Presbyteries,  and 
these  eight  Presbyterial  representatives  shall  have  the  right 
to  speak  on  every  question  and  also  the  right  to  vote.  Each 
Presbytery  shall,  if  this  plan  be  accepted,  submit  the  name  of 
eight  persons  to  the  Mission  from  the  membership  of  the 
Churches  within  its  bounds.  The  term  of  service  shall  be 
two  years,  two  representatives  from  each  Presbytery  or  four 
in  all  retiring  each  year. 

"Those  retiring  shall  be  eligible  for  re-election,  but  no  repre- 
sentative should  serve  for  more  than  two  terms  in  succession. 
At  the  beginning  the  Presbyteries  should  have  four  of  the 
eight  representatives  elected  for  two  years  and  four  for  one; 
so  that,  of  the  four  selected  by  the  Mission  from  each  Pres- 
bytery, two  will  retire  after  two  years  and  two  after  one. 
But  thereafter  all  elected  shall  serve  for  two  years.  After 
the  scheme  has  come  into  full  operation,  each  Presbytery  shall 
submit  four  names  to  the  Mission  each  year.  At  least  half 
of  the  representatives  finally  selected  by  the  Mission  should 
be  Presbyterian  laymen  or  women  in  full  Church  membership, 
but  not  necessarily  members  of  the  Presbytery. 

" Represe7itation  of  the  Mission  in  the  Presbyteries 
"The  same  procedure  as  that  outlined  above  should  be  adopt- 
ed by  the  Mission  and  the  Presbytery,  namely,  the  Mission 
should  present  to  each  Presbytery  the  names  of  eight  foreign 

180 


missionaries  from  whom  the  Presbytery  shall  elect  four  to 
become  full  voting  members  of  the  Presbytery.  At  the  begin- 
ning the  Mission  shall  name  four  of  each  group  of  eight 
to  serve  for  two  years  and  four  for  one.  But  after  the 
scheme  has  come  into  full  operation,  the  Mission  shall  present 
to  each  Presbytery  each  year  the  names  of  four  members,  of 
whom  the  Presbytery  shall  elect  two,  and  each  year  two  will 
retire  from  membership  in  the  Presbytery.  Missionary  re- 
presentatives shall  be  eligible  for  re-election,  but  shall  not 
serve  for  more  than  two  terms  consecutively.  To  overcome 
any  ecclesiastical  difficulty  in  connection  with  this  scheme,  we 
suggest  that  every  foreign  missionary,  if  he  is  a  fully  ordained 
minister  and  at  present  a  member  of  the  Presbytery,  be 
allowed  to  become  an  associate  member  without  any  power 
of  voting  or  speaking,  but  that  he  can  be  called  upon  to 
speak  at  the  special  request  of  the  Presbytery.  Such  associate 
membership  shall  not  be  considered  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
deprive  the  minister  of  his  privileges  as  an  ordained  minister. 
That  is,  it  should  be  regarded  as  a  voluntary  surrender  of 
the  right  on  the  part  of  the  ordained  minister,  and  not  as 
compulsory  retirement  by  the  Presbytery.  The  object  of  the 
above  recommendations  is  to  secure  exactly  the  same  repre- 
sentation of  one  body  in  the  other  body,  and  is  expected  to 
lead  to  a  greater  degree  of  co-operative  effort  in  the  strength- 
ening of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  India." 

In  the  Western  India  Mission  no  official  action  was  taken. 
While  it  is  evident  from  these  actions  that  no  decision  has 
yet  been  reached  that  could  be  considered  final,  it  may  be 
believed  that  the  Missions  are  making  progress  in  that  direc- 
tion. It  is,  perhaps,  too  much  to  hope  that  any  decision 
can  be  reached  that  will  meet  the  wishes  and  the  judgments 
of  all  Missions,  missionaries  and  Indian  Christians  alike. 
There  will  have  to  be  more  or  less  of  give  and  take  in  any 
decision  reached,  but  it  may  be  none  the  less  valuable  even 
if  received  with  considerable  misgiving  by  many. 

Two  principles  should  be  kept  in  mind:  One  is,  that  there 
must  be  a  measure  of  liberty  given  to  each  Mission  to  make 
experiments,  for  it  is  probable  that  by  experiments  rather 
than  by  abstract  discussions  the  most  workable  conclusion 
will  be  reached.  By  experiment  some  difficulties  that  loom 
large  may  disappear,  while  others  that  were  not  foreseen  may 
prove  to  be  important.    Hence  the  necessity  of  liberty. 

The  second  principle  is  that  there  should  be  a  due  con- 
sideration by  each  Mission  of  the  situation  and  the  present 
state  of  opinion  in  each  one  of  the  other  two  Missions  so  as 

181 


to  avoid  any  action  that  would  needlessly  add  to  their  diffi- 
culties. In  admitting  these  two  principles  it  is  to  be  remem- 
bered that  to  do  so,  will  not  always  bring  agreement  as  to 
what  is  or  is  not  in  harmony  with  them.  A  large  patience 
with  views  that  do  not  meet  our  approval,  and  a  readiness  to 
give  time  actually  needed  to  reach  tested  conclusions — while 
at  the  same  time  giving  no  cause  for  an  irritating  belief  that 
there  is  undue  delay — must  also  be  kept  in  mind. 

However  keenly  any  individual  or  group  of  individuals  may 
feel  in  regard  to  what  is  or  is  not  desirable,  no  decisive 
action  should  be  taken  by  any  Mission  that  would  disregard 
the  views  furnished  by  the  Post-War  Conference,  and  the 
views  of  the  Indian  Church  as  expressed  by  its  most  respon- 
sible leaders,  and  the  present  consensus  of  opinion  of  each 
Mission.  To  neglect  any  of  these  factors  would  be  no  less 
dangerous  than  to  proceed  in  such  a  leisurely  fashion  as  to 
justify  the  impression  that  the  problems  had  not  been  taken 
up  seriously,  or  that  there  was  no  earnest  desire  for  the  ear- 
liest settlement  consistent  with  mature  consideration. 

1.  We  would  recommend  to  each  one  of  the  three  Missions 
the  careful  consideration  of  the  proposals  placed  before 
the  others. 

2.  We  would  also  recommend  that  each  Mission  should 
take  up  the  consideration  of  its  organization  with  a  view 
to  better  meeting  present  day  needs,  due  to  the  increas- 
ing size  of  the  Missions  and  the  amount  of  business  to  be 
transacted. 

3.  The  Council  recommends  that  the  Punjab  Mission  be 
given  permission  to  try  out  its  plan  (see  Minutes  of 
1917,  Appendix  VI,  pp.  77-85  and  1920  pp.  42,  43)  for 
a  period  of  two  years,  if  the  previous  consent  of  the 
Board  be  secured.  At  the  end  of  this  period  the  whole 
question  shall  again  come  before  the  Mission,  the  Council 
and  the  Board. 

4.  Resolved,  that  the  North  India  Mission  be  authorized  to 
put  on  trial  for  two  years  the  plan  adopted  by  that 
Mission,  providing  the  previous  sanction  of  the  Board 
be  secured. 

In  addition  to  this  action  of  the  India  Council  in  December, 
1920,  Dr.  Ewing,  further  acting  on  his  own  account  and  in  con- 
sultation with  the  Council,  and  with  its  approval,  called  a  con- 
ference at  Saharanpur,  March  30  to  April  2,  1921,  attended 
by  all  the  members  of  the  Council,  by  those  members  of  the 
India  Missions  who  had  been  present  at  the  Post  War  Con- 
ference at  Princeton  and  who  could  be  at  Saharanpur,  and 

182 


by  representatives  from  each  of  the  five  Presbyteries.  After 
long  and  careful  deliberation  and  most  conscientious  work 
on  the  part  of  various  sub-committees  the  Conference  unani- 
mously adopted  two  statements,  one  a  statement  of  general 
principles  and  the  other  a  statement  of  a  definite  plan  of  co- 
operation between  the  Missions  and  the  Church.  A  full 
report  of  this  Conference  embodying  these  two  statements 
is  printed  herewith  as  Appendix  X.  The  Statement  of  Prin- 
ciples reaffirmed  the  principle  of  independence  of  the  National 
Church,  not  identified  with  the  American  Church  but  free. 
It  recognized  that  "the  Church  has  a  right  to  a  voice  in  all 
work  carried  on  within  the  bounds  of  its  organization  and 
closely  related  to  it."  It  declared,  "While  advocating  mutual 
co-operation  between  the  Church  and  the  Mission  we  yet 
believe  that  the  best  results  of  Mission  work  in  India  will 
be  attained  when  right  lines  of  distinction  are  observed  be- 
tween functions  of  the  Indian  Church  and  those  of  the  foreign 
Mission,  the  Mission  contributing  towards  the  establishment 
of  Indian  churches  and  looking  forward  to  passing  on  into 
unoccupied  regions  when  its  work  is  done.  .  .  .  Holding  this 
view  it  would  seem  to  us  that  the  solution  of  the  present 
problem  is  to  be  found  not  in  disparaging  the  Indian  Church 
nor  in  dividing  its  strength,  nor  in  diminishing  its  responsi- 
bilities, but  in  just  the  opposite  course,  by  increasing  its  au- 
thority, by  expecting  more  of  it,  by  making  it  the  great  agency 
of  evangelization."  Instead  of  transferring  Indian  leaders 
from  the  Indian  Church  to  the  foreign  Mission  it  proposed  to 
transfer  the  administration  of  mission  funds  to  agencies  of 
co-operation.  It  recognized  that  if  this  were  done  provision 
should  be  made  for  the  healthy  increase  of  the  giving  of  the 
Church,  and  it  affirmed  that  "there  should  be  some  ratio 
between  the  gifts  of  the  Church  for  missionary  work  and 
the  share  she  takes  in  the  administration  of  funds  from 
America."  On  the  basis  of  this  statement  of  principles  a  plan 
was  proposed  "to  secure  more  effective  co-operation  between 
the  Church  in  America  working  through  the  Missions  and  the 
Church  in  India."  This  plan  contemplated  the  constitution  by 
each  Presbytery  of  "a  committee  to  which  shall  be  intrusted 
the  evangelistic  work  now  carried  on  by  the  Mission,  educa- 
tional work  carried  on  in  and  for  the  villages,  and  zenana 
work,"  the  committee  to  be  elected  by  Presbytery  and  to  be 
composed  both  of  foreign  missionaries  and  Indians  in  a  pre- 
scribed ratio,  its  establishment  being  conditioned  upon  the 
contribution  by  the  Presbytery  of  one-fifth  of  the  total  amount 
contributed  by  the  Presbytery  and  the  Mission  for  evangelistic 

183 


work.  Joint  committees  somewhat  differently  constituted  on 
educational  and  medical  work  were  to  be  set  up.  An  Inter- 
mediary Board  was  to  be  established  of  nine  members,  mis- 
sionaries and  Indians,  which  would  receive  the  estimates  of 
the  committees  for  transmission  through  the  India  Council 
to  the  Board  and  which  would  "hear  cases  of  appeal  from 
the  Joint  Committees  and  review  the  proceedings  of  the  Joint 
Committees  with  the  view  to  co-ordinating  all  branches  of  the 
work." 

(D)    DISCUSSION   OF  THE  SAHARANPUR   PRINCIPLES   AND   PLAN 

The  report  of  the  Saharanpur  Conference  was  laid  before 
the  Board  in  New  York.  The  Board  expressed  its  deepest 
interest  in  the  report  and  in  the  problem  with  which  it  dealt, 
but  deferred  action  pending  consideration  of  the  report  by 
the  Missions  and  by  the  Presbyteries  and  pending  the  visit 
of  the  Board's  deputation  and  its  discussion  of  the  matter 
both  with  the  Church  and  with  the  Missions.  Before  leaving 
New  York,  accordingly,  I  wrote  to  each  of  the  Presbyteries 
telling  of  our  coming  and  expressing  our  desire  for  opportu- 
nities for  fullest  conference  both  with  the  Presbyteries  and 
with  individual  members  of  the  Church.  Each  of  the  five 
Presbyteries  called  a  special  meeting  for  this  purpose,  and  at 
three  of  these  meetings  the  Presbyteries  took  definite  action 
with  regard  to  the  Saharanpur  principles  and  plan.  We  dis- 
cussed the  question  also  with  many  individuals  and  small 
groups,  and  no  subject  received  more  consideration  in  the 
meetings  of  the  three  Missions.  Both  for  the  information 
of  the  Board  and  for  the  purposes  of  record  I  think  it  will 
be  well  to  report  rather  fully  the  expressions  of  opinion  with 
which  we  met. 

(A)  From.  Churches  and  Christian  Communities.  A  few 
illustrative  statements  will  suffice,  (a)  Address  in  Allahabad 
from  the  two  Presbyterian  Churches  presented  at  a  large 
and  representative  gathering  of  the  entire  Christian  com- 
munity. 

"Dear  Sir: 

"The  churches  at  Jumna  and  at  Katra,  connected  with  the 
great  missionary  society  which  you  represent,  extend  to  you 
and  your  colleague,  Mr.  Russell  Carter,  a  cordial  welcome 
on  your  arrival  in  our  midst. 

"You  will  find,  we  trust,  many  things  to  interest  you  during 
your  sojourn  with  us.  The  long  spiritual  travail  of  an  ancient 
people,  not  without  the  Light  that  lighteneth  every  man  that 
Cometh  into  the  world,  cannot  but,  we  feel,  enthrall  and  fasci- 

184 


nate  you.  You  will  also  be  interested  to  find  the  West  very 
much  in  the  East,  the  result,  in  the  first  instance,  of  English 
education  and  British  government,  but  one  ultimately  trace- 
able to  the  influence  of  Christianity  as  embodied  in  the  culture 
and  civilization  of  the  English  people.  You  will  find  new 
impulses  and  new  ideals  stirring  in  our  midst,  impulses  and 
ideals  which  mark  the  transition  from  the  new  India  in  which 
we  lived  to  the  newer  India  which  has  grown  up  with  such 
startling  rapidity  and  is  around  us.  The  great  experiment 
of  self-government,  the  first  installment  of  which  has  been 
inaugurated  in  our  midst  as  a  recognition  of  these  changes, 
will  doubtless  arrest  your  attention.  And  the  shrewd  student 
that  you  are  of  men  and  things,  you  will  not  fail  to  observe 
the  rocks  ahead,  and  the  possibilities  of  danger  that  lie  hidden 
in  the  situation  before  us.  In  particular,  you  will  not  fail 
to  notice  how  the  Monster  of  Non-Cooperation  has  reared  its 
head  in  our  midst  and  feeding  on  the  memory  of  past  wrongs 
is  making  present  reconciliation  difiicult,  and  would,  if  it 
could,  drive  a  wedge  through  the  unity  and  brotherhood  of 
man. 

"It  is  in  such  an  environment  that  you  will  find — the  par- 
ticular subject  of  your  interest — the  Church  in  India  trying 
to  strike  its  roots  deep  into  the  soil  and  seeking  to  offer  the 
response  to  the  feelings  and  sentiments  actuating  our  people 
today.  Whatever  our  success,  or  ill-success  in  this  direction — 
and  you  could  be  trusted  to  find  it  out  for  yourself — we  are 
convinced  first,  that  the  Church  holds  the  key,  if  only  she 
will  use  it,  to  the  solution  of  the  hitherto  unsolved  problem 
of  the  relating  of  the  West  to  the  East;  and,  secondly,  that 
in  the  evolution  of  her  national  Church  India  cannot  afford 
to  be  out  of  the  historical  development,  or  neglect  the  riches 
of  the  experience  of  the  West. 

"We  understand  the  question  of  the  relation  of  the  Church 
to  the  Mission  will  specially  engage  your  attention.  As  you 
will  be  conferring  with  our  representatives  on  this  subject 
we  forbear  touching  on  it  here,  except  to  say  that  it  is  a 
question  which  the  development  of  events  has  forced  on  us, 
and  it  is  a  question  which  does  not  affect  any  one  body  of 
Christians,  but  all  bodies.  The  thoughts  of  the  whole  Indian 
Church,  we  can  assure  you,  will  go  with  you,  and  the  delega- 
tion of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  which  will  shortly  be 
coming  out,  as  you  set  about  the  settling  of  this  question. 

"We  cannot  stop  without  expressing  through  you  our  grati- 
tude to  the  Board  for  the  self-less  labors  of  their  foreign 
missionaries  in  our  midst.     However  separated  we  might  be 

185 


at  times  from  them  in  our  thoughts  and  sentiments,  we  do 
not  wish  to  be  blind  to  the  fact  that  their  interest  and  ours 
are  one — viz.,  the  extension  of  Christ's  Kingdom  in  our  land. 
"Trusting  that  you  will  have  a  pleasant  sojourn  in  our  midst 
and  looking  forward  to  much  inspiration  from  your  visit,  etc." 

(b)  From  the  address  of  welcome  of  the  two  Churches  in 
Fatehgarh:  "It  is  not  our  intention  to  touch  here  on  matters 
which  may  be  controversial,  such  as  the  relation  of  the  Indian 
Church  to  the  Mission,  but  we  cannot  help  expressing  our 
appreciation  of  the  sympathy  which  has  made  you  come  to 
India  to  study  the  problems  on  the  spot  and  for  helping  to 
devise  plans  for  greater  co-operation  and  more  cordial  rela- 
tionships between  the  Indian  Church  and  the  Mission,  so  that 
the  work  of  evangelizing  this  land  may  be  accelerated  and 
everything  may  redound  to  the  glory  of  His  name. 

"We  are  confident  that  your  visit  to  this  land  will  be  fruitful 
of  results  which  will  help  to  smooth  over  present  difficulties 
and  lead  to  greater  support  and  sympathy.  We  are  glad  to 
have  you  in  our  midst  so  that  we  may  meet  you  personally, 
and  will  remember  your  visit  to  our  station  for  years  to  come, 
and  hope  that  we  may  have  the  pleasure  of  meeting  you  here 
again." 

(c)  From  the  address  of  the  Church  in  Ludhiana,  our  oldest 
Church  in  India:  "Finally,  we  make  one  request  through  you 
to  our  Parent  Churches  in  America,  and  it  is  this — To  win 
India  for  Christ,  because  it  is  through  them  that  Christ  has 
claimed  India.  Our  mission  history  tells  us  so.  American 
missionaries  were  the  first  who  waged  war  in  northern  India, 
and  the  battle  is  raging  in  all  its  ferocity.  It  is  not  ended. 
Satan  is  making  frantic  efforts  to  dislodge  us  from  our  posi- 
tion. India  is  in  throes  and  in  unrest  seeking  hopelessly  pros- 
perity, peace  and  comfort  in  worldly  things:  in  almighty 
dollars,  in  their  intellect,  in  Western  science,  in  their  leaders, 
and  in  an  ideal  democratic  government,  but  they  are  nowhere 
to  be  found  except  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  Prince 
of  Peace  and  the  fountain-head  of  all  God's  blessing.  We  fully 
hope  that  our  American  Parent  Church  will,  on  no  account 
withdraw  from  the  battlefield  and  leave  the  battle  indecisive 
when  the  victory  of  our  Lord  is  sure  and  certain.  It  is  the 
most  difficult  task  that  is  worth  doing." 

(B)  From  Various  Group  Conferences.  At  some  of  these 
missionaries  were  present,  at  others  only  Dr.  Ewing  and  I 
with  Indian  brethren,  while  in  other  groups  I  met  with  the 
Indian  brethren  alone.  As  soon  as  possible  after  reaching 
Allahabad  I  sought  a  conference  with  the  four  men  who  had 

186 


signed  the  letter  on  the  subject  of  relations  between  the  Mis- 
sions and  the  Indian  Church  which  had  been  sent  to  America. 

I  asked  the  Indian  brethren  whether  they  wished  to  talk 
the  matter  over  alone,  but  they  said  that  they  preferred  to 
have  Dr.  Ewing  present  also.  They  had  absolute  confidence 
in  him  and  wished  to  have  him  hear  whatever  they  said  to  me. 
This  arrangement  seemed  to  me  very  desirable  for  various 
reasons.  I  was  asked  to  make  any  preliminary  statement  and 
to  ask  any  questions,  the  Indian  brethren  stating  that  they  had 
already  expressed  themselves  in  their  letter.  I  reminded 
them,  however,  that  there  had  been  no  time  for  them  to  an- 
swer my  second  letter  to  Prof.  Mukerji  in  reply  to  his  request 
for  further  information  as  to  the  experience  of  the  Church 
and  Mission  in  Japan  and  also  that  the  Saharanpur  Confer- 
ence had  been  held  since  their  letter  to  America.  They  re- 
plied that  they  realized  this  and  regarded  the  Saharanpur 
Conference  and  its  findings  with  the  greatest  satisfaction. 
All  of  them  expressed  themselves  as  in  full  accord  with  the 
principles  adopted  at  the  Saharanpur  Conference,  and  three 
of  the  four  approved  also  of  the  definite  plan  which  the  Con- 
ference proposed.  The  other  member  of  the  group  thought 
that  the  plan  should  be  changed  to  bring  it  more  into  accord 
with  the  statement  of  principles.  The  Conference  which  we 
then  went  on  to  have  together  was  like  every  other  conference 
which  we  held  on  the  subject,  entirely  frank  and  entirely 
friendly. 

The  Indian  brethren  began  with  pointing  out  the  difi'erence 
which  was  fundamental  between  their  position  and  the  atti- 
tude of  the  political  non-cooperationists.  Their  deep  belief 
was  that  the  Indian  Church  needed  the  education,  the  train- 
ing, and  the  practical  help  of  closest  association  with  the 
Missions  and  the  missionaries.  This  was  true,  they  believed, 
not  only  of  the  administration  and  financial  support  of  the 
Church  but  also  of  its  development  in  self-propagation.  The 
Church  and  the  Gospel  could  not  be  commended  to  the  people 
so  long  as  the  people  knew,  as  they  know  now,  that  the  Mis- 
sions and  the  Church,  and  the  missionaries  and  the  Indians, 
are  not  bound  together  in  complete  unity  and  have  not  solved 
among  themselves  the  problem  of  co-operation  and  equality, 
and  of  Christian  love  expressed  in  practical  unity.  It  was 
true  that  a  great  deal  had  been  done  to  relate  missionaries 
and  Indian  workers  co-operatively  in  the  departmental  com- 
mittees of  the  Mission,  dealing  with  evangelism,  education, 
and  medical  work,  but  the  Missions  still  retained  veto  power 
over  all  conclusions  of  departmental   committees   and   such 

187 


Mission  absolutism  was  inconsistent  with  the  principle  of 
true  co-operation  and  equality.  The  fact  that  far  the  largest 
part  of  the  funds  were  provided  through  the  Missions,  they 
held  to  be  a  secondary  consideration.  Unless  under  present 
conditions  this  fact  were  to  be  given  a  subordinate  place  and 
the  Missions  were  prepared  to  provide  generously  for  the 
support  of  men  of  superior  education  in  positions  of  large 
freedom  and  responsibility,  they  did  not  believe  that  Christian 
service  could  offer  any  call  to  the  ablest  and  strongest  men. 
When  I  urged  the  New  Testament  ideals  of  unpaid  Christian 
service,  they  replied  that  these  days  and  conditions  in  India 
are  different  from  the  Apostolic  times,  that  the  ablest  and 
most  useful  Indian  Christian  leaders  today  are  men  supported 
in  accordance  with  the  present  day  models  of  church  organi- 
zation in  the  West,  that  the  development  of  the  Church  in 
India  must  follow  the  same  lines  as  its  development  in  Amer- 
ica and  that  its  financial  independence  can  best  be  promoted 
by  a  liberal  provision  of  help  now  on  a  basis  of  co-operation 
which  will  stimulate  the  development  of  a  strong  Indian 
leadership. 

Furthermore,  it  was  pointed  out  that  the  Indian  Church 
had  never  been  started  on  an  independent  course  and  charged 
with  the  responsibility  of  its  self-development.  Its  present 
organization  had  been  prescribed  for  it  and  its  gravest  prob- 
lems, such  as  the  mass  movement  and  the  establishment  of 
marriage  customs  in  village  communities,  the  character  of 
Christian  teachers  and  preachers,  etc.,  had  been  created  for 
the  Church  far  more  than  by  it.  In  dealing  with  these  and  all 
the  other  problems  both  of  the  Church  and  of  the  Mission 
each  body  needed  the  other.  The  Indian  Church  could  not 
meet  its  problems  alone,  and  the  Missions  needed  not  less 
what  the  Indian  Church  could  provide.  They  did  not  raise 
again  the  question  of  Indian  membership  in  the  Mission,  al- 
though they  saw  no  reason  why  Indians  should  not  be  present 
and  believed  that  they  would  have  much  to  contribute  at  Mis- 
sion meetings  and  ought  to  be  present  unless  the  conclusions 
of  departmental  committees  of  which  they  were  members 
were  accepted  as  final  without  reversal  by  the  Mission  or  unless 
the  Saharanpur  plan  which  provides  for  the  devolution  of 
Mission  authority  should  be  adopted.  They  did  feel,  however, 
that  it  was  indispensable  that  missionaries  working  within 
the  bounds  of  the  Indian  Church  should  connect  themselves 
with  its  Presbyteries,  transferring  their  membership  from  the 
Presbyteries  in  America.  They  believed  also  that  it  was  im- 
portant  that   Indians   should   be   represented   in   any   body, 

188 


whether  Mission  or  Intermediary  Board,  as  provided  in  the 
Saharanpur  plan,  by  which  the  question  of  the  proportionate 
development  of  work  and  distribution  of  funds  in  the  evan- 
gelistic, educational,  and  medical  departments  is  to  be  deter- 
mined. 

It  was  recognized  by  all  that  the  Saharanpur  plan  must 
be  considered  as  purely  experimental,  subject  to  later  revision 
and  modification  as  experience  might  show  to  be  necessary 
or  practicable  in  order  to  bring  it  more  into  accord  with  the 
declaration  of  the  Saharanpur  principles,  especially  if  it  should 
be  found  that  the  plan  operated  to  weaken  instead  of 
strengthen  the  freedom,  independence,  and  self-development 
of  the  Indian  Church.  One  of  the  brethren  suggested  the  wis- 
dom of  a  definite  time  limit  for  the  experiment  of  the  pro- 
posed plan.  Another  pointed  out  what  he  regarded  as  defects 
in  it  which  represented  even  too  wide  a  departure  from  the 
Saharanpur  statement  of  principles.  He  thought  that  the 
plan  might  exclude  too  many  missionary  men  and  women 
who  are  engaged  in  evangelistic  work  from  membership  on 
the  committee  administering  this  department;  that  the  plan 
does  not  sufficiently  safeguard  the  distinctness  of  function  of 
Indian  Church  and  Mission  as  recognized  in  the  principles;- 
that  it  risks  the  commitment  of  very  great  responsibilities 
to  bodies  whose  membership  has  not  been  sufficiently  closely 
related  to  these  responsibilites  and  who  will  not  bring  to  them 
obligations  as  great  as  the  authority  entrusted  to  them;  that 
the  scheme  does  not  adequately  regard  the  great  differences 
in  character  and  position  of  the  five  different  Presbyteries; 
that  it  appears  to  confuse  financial  responsibilities  which 
might  result  in  a  financial  pressure  upon  the  Indian  Church 
to  care  for  tasks  which  it  is  not  prepared  as  yet  to  assume 
and  which  might  legitimately  be  left  for  a  time  to  the  Mis- 
sions; that  the  problem  could  be  better  dealt  with  by  a  less 
radical  and  more  organic  development  of  the  joint  committee 
system  of  the  Missions  which  would  leave  to  these  committees, 
composed  of  Indians  and  missionaries,  final  judgment  within 
specified  fields. 

The  general  view  with  which  all  shared  was  that  it  was  in- 
dispensable that  Mission  and  Church  should  be  governed  by 
a  spirit  of  mutual  trust  and  common  purpose  that  could  not 
be  gainsaid,  and  that  this  spirit  and  purpose  should  find  defi- 
nite expression  in  some  clear  plan  of  co-operation  by  which 
Church  and  Mission  would  administer  together  those  respon- 
sibilities vitally  concerning  the  Church  which  had  heretofore 
fallen  within  either  the  full  or  the  final  control  of  the  Mission. 

189 


Another  conference  was  held  in  Ludhiana  at  the  time  of 
the  Punjab  Mission  meeting  with  a  group  of  the  ablest  men 
and  women  of  our  Church  in  the  Punjab.  Here  again  I  asked 
whether  it  would  not  be  best  to  meet  alone,  in  case  there  was 
anything  they  wished  to  say  privately.  They  replied  that 
they  desired  no  such  meeting  but  preferred  to  make  their 
statements  before  the  entire  Mission.  It  seemed  better,  how- 
ever, to  defer  any  such  general  discussion,  and  it  was  agreed 
to  have  present  just  the  representatives  of  the  Mission  who 
had  been  at  the  Saharanpur  Conference,  namely,  Dr.  Ewing, 
Dr.  Griswold,  Dr.  Fife,  Mr.  McKee,  and  Miss  Morris.  Of  the 
Indians  there  were  present  twenty  men  and  three  women, 
including  Mrs.  Mamgain  of  Dehra  Dun,  first  woman  B.A. 
and  M.A.  in  India  and  for  many  years  principal  of  Bethune 
College  for  Women,  Calcutta,  Miss  Chatter ji  who  has  just 
been  asked  to  take  the  full  principalship  of  our  Dehra  Dun 
Girls'  School  which  the  Mission  proposes  to  raise  to  an  inter- 
mediate college  under  the  new  national  education  scheme. 
Prof.  B.  B.  Roy  of  the  Saharanpur  Theological  Seminary,  the 
Rev.  P.  C.  Uppal,  one  of  the  oldest  and  best  beloved  Christian 
leaders  in  the  Punjab,  Prof.  Siraj-ud-Din,  professor  of  Phi- 
losophy in  the  Forman  Christian  College  and  one  of  the  ablest 
Mohammedan  converts  in  India,  Mr.  Rallia  Ram,  now  in  full 
charge  of  the  Rang  Mahal  school  in  Lahore,  the  largest  school 
of  the  Mission,  who  is  a  member  of  the  Lahore  Municipal 
Council  and  of  the  Legislative  Council  of  the  Punjab,  Mr. 
Jamal-ud-Din,  principal  and  headmaster  of  the  Jullundur  Mis- 
sion High  School,  the  Rev.  Andrew  Thakur  Dass,  pastor  of  the 
self-supporting  Naulakha  church  in  Lahore,  and  a  number 
of  others  of  equal  clarity  and  strength  of  conviction. 

Dr.  Ewing,  to  whom  many  of  those  present  looked  up  with 
unlimited  trust  and  almost  filial  affection  as  his  old  pupils, 
made  a  short  introductory  statement,  and  I  followed  with 
a  full  and  as  sympathetic  a  presentation  as  I  could  make  of 
what  I  believed  to  be  the  view  of  the  question  which  the  Board 
would  like  to  have  expressed,  and  asked  for  the  frankest  and 
most  outspoken  utterance  of  their  views.  In  reporting  what 
was  said  it  is  not  necessary  to  identify  the  speaker. 

Mr.  A.  was  the  first  speaker.  "We  do  not  want  you  to 
withdraw,"  he  began.  "At  this  crisis  in  India  we  need  you 
more  than  ever  before."  He  then  read  the  following  state- 
ment which  he  had  prepared : 

"On  behalf  of  my  Church,  and  also  on  behalf  of  my  mother 
land,  India,  I  beg  to  give  you  a  hearty  welcome.  What  I  would 
like  to  lay  before  you  now,  may  not  be  the  expression  of  the 

190 


whole  Church  in  India,  and  I  would  not  make  any  one  respon- 
sible for  what  I  desire  to  say. 

"1.  It  is  needless  to  mention  here  the  benefits  we  have 
derived  from  your  Mission.  You  can  convey  our  heart-felt 
gratitude  to  your  Church  and  to  your  people,  who  have  sent 
to  us  such  a  noble  army  of  men  and  women  to  raise  us  from 
our  fallen  condition  to  the  life  of  grace  in  the  Son  of  God. 

"2.  But  at  the  present  age  we  and  our  land  are  passing 
through  a  great  crisis,  and  I  believe,  you  will  sympathize 
with  us  and  help  us  to  solve  our  Church  and  national  problem. 
In  the  present  crisis  of  our  Church  and  nation's  history,  we 
never  can  think  or  desire  that  you  would  withdraw  your  Mis- 
sions from  India.  We  need  you,  and  we  need  you  more  at 
this  juncture.  We  need  you  even  for  our  own  selfish  ends,  if 
the  word  selfish  can  be  used  in  this  connection.  Suppose 
you  withdraw  your  Missions  from  this  land,  what  would  be 
our  condition?  (a)  Thousands  of  villages  will  have  no  Gospel 
message  for  a  long  time,  (b)  Thousands  of  Indian  children 
will  be  deprived  of  education,  (c)  Thousands  of  suffering 
men  and  women  will  die  without  medical  help.  The  Church 
in  India  cannot  at  the  present  moment  undertake  such  a  great 
responsibility  of  work,  which  you  are  doing  here. 

"Yet  it  is  an  age  of  self-determination.  The  international 
dependence  may  continue,  but  the  age  of  slavery  cannot  last 
long.  Every  nation  wants  to  express  itself.  We  cannot  re- 
main where  we  were  a  decade  ago.  Neither  the  Indian  nation, 
nor  the  Indian  Church  can  continue  in  her  present  condition. 
So  from  this  desire  and  necessity,  there  must  arise  tremendous 
questions,  as  to  our  relations  with  you. 

"In  India  today  we  have  two-fold  responsibilities:  (a)  that 
of  building  up  a  Church  of  Christ,  (b)  that  of  building  up 
our  Indian  national  life  and  its  institutions  in  the  light  of 
Christ.  Perhaps  our  task  is  much  more  perplexing  and  diffi^ 
cult  than  that  of  Japan  and  China. 

"Now  in  this  great  work  there  must  be  an  objective  before 
us,  and  our  objective  must  not  collide  with  yours.  We  must 
have  a  common  object  before  us.  So  may  I  very  humbly 
ask  you,  sir,  what  is  your  objective  in  India  at  this  age  of 
our  national  regeneration?  Unless  we  know  that  very  clearly, 
we  cannot  determine  whether  we  can  co-operate  with  you 
or  not. 

"To  make  this  question  a  little  more  clear,  I  may  humbly 
say,  that  some  of  us  have  begun  to  think,  that  though  we 
have  accepted  Christianity,  and  though  we  consider  all  Chris- 
tian nations  as  our  sister  nations,  yet  we  do  not  desire  to  lose 

191 


our  own  distinctive  Indian  individuality.  We  must  continue 
as  Indians.  Our  religions  and  social  institutes,  purified  through 
the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  must  continue  distinctively  Indian. 
Christ  has  come  to  save  us,  not  to  annihilate  us.  If  your 
objective  is  our  salvation,  then  you  are  welcome.  But  if 
your  objective  is  to  annihilate  us,  or  to  change  us  into  some- 
thing un-Indian,  then  you  will  pardon  me  if  I  say  that  I  hesi- 
tate to  come  to  you  for  your  help.  We  want  Christ,  and  we 
want  many  good  things  which  you  possess,  yet  at  the  same 
time,  we  do  not  desire  to  lose  our  national  existence.  Sir,  I 
hope,  you  will  pardon  me  if  I  say  for  myself  that  I  am  a  Hindu 
of  the  Hindus. 

"In  past  we  or  our  fathers  did  not  adequately  realize  this 
fact.  The  pioneer  missionaries  established  a  Church  in 
India,  and  from  a  very  pure  and  noble  motive  naturally  they 
tried  to  fashion  the  life  of  the  Church  according  to  their  own 
ideals.  So  for  many  years,  though  Indians,  we  were  American 
Presbyterians  in  your  Mission  field.  Now  we  have  come  out 
from  that  stage,  and  with  that  we  have  a  clearer  vision  of 
our  self-existence  and  self-determination.  Therefore  we  very 
humbly  ask  you  this  question. 

"We  acknowledge  that  we  belong  to  a  fallen  race.  We 
had  a  past,  but  it  is  needless  to  mention  it.  Yet  for  the  sake 
of  truth  I  can  only  say  that  we  are  not  without  our  national 
traditions  and  heritage. 

"We  are  poor.  How  long  we  shall  struggle  with  our  pov- 
erty, we  do  not  know.  But  I  believe,  even  our  poverty  has 
taught  us  a  great  lesson.  We  do  not  rely  on  riches  to  propa- 
gate the  Gospel  of  the  poor  Nazarene.  Externally  He  was 
poor,  but  internally  he  possessed  the  incomprehensible  riches 
of  God  in  his  mysterious  Divine-human  personality.  We  can 
rely  on  that  personality — the  fullness  of  the  self-expressed 
God — the  pleroma  of  joy  and  peace.  And  with  this  message 
accompanied  by  our  inherited  poverty,  if  we  approach  our 
people,  I  believe,  they  will  not  turn  a  deaf  ear. 

"Therefore,  Sir,  I  come  to  you,  as  a  representative  of  my 
country  and  Church,  not  with  a  request,  that  you  should  grant 
me  a  high  place  in  your  Mission,  to  handle  your  temporal 
riches,  or  to  drive  your  motor  cars  and  cycles.  But  I  desire, 
Sir,  that  you  and  I  must  have  a  common  objective  to  carry 
the  message  of  joy  to  this  joyless  people  of  mine.  If  your 
objective  and  mine  is  the  same,  then  let  us  work  together  as 
brothers — forgetting  the  difference  of  our  colors — forgetting 
the  difference  of  our  superiority  and  inferiority — trusting 
each  other  for  the  glory  of  the  God-man,  and  for  the  salvation 

192 


of  souls.  Let  us  both  contribute  to  this  great  work  what  we 
possess:  you,  your  riches,  I,  my  poverty;  you,  your  learning, 
I,  my  ignorance;  you,  your  power,  I,  my  nothingness.  The 
Lord  will  accept  both,  and  the  result  will  be  a  glorious  Church 
in  India,  a  glorious  kingdom  of  God — perhaps  devoid  of  many 
things  you  possess — yet  rich  in  many  things,  which  are  our 
natural  heritage." 

Mr.  B.  was  the  next  speaker.    "We  have  nothing  but  praise 
for  the  missionaries,"  said  he.    "We  cannot  do  without  them, 
but  neither  can  they  do  without  us.    We  feel  that  this  Church 
of  ours  ought  to  be  an  independent  Church,  and   we  have 
complaints  against  the  Mission  because  it  is  not.     (1)  After 
seventy-five  years  the  Mission  has  not  produced   six  great 
leaders  of  the  Church.    We  have  been  given  a  slave  mentality, 
Mr.  A.  and  myself  among  the  rest.    We  are  Mission  servants. 
(2)    A  divided  Church  has  been  established  in  the  Punjab. 
The  real  problem  is  the  problem  of  the  unity  of  the  Church. 
There  are  three  lakhs  of  Christians  in  the  Punjab,  but  we 
are  all  split  up  into  denominational  groups.     I  know  of  one 
section  where  there  are  2,200  Christians  divided  between  six 
denominations.     I   don't  agree  with  Mr.   A.   in  his  opinion 
that  if  the  Missions  should  leave  we  would  fail,  but  I  do 
believe  that  unless  some  solution  is  found  in  the  different  de- 
nominations of  the  problem  of  co-operation  all  the   Indian 
Christians   will   revolt  and   make   up   one   new  independent 
Church.     (3)  The  Mission  follows  the  same  old  methods  and 
policies  of  seventy  years  ago.    The  Government  policy  changes 
with  every  viceroy,  but  the  Mission  policy  remains  stale  and 
unaltered.     The  system  has  a  petrifying  influence.     We  do 
not  see  the  Mission  decreasing  and  the  Indian  Church  increas- 
ing.   We  would  like  to  see  Indians  placed  in  positions  of  re- 
sponsibility and  given  charge  of  districts.     The  Government 
is   doing  this.      Every  year   Indians   are   appointed   to   the 
heads  of  districts  where  formerly  only  Englishmen  were  ap- 
pointed.    The  Missions  are  not  doing  this.     We  do  not  have 
a  real  or  adequate  voice.     We  feel  that  we  are  not  in  the 
game.    We  are  not  real  fellow  workers.    The  intention  of  the 
Mission  is  good,  and  we  do  not  believe  it  has  any  race  feeling, 
but  the  system  embodies  racial  discrimination  and  cripples 
the  growth  of  the   Church.     I  believe  that   we   should  try 
the   Saharanpur  plan.     If   we   act  wisely,   I   think   that  in 
thirty  years  the  Indian  Church  will  be  independent  and  will 
be  sending  its  own  missionaries  abroad." 

Mr.  C.  followed.     "I  agree  with  Mr.  B.     If  we  were  left 
by  the  missionaries,  we  would  live  and  go  on.    I  have  nothing 

193 

7 — India   and   Persia 


personal  against  the  missionaries.  I  do  not  love  them  all 
any  more  than  I  love  all  Indians,  but  I  would  not  say  one 
word  against  the  Mission.  It  is  the  system  that  is  wrong. 
India  is  a  religious  country.  My  father  was  a  Moslem  con- 
vert. I  have  the  blood  of  Islam  in  me.  There  is  no  caste 
in  Islam,  and  we  do  not  have  it  in  the  Indian  Church.  I 
know  the  Brahman  Christian  married  in  the  Church  to  a 
sweeper  woman.  But  there  is  not  this  equality  between  Mis- 
sion and  Church  or  missionary  and  Indian.  Under  the  system 
which  has  prevailed  the  Mission  has  been  the  employer  and 
we  have  been  the  employees.  We  are  servants,  agents  whom 
the  Mission  can  dispose  of  or  dispense  with.  What  we  object 
to  is  the  idea  of  subjection  and  inequality.  Your  Board  has 
always  refused  to  appoint  to  the  Mission  men  and  women 
we  recommended.  On  no  other  condition  than  the  ap- 
pointment of  Indian  men  as  full  members  of  the  Mission  will 
the  Church  co-operate.  We  demand  absolute  equality  Sn 
Church  and  Mission,  equality  from  every  point  of  view.  Oth- 
erwise we  break  with  you.    There  can  be  no  co-operation." 

Mr.  D.  spoke  next.  "Not  one  of  us  is  for  turning  the  mis- 
sionaries out,  but  no  one  can  say  how  long  their  work  may 
be  possible.  We  talked  yesterday  with  two  Moslem  friends. 
They  said  that  after  Swaraj  (political  independence)  has  been 
won,  they  will  fall  on  the  Hindus  and  others  and  take  the 
country  for  themselves.  I  know  the  feeling  of  the  Moslems. 
They  all  feel  this  way.  We  Christians  rejoice  that  the  British 
Government  has  been  here.  We  will  be  the  greatest  losers  if 
Great  Britain  or  the  Christian  Missions  should  withdraw. 
We  realize  that  this  is  a  very  critical  time  in  India.  The 
British  are  not  wedded  to  India  forever.  Some  day  they 
will  leave,  and  India  will  have  to  look  after  itself.  We  will 
hope  for  stability  within  and  for  right  alliances  without,  but 
no  one  can  foresee  the  future,  and  I  fear  that  a  great  struggle 
is  ahead  of  us.  We  do  not  know  what  may  happen  in  five 
years.  The  missionaries  may  have  to  leave  any  day.  In  a 
short  time  there  may  be  no  place  for  Christians  in  the  Gov- 
ernment or  any  public  service  and  there  may  be  no  room  for 
foreign  missionaries.  The  struggle  is  coming.  God  forbid 
that  it  should  be  violent.  We  are  not  prepared  for  this 
struggle.  It  is  time  now  for  the  Missions  to  lift  up  Christians 
and  the  Christian  Church  to  meet  the  issue.  In  unity  and 
equality  the  Mohammedans  and  Hindus  have  gone  far  ahead 
of  the  Christians.  The  Missions  and  Church  should  be  united 
in  spirit  and  policy.  They  have  not  been.  Take  the  mass 
movement  for  instance.    The  Church  was  not  ready  for  this, 

194 


and  the  missionaries  went  forward  in  it  against  the  judgment 
of  the  Church.  They  ought  to  take  the  council  of  men  of  the 
country.  If  I  were  to  go  to  a  new  country,  I  would  welcome 
the  ablest  natives  of  that  country  as  my  equals.  Mohamme- 
danism did  so.  The  Mohammedans  married  their  daughters  to 
the  natives  of  the  countries  to  which  they  went.  I  think  that 
both  the  Church  and  Mission  have  failed  and  that  if  we  both 
confessed  failure  it  would  do  good.  We  want  now  while  there 
is  still  time  to  have  the  American  missionaries  make  their 
full  contribution  to  the  Church  in  India  so  that  we  may  be 
able  to  fight  our  battle.  You  have  given  the  Gospel  but  not 
all  that  goes  with  it  and  that  lies  behind  it,  social  and  eco- 
nomic. You  ought  to  co-operate  in  sending  Indians  to  Amer- 
ica to  get  scientific  knowledge  there  and  to  come  back  and 
help  India.  To  give  us  only  the  Gospel  and  not  art  and 
science  is  a  lack  of  consecration.  There  ought  to  be  a  change 
of  policy.  Take  Indians  who  are  able  into  full  partnership. 
And  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  let  Churches  call  only  pastors 
of  the  grade  and  salaries  they  can  pay  rather  than  men  of 
the  kind  they  ought  to  have  in  order  to  make  the  Church  a 
stronger  and  different  Church.  The  result  of  the  past  sys- 
tem has  been  that  no  first-class  men  are  now  available  for 
the  ministry.  We  are  responsible  for  the  paucity.  We  ought 
to  get  the  best  men  that  can  be  got  irrespective  of  where  the 
funds  come  from,  whether  India  or  America.  The  great 
defect  of  the  Indian  Church  is  want  of  life,  and  I  believe 
that  is  due  in  part  to  a  lack  of  a  wise  solution  of  the  problem 
of  co-operation.  The  Indian  should  be  given  equality.  I  think 
also  that  the  properties  which  have  been  acquired  in  India, 
so  many  of  them  by  government  grant,  should  be  held  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Church,  especially  against  the  day  of  economic 
ostracism  which  is  coming  when  the  Indian  Christians  could 
be  settled,  many  of  them,  on  these  large  lands.  You  should 
give  Indians  full  voice  in  determining  the  policy  of  the 
Church  and  Missions.  Their  voice  would  be  against  giving 
up  to  so  large  an  extent  the  work  among  the  educated  classes 
and  the  absorption  of  strength  among  the  village  low  castes. 
It  seems  to  me  that  work  among  educated  Indians  has  been 
almost  given  up  by  the  Missions  and  that  our  schools  have 
become  less  and  less  fruitful,  and  the  conscience  clause  will 
probably  make  this  situation  even  worse.  Indian  counsel 
is  needed,  also,  in  the  problem  of  the  co-ordination  of  the  edu- 
cation of  both  boys  and  girls.  The  Missions'  schools  are 
educating  more  girls  than  they  are  preparing  boys  for  as 
husbands.     Many  of  these  girls  are  lost  accordingly  to  the 

195 


Church  in  non-Christian  homes.  In  the  education  both  of 
the  Christian  community  and  the  masses  Indian  counsel  is 
needed.  Last  of  all,  I  would  point  out  that  much  of  the 
problem  that  we  are  facing  is  the  reflex  of  much  that  is 
going  on  in  government  and  politics  and  is  not  the  result 
of  any  new  spiritual  revival  that  has  raised  these  problems  in 
the  Church.  Nevertheless  the  problems  are  real  and  you  must 
be  patient,  remembering  the  Indian  proverb,  'A  son  may 
turn  out  to  be  an  ungrateful  son,  but  fathers  and  mothers 
are  never  to  be  impatient.'  " 

The  last  speaker  was  Mr.  E.  "I  believe  that  foreign  mis- 
sions in  India  have  made  a  mistake  in  the  employment  of 
indigenous  agents  under  payment.  The  Church  would  have 
expressed  its  life  spontaneously  if  the  Missions  had  founded 
churches  as  Paul  did  and  had  let  their  life  develop  in  vital 
and  natural  ways.  Ezekiel's  flood  rose  spontaneously  with 
no  steam  pumps  or  mechanisms  forcing  it  to  higher  levels. 
One  thing  which  makes  the  problem  so  hard  now  is  the  exist- 
ence of  paid  native  agents  receiving  salaries  far  above  the 
power  of  the  Church.  We  know  the  arguments  for  pecuniary 
inequality,  and  they  are  all  right  for  the  past.  Ultimately 
the  Church  must  do  it  all,  and  I  fear  it  cannot  continue  the 
Mission  salary  scale,  I  am  glad  that  in  the  Uganda  Mission 
in  Africa  the  Missions  did  not  introduce  a  wrong  money  scale. 
In  the  second  place,  the  nationalistic  spirit  makes  our  problem 
and  introduces  both  good  and  evil  elements.  When  the  Indian 
Church  has  control  and  supports  the  work,  things  will  be 
different.  I  believe  that  both  from  necessity  and  from  desire 
it  will  support  fewer  and  better  agents.  There  are  many 
of  us  who  now  loathe  the  cheap  ministry  represented  in  the 
village  work  of  the  Missions.  The  poor  people  themselves 
despise  it.  There  are  times  when  I  am  ashamed  to  be  called 
a  padre.  Do  you  know  what  the  people  call  a  padre?  They 
call  him  a  'glutton,'  an  'idler,'  a  'tale  bearer,'  and  this  is  the 
kind  of  worker  of  whom  the  Missions  have  employed  too 
many.  Let  there  be  equality  of  method  and  counsel  and  these 
evils  will  be  done  away.  Another  reason  for  doing  away 
with  inequality  is  that  the  present  situation  creates  the  popu- 
lar impression  that  the  missionaries  do  not  love  the  Indians 
and  feel  toward  them  as  brothers.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  the 
amount  of  salary  paid.  Probably  the  Mission  is  giving  to 
some  workers  more  than  they  need.  The  matter  is  one  of 
equality  and  sympathy  and  love.  I  know  that  we  love  our 
missionaries.  I  live  near  the  Kinnaird  College,  and  if  all  the 
students  should  go  away  and  if  a  mob  should  come  to  attack 

196 


the  missionary  ladies  there,  I  and  my  brethren  would  stand 
in  the  gate  and  die  for  them.  And  I  know  that  the  mission- 
aries love  us.  We  are  true  friends  across  all  race  lines,  but 
this  love  needs  a  more  visible  and  practical  expression,  and 
our  organized  plans  and  relationships  need  to  be  given  new 
form  by  it.  When  we  have  done  this,  we  will  have  taken  a 
long  step  forward  toward  the  accomplishment  of  what  I  be- 
lieve to  be  the  right  goal  of  all  our  efforts,  namely,  the  substi- 
tution of  Indian  men,  Indian  money,  and  Indian  management 
for  foreign  men,  foreign  money  and  foreign  management. 
This  is  a  thing  that  must  be  done  and  can  be  done." 

After  Mr,  E.  had  spoken,  they  all  said  that  they  had  noth- 
ing further  that  they  wished  to  add,  and  would  be  glad  to 
have  me  close  the  discussion.  It  is  obvious  that  many  things 
that  were  said  might  have  been  taken  up  for  further  inquiry 
or  comment,  but  as  there  were  to  be  many  other  conferences 
and  later  meetings  of  the  Presbyteries,  I  thought  it  best  sim- 
ply to  restate  as  clearly  and  strongly  as  possible  our  duty 
as  Christian  men  and  women  to  find  a  true  solution  of  the 
problem  of  rightful  and  effective  co-operation,  the  great  gain 
that  had  already  been  secured  in  the  acceptance  by  the  Indians 
and  missionaries  who  had  been  at  the  Saharanpur  Conference 
of  a  statement  of  fundamental  principles  with  regard  to  the 
relations  of  Missions  and  Church,  and  to  point  out  the  oppor- 
tunity which  we  had  to  achieve  a  great  victory  through  the 
spirit  of  Christ  in  a  field  of  human  relationships  where  defeat 
would  be  both  easy  and  disastrous. 

Before  the  Saharanpur  Conference  report  was  considered 
by  the  Punjab  Mission  it  was  discussed  in  a  further  confer- 
ence with  the  District  Work  Committee  of  the  Mission.  This 
committee  is  composed  of  the  members  of  the  Mission  engaged 
in  evangelistic  work  and  of  the  Indian  evangelistic  leaders. 
This  committee  unanimously  approved  the  Saharanpur  state- 
ment of  principles  and  proceeded  to  discuss  the  plan.  The 
question  was  raised  as  to  whether  the  plan  would  in  its  prac- 
tical effects  exalt  or  disintegrate  the  Presbytery.  Would  not 
the  result  of  the  working  of  the  plan  be  that  all  the  living 
work  of  the  Church  would  be  cared  for  in  the  proposed  joint 
committees  and  that  the  Presbytery  would  be  nothing  but  an 
ecclesiastical  mechanism?  Mr.  E.  replied  that  Presbytery  is 
at  present  little  more  than  a  licensing  and  ordaining  body, 
that  it  is  not  performing  the  living  functions  which  are  as- 
signed by  the  Saharanpur  plan  to  the  proposed  Presbyterial 
committees.  Ultimately  all  this  work  ought  to  be  discharged 
by  the  Presbytery  as  such,  and  it  was  to  be  hoped  that  the 

197 


plan  would  prove  a  step  toward  this  goal.  Mr.  U.  pointed 
out  that  the  Presbyteries  would  oversee  the  proposed  com- 
mittees, receiving  and  passing  upon  their  reports,  that  the 
Presbytery  was  now  largely  an  ecclesiastical  body  but  would  be 
greatly  strengthened  by  the  Saharanpur  plan.  Mr.  G.  pointed 
out  that  the  Presbyteries  are  not  exclusively  ecclesiastical, 
that  even  now  they  carry  on  Presbyterial  mission  work,  that 
their  relations  to  such  work  would  be  increased  under  the 
Saharanpur  plan  and  that  they  would  be  strengthened  ac- 
cordingly. There  were  some,  he  added,  who  expressed  the 
fear  that  Mission  control  would  extend  to  the  proposed  com- 
mittees, as  Indian  members  might  not  express  themselves. 
Mr.  A.  argued  that  the  only  way  for  the  Presbyteries  to 
learn  to  swim  would  be  to  go  into  the  water.  The  question 
was  raised  as  to  the  relation  of  the  present  grant-in-aid  scheme 
to  the  Sarahanpur  plan.  Would  the  Missions  continue  to 
pay  the  Presbyteries  for  their  home  mission  work  at  the 
present  rate  of  rupee  for  rupee  according  to  the  missionary 
gifts  of  the  churches?  Mr.  E.  held  that  the  Saharanpur  plan 
does  not  touch  Presbyterial  home  mission  work  and  the  grant- 
in-aid,  that  that  is  to  be  left  with  the  Presbyteries  and  not 
to  be  placed  under  the  new  committee.  The  new  plan  is 
due  to  the  increased  self-consciousness  and  capacity  of  the 
Church,  rather  than  to  any  economical  considerations.  The 
ground  of  the  Church  is  that  it  has  a  right  to  a  voice  and 
capacity  for  a  voice  in  the  work  which  the  Missions  are  doing 
within  its  bounds.  The  Saharanpur  scheme  is  a  response  by 
the  Mission  to  a  just  demand  of  the  Church,  which  believes 
that  its  ability  to  contribute  to  administration  exceeds  its 
ability  to  contribute  funds,  and  which  asks  for  a  just  and 
educating  share  of  the  management  until  the  day  comes  when 
it  can  also  supply  the  funds.  I  am  not  quoting  the  views 
which  were  expressed  from  time  to  time  in  the  discussion 
by  members  of  the  Mission ;  but  to  meet  some  of  the  questions 
asked,  Dr.  Ewing  suggested  that  the  Indian  brethren  should 
say  why  they  believed  that  a  new  scheme  of  co-operation  is 
needed.  Their  composite  answer  was:  (1)  A  great  deal  of 
work  is  going  on  within  the  bounds  of  the  Church  and  in  the 
name  of  the  Church  and  for  the  avowed  interest  of  the  Church 
of  which  the  Church  does  not  know.  The  Church  wants  a 
voice  in  all  this  work,  for  example,  the  village  work,  (2)  The 
Apostolic  example  calls  for  a  fuller  co-operation.  Wherever 
Paul  and  Barnabas  went,  the  converts  shared  in  the  control 
of  the  work.  The  missionaries  took  Timothy  into  their  fel- 
lowship, and  they  worked  with  the   Church.      (3)    India  is 

198 


our  country.  We  know  it.  You  cannot  do  the  work  here 
in  the  way  in  which  it  should  be  done  without  the  contribu- 
tion that  we  are  able  to  make.  (4)  We  want  a  measure  of 
brotherhood  and  counsel  which  we  do  not  now  have.  The 
Missions  have  repeatedly  employed  men  against  whom  we 
have  warned  them.  They  ignore  suggestions  that  we  make 
to  them.  We  want  this  new  scheme  because  it  gives  us  equal 
power.  (5)  It  is  true  that  here  in  the  Punjab  the  Mission 
has  taken  some  of  us  in,  for  example,  Dr.  Chatterjee  and 
Mr.  Uppal  and  Mr.  Goloknath,  but  there  has  been  no  equality 
between  the  Mission  and  the  Church.  The  Church  as  a  Church 
has  had  no  equitable  responsibility.  The  Church  has  been  a 
Mission  church  under  the  Mission,  not  a  missionary  Church 
with  the  Mission.  (6)  Past  arrangements  have  given  the 
Indian  a  sense  of  inferiority.  He  was  given  no  power.  He 
was  a  servant  of  the  Mission.  The  principle  on  which  the 
work  was  organized  was  the  principle  of  subordination  rather 
than  co-operation.  There  will  still,  of  course,  be  organization, 
carrying  with  it  the  necessities  of  authority  and  obedience, 
but  the  discrimination  will  be  no  longer  racial.  (7)  There  is 
now  no  check  on  the  employment  Of  a  cheap  ministry,  of  low 
grade  workers  who  bring  Christian  service  into  disrepute. 
(8)  Let  it  be  pointed  out  again  that  the  thing  that  the  Church 
is  asking  is  not  money  but  a  voice. 

It  is  obvious,  as  I  have  already  said,  that  many  of  the 
statements  made  in  this  conference  and  the  others  that  I  have 
reported  are  open  to  comment.  Some  of  the  statements  that 
were  made  may  sound  hard  in  their  written  form,  but  every- 
thing was  said  in  an  excellent  spirit,  and  frank  words  were 
spoken  in  correction  of  wrong  notions  or  false  principles.  I 
do  not  now  offer  any  qualifications,  however,  as  it  seems  desir- 
able, instead,  to  seek  to  enable  the  Board  to  appreciate  for 
itself  the  attitudes  of  mind,  the  sound  and  the  unsound  judg- 
ments, and  the  many  diversities  of  temper  and  of  view  pre- 
vailing in  the  Church  in  India. 

(C)  Actions  of  the  Missions,  the  Presbyteries,  and  the  India 
Council,  (a)  Actioyis  of  Missions.  The  first  of  the  three  Mis- 
sions to  consider  the  Saharanpur  Conference  report  was  the 
North  India  Mission.  The  Mission  had  thoroughly  discussed 
the  whole  question  and  had  considered  several  courses  of  action 
with  regard  to  it  at  its  meeting  in  1920.  As  a  result  it  had 
adopted  at  that  meeting  the  policy  of  enlarged  influence  for 
the  departmental  committees,  on  which  there  were  Indian 
members.  In  the  light  of  later  developments  it  was  clear  that 
this  course  would  not  satisfy  at  least  the  Allahabad  Presby- 

199 


tery.  The  objections  to  it  were,  first  that  it  was  purely  a 
Mission  scheme,  and  second  tliat  it  retained  in  the  hands  of 
the  Mission,  at  meetings  at  which  no  Indians  would  be  pres- 
ent, full  veto  power  over  the  actions  of  the  joint  committees. 
There  was  a  prolonged  discussion,  in  which  the  Mission  had 
before  it  in  addition  to  the  Saharanpur  Report  three  other 
plans,  one  of  which  proposed  the  transfer  of  "Class  Four" 
(evangelistic  work)  appropriations  to  the  complete  control 
of  the  Presbyteries,  with  the  Mission's  full  co-operation  in 
the  Presbyteries,  a  second  of  which  proposed  such  a  transfer 
with  the  complete  withdrawal  of  the  missionaries  from  rela- 
tions with  the  Presbyteries,  and  a  third  which  proposed  a 
new  system  of  joint  committees  free  from  the  veto  power  of 
the  Mission  but  different  in  character  and  in  principle  from 
the  committees  proposed  in  the  Saharanpur  plan.  Those  who 
advocated  this  last  proposal  believed  that  it  was  more  closely 
in  accord  with  the  Saharanpur  principles  than  the  Saharanpur 
plan  itself.  It  was  this  last  proposal  which  the  North  India 
Mission  finally  adopted  in  the  form  given  in  Appendix  XL 

The  Punjab  Mission  was  the  next  to  consider  the  Saharan- 
pur Conference  report.  The  report  came  up  first  before  the 
Boys'  High  School  Committee,  composed  of  missionaries  and 
Indians  and  having  charge  of  the  Boys'  High  Schools.  It 
was  involved  in  the  following  communication  presented  to  the 
committee  by  nine  of  its  members  who  included  all  the  head- 
masters. 

"To  The  American  Presbyterian  Mission,   Punjab,  through 
the  Rev.  F.  B.  Llewellyn,  Chairman,  Boys'  High  School 
Committee,  Lahore. 
"Dear  Brethren  in  Christ: 

"Allow  us  to  state,  in  all  friendliness  and  brotherly  spirit 
that  we,  the  undersigned,  share  the  general  feeling  that  the 
spirit  of  co-operation  of  the  Mission  towards  its  fellow  work- 
ers is  not  what  it  should  be.  The  Headmasters  especially  feel 
that  their  whole  hearted  and  strenuous  efllorts,  their  zeal  for 
their  work,  and  their  faithful,  loyal  and  successful  services 
are  not  fully  appreciated ;  they  are  not  shown  the  desired  and 
deserved  amount  of  sympathy;  little  attention  is  shown  to 
their  legitimate  needs  and  aspirations,  and,  sometimes,  mate- 
rial motives  are  unfairly  attributed  to  them.  The  very  machin- 
ery created  by  the  Mission  for  a  consideration  of  their  work 
along  with  that  of  others  engaged  in  the  High  School  work 
has  been  criticised  by  our  missionary  friends,  though  no 
substitute  has  been  provided  for,  so  far. 

"It   was   in   the   year   1912   that   Headmasters   and   some 

200 


Indian  Professors  were  invited  to  participate  in  the  delibera- 
tions of  educational  questions  affecting  our  schools  in  a  sub- 
committee of  the  Mission.  Eight  years'  experience  has  shown 
us  that  our  position  in  the  said  Sub-committee  is  anomalous, 
and  at  times  humiliating  and  embarrassing.  The  Constitution 
which  allows  the  American  members,  mostly  comprised  of 
persons  knowing  little  and  having  no  experience  of  the  work- 
ing of  our  educational  system  in  this  country  and  with  no 
knowledge  of  our  Schools,  to  accept  or  reject  the  recommen- 
dations of  the  sub-committee,  at  the  entire  exclusion  of  the 
Indians,  is  defective,  to  say  the  least. 

"We  therefore  desire  that  an  Educational  Council  should 
be  formed  consisting  of: 

(1)  All  the  Principals,  Managers  and  Headmasters. 

(2)  Three  Indian  Christian  Professors  and  four  American 

Professors  of  the  Forman  College  elected  by  the  Council. 
"The  decision  of  this  Council  in  all  Educational  matters 
relating  to  the  Boys'  High  Schools  should  be  final.  Failing 
that,  we  find  it  incompatible  with  our  dignity  and  self-respect 
to  continue  to  be  members  of  the  Boys'  High  School  Com- 
mittee. 

"We  are,  dear  friends,  your  fellow-workers  in  His  field, 

Y.  Jamal-ud-Din,  Sec.  Boys'  School,  Committee 
BiHARI  Lal 

K.  L.  Rallia  Ram 
N.  C.  Ghose 
Sardar  Khan 

R.    SiRAJ-UD-DiN 

E.  J.  Sinclair 
I.  DURGE  Parshad 
P.  K.  Sircar" 

This  proposal  involved  a  rejection  of  the  section  of  the 
Saharanpur  plan  with  regard  to  the  Joint  Educational  Com- 
mittee. That  Section  provided  for  the  election  of  this  com- 
mittee by  the  Mission's  Schools  and  Presbyteries.  The  head- 
master's proposal  practically  took  this  power  away  from  the 
Presbyteries.  If  the  headmasters  were  unprepared  to  vest 
power  in  the  Indian  Church  in  carrying  out  a  fuller  plan  of 
co-operation,  it  would  be  difficult  to  make  an  argument  for 
such  a  transfer  on  the  part  of  the  Missions.  Fortunately 
after  a  long  discussion  in  the  Boys'  High  School  committee 
in  which  all  headmasters  were  present,  the  following  action 
was  taken  as  expressing  the  mind  of  the  committee : 

201 


"I.  Resolved.  That  we  approve  of  the  principle  underlying  the 
Saharanpur  scheme  of  co-operation  between  Church  and  Mission. 

*"II.  After  consideration  of  the  letter  of  the  Indian  members  of  our 
Committee  along  with  the  Saharanpur  scheme  for  a  Joint  Educational 
Committee,  the  following  resolution  is  proposed: 

"Resolved,  That  in  view,  however,  of  the  present  constitution  of  the 
Presbyteries  and  looking  forward  to  the  time  when  the  entire  work  of 
the  Mission  will  be  made  Church-centric,  we  have  after  a  lengthy  dis- 
cussion almost  unanimously  come  to  the  conclusion  that  so  far  as  the 
method  of  electing  the  Joint  Educational  Committee  is  concerned,  we 
strongly  recommend  the  adoption  of  the  following  scheme  for  the  next 
three  years  only: 

"III.  Resolved,  That  the  Joint  Educational  Committee  be  composed 
as  follows: 

"1.  All  principals,  managers,  and  headmasters  in  our  High  Schools, 
members  ex-officio. 

"2.  Four  Indian  Christian  professors  and  four  American  professors 
of  Forman  College,  of  whom  one  shall  be  the  principal,  to  be  elected  by 
the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  College. 

"3.  Four  members  to  be  elected  by  the  Presbyteries  (i.  e.,  Ludhiana 
and  Lahore),  one  American  and  one  Indian  by  each  Presbytery. 

"4.  Equal  representation  of  the  Indians  and  Americans  is  to  be 
maintained.  The  Mission  shall  elect  Americans  to  equalize  their  num- 
ber and  the  Presbytery  in  which  the  vacancy  occurs  shall  elect  the  In- 
dians to  equalize  their  number. 

"IV.  Resolved,  That  the  decisions  of  the  above  Committee  be  final 
in  all  matters  relating  to  the  High  Schools  of  our  Mission." 

The  Saharanpur  Conference  Report  came  up  next  at  the 
Punjab  Mission  meeting  before  the  District  Work  Committee 
composed  of  Americans  and  Indians  and  having  charge  of 
the  village  evangelistic  and  educational  work.  There  w^as  a 
most  interesting  discussion  which  I  have  already  reported, 
but  no  action  was  taken. 

Last  of  all  the  Saharanpur  Report  came  before  the  Punjab 
Mission  Meeting  itself  with  Mr.  Uppal  and  Mr.  Goloknath 
sitting  with  the  Mission.  After  long  discussion  the  Mission, 
which  had  before  it  both  the  Saharanpur  Report  and  the 
action  of  the  North  India  Mission,  adopted  almost  unanimously 
the  Saharanpur  statement  of  principles,  merely  altering  one 
clause  in  the  paragraph  numbered  6  so  as  to  read,  "or  to 
some  such  co-operative  body  as  was  carried  out  by  the  Church 
in  Japan."  The  Mission  then  adopted  also  the  Saharanpur 
plan  with  a  few  verbal  changes  and  with  a  few  modifications. 
(1)  Schools  for  non-Christian  girls  and  the  Theological  Semi- 
nary were  included  in  the  work  to  be  transferred  to  the  new 
Joint  Synodical  Committee.  (2)  Missionaries  were  to  be 
eligible  to  serve  on  this  committee  after  two  instead  of  five 
years'  experience  in  India.  (3)  The  specification  of  qualifi- 
cations of  members  of  the  Joint  Educational  and  Medical  Com- 

202 


mittee  was  eliminated  save  that  they  were  to  be  representa- 
tive of  the  educational  and  medical  institutions.  (4)  It  was 
made  clear  that  there  was  to  be  an  Intermediate  Board  for 
each  mission  area  through  which  estimates  should  be  for- 
warded to  the  Board  in  New  York  through  the  India  Council. 
The  Western  India  Mission  Meeting  was  the  last  of  the 
three,  but  this  Mission  had  the  advantage  which  the  other 
Missions  lacked  of  having  before  it  the  action  of  the  Presby- 
tery to  which  it  was  related. 

This  meeting  of  the  Kolhapur  Presbytery  had  been  held  at 
Islampur  on  October  13th,  just  a  fortnight  before  our  arrival. 
A  special  meeting  of  the  Presbytery  was  held,  however,  at 
Kolhapur  on  October  27th,  the  day  of  our  arrival,  and  two 
days  later  at  Panhala  in  connection  with  the  Mission  Meeting 
two  conferences  were  held  with  the  Indian  brethren  prior 
to  the  Mission's  consideration  of  the  Saharanpur  report. 
These  conferences  were  opened  by  an  illuminating  statement 
by  Mr.  Howard  surveying  the  history  of  the  relations  of  our 
Presbyterian  Missions  and  the  Indian  Church  from  the  be- 
ginning and  describing  the  Saharanpur  Conference  and  ana- 
lyzing its  report.  It  will  suffice  to  report  from  the  ensuing 
discussions  the  views  of  four  or  five  of  the  Indian  brethren. 
First  the  Rev.  Anandrao  Padghalmal,  stated  clerk  of  the 
Presbytery  and  pastor  of  the  Miraj  Church,  who  was  one  of 
the  delegates  to  the  Saharanpur  Conference:  "We  want  and 
need  co-operation.  I  think  it  is  unfortunate  that  missionaries 
are  not  taking  as  great  a  part  as  they  used  to  do  in  sessions, 
churches  and  Presbyteries.  We  want  to  have  all  the  women 
missionaries  and  the  laymen  identified  with  the  Indian  Church. 
We  are  not  yet  ready  for  non-cooperation.  We  need  to  learn 
by  experiment,  working  along  with  you.  I  believe  that  this 
co-operation  in  administration  will  promote  Indian  self- 
support.  Our  Presbytery  objected,  however,  to  the  ratio  pro- 
posal or  to  any  financial  requirement  of  the  Church  as  a  basis 
of  co-operation.  Our  people  are  giving  more  and  more  each 
year,  but  we  do  not  want  to  be  bound  by  a  law.  We  are  often 
asked,  how  long  are  you  going  to  be  a  child  by  the  side  of 
the  Mission.  I  know  that  it  is  not  a  matter  of  time.  It  is  a 
matter  of  strength.  I  have  been  here  forty  years,  and  we 
have  grown  in  those  years  and  will  grow,  but  you  must  trust 
us  more.  I  would  like  to  have  all  the  missionaries  members 
of  Presbytery,  and  I  would  like  to  have  the  full  administration 
of  all  the  work  transferred  to  the  Presbytery.  Some  have 
questioned  whether  the  Saharanpur  plan  provides  adequately 
for  the  share  of  the  women  missionaries  in  the  administration 

203 


of  evangelistic  work  upon  which  they  may  be  engaged.  The 
plan  certainly  contemplates  the  inclusion  of  women's  work 
under  the  supervision  of  the  Presbytery's  committee,  and  it 
provides  for  women  missionaries  on  this  committee.  I  see 
that  there  is  doubt  as  to  whether  the  Saharanpur  plan  puts 
the  educational  and  medical  work  under  the  supervision  of 
Presbytery  in  the  same  sense  as  evangelistic  work.  I  had 
supposed  that  it  did.  I  am  sorry  that  in  this  matter  of  the 
Saharanpur  report  I  differ  for  the  first  time  from  my  friend, 
Shivaramji." 

The  Rev.  Shivaram  Masoji,  who  was  for  many  years  pastor 
of  the  Kolhapur  Church  and  was  one  of  the  representatives 
of  the  Indian  Church  at  the  Edinburgh  Conference,  spoke 
next.  "My  position  is  delicate,"  said  he,  "for  I  differ  from 
our  Presbytery.  This  new  scheme  will  not  forward  our  com- 
mon ideal.  I  believe  in  co-operation,  but  not  this  method. 
I  am  in  favor  of  allowing  the  Church  to  develop  separately, 
to  develop  as  Indians  can  give  and  as  they  determine.  While 
doing  this  separately,  we  would  ask  your  help  and  guidance. 
Only  so  will  Indians  take  a  living  interest  and  pride  in  the 
Church.  It  should  follow  the  model  of  the  National  Mission- 
ary Society,  which  has  no  missionaries  in  it,  although  it  is 
glad  to  seek  their  advice.  It  prospers  because  it  is  carried 
on  by  Indians  with  Indian  money.  It  is  on  those  lines  that 
we  should  proceed,  but  the  proposed  scheme  will  mix  up 
things.  Perhaps  in  North  India  and  the  Punjab  it  will  be 
all  right,  but  not  here.  Our  Church  is  too  weak.  It  is  not 
competent  to  bear  these  responsibilities.  Our  financial  ability 
is  very  limited.  We  cannot  carry  on  any  scheme  of  expensive 
paid  evangelism  and  ought  not  to  be  involved  in  it  through 
the  proposed  plan.  The  Indian  Church  can  evangelize  in  its 
own  way  by  voluntary  bands  and  await  the  employment  of 
evangelists  until  it  is  richer.  Let  the  Indian  Church  stand 
for  this  position  and  not  be  swamped  by  taking  over  the  ad- 
ministration of  Mission  funds.  If  we  accept  the  proposed 
scheme  with  its  plan  of  ratio  and  organization  our  immediate 
voluntary  obligations  will  be  lost  sight  of.  I  feel  that  there 
is  also  danger  as  to  property  holdings.  Some  churches  will 
be  in  native  states  and  foreigners  are  not  allowed  to  hold 
property  in  such  states  without  special  permission.  Now  as 
some  Presbyteries  are  half,  or  more  than  half,  foreign  it 
may  be  a  hindrance  in  holding  property.  I  love  the  Ameri- 
can missionaries,  and  I  like  to  have  them  in  our  church  courts, 
but  I  would  rather  see  all  our  courts  from  the  session  to  the 
General  Assembly  made  up  of  Indians  entirely,  with  mission- 

204 


aries  only  as  advisory  members.  Then  our  Church  will  grow. 
But  so  long  as  it  is  a  mixed  organization  it  will  drag  on  as 
heretofore.  Look  at  the  history  of  the  Indian  National  Con- 
gress and  other  organizations.  Let  us  have  the  Indian  Church 
Indian,  too,  and  not  handicapped  by  this  confusion  of  func- 
tions. Let  the  Mission  and  the  Church  each  carry  on  its  own 
work  and  devote  ourselves  to  making  the  Church  self-support- 
ing, self-governing,  self-propagating,  and  teach  each  Chris- 
tian to  preach  to  his  neighbor  in  his  own  way." 

At  the  second  conference  the  leading  speaker  was  Vishwas- 
rao,  Anandrao's  son,  who  had  been  educated  at  Poona,  and 
who  was  working  with  the  Methodists  at  Belgaum,  but  who 
since  we  left  India  has  joined  our  work  at  Vengurla.  "I  feel 
deeply,"  he  said,  "but  speak  as  a  window  through  which  you 
can  see  Indian  feeling.  The  wave  of  Indian  nationalism  is 
real.  India  is  said  to  be  slow  in  democratic  feeling,  and  she 
is,  but  she  is  surely  responding  to  the  world  movement.  I 
am  trying  to  look  at  this  problem  objectively,  as  a  Christian 
first,  and  a  nationalist  afterward.  The  plane  of  nationalism 
is  far  lower  than  the  Christian  plane.  My  money,  your  money, 
my  energy,  your  energy,  my  people,  your  people, — this  distinc- 
tion is  on  a  level  far  below  Christianity.  God's  work  is  one. 
We  want  to  co-operate  with  missionaries,  that  through  this 
closer  contact  they  may  communicate  the  higher  life  which 
they  represent.  We  need  the  education  of  this  fellowship. 
Christ's  law  of  love  and  life  ought  to  make  us  one.  Our  great 
problem  is  the  evangelization  of  India.  How  are  we  to  ac- 
complish it?  Only  by  the  co-operation  of  missionaries  and 
Indians.  They  need  to  understand  the  Indian  psychology  and 
view,  with  the  help  of  Indians.  Whether  the  life  of  mission- 
aries, their  homes,  their  scale  of  living,  their  mode  of  behavior 
commends  the  Gospel,  this  is  one  question.  I  don't  say  that 
they  should  be  ascetics,  but  I  do  say  that  missionary  life  ought 
to  represent  the  Gospel  persuasively  to  the  Indian  people. 
Closer  co-operation  would  enable  missionaries  to  judge 
whether  it  was  doing  so.  Specially  do  the  Missions  need  the 
viewpoint  of  Indians  as  to  some  of  the  greatest  present  needs 
of  India  and  of  the  Church.  We  do  need  Indians,  whether 
educated  or  not  with  the  burning  Word,  but  we  need  also 
evangelists  of  the  highest  education.  I  have  some  regrets 
to  express.  I  do  not  mention  the  poverty  of  our  poor  Chris- 
tian people,  but  I  do  plead  for  their  ignorance.  We  need  more 
fully  prepared  men  than  the  Indian  Church  can  afford  to  train. 
The  flexible  influence  of  Vedantism  has  eaten  the  moral  mar- 
row out  of  India.     We  have  to  give  something  higher  and 

205 


stronger  than  Vedanta  philosophy.  We  need  Christian  apolo- 
gists equal  to  this  task.  We  do  not  ask  that  the  work  should 
be  handed  over  to  Indians,  but  we  do  ask  that  all  should  be 
one  in  the  work.  The  missionaries  have  crossed  seven  seas 
to  pour  out  their  life  in  India.  We  have  not  crossed  the  seas, 
but  we,  too,  are  pouring  out  the  life.  Let  us  put  all  our  lives 
together  and  pour  them  out  as  one." 

Most  of  the  discussion  at  this  second  conference  related  to 
the  matter  of  the  support  and  the  education  of  the  Indian 
Christians,  but  one  other  speaker  dealt  with  the  co-operation 
question.  Dr.  Jadhav.  "The  world  is  growing  more  demo- 
cratic," he  said,  "and  there  should  be  Indian  representation 
on  all  the  agencies  of  administration  and  in  all  places  to  which 
appeals  may  be  carried  in  the  Missions,  and  if  appeals  are 
ever  made  to  New  York,  Indians  should  have  some  one  to 
speak  for  them  there.  With  regard  to  many  of  our  past 
plans  the  people  say  that  the  Mission  selects  the  Indian  it 
wants,  who  will  obey  it.  We  need  our  own  representation. 
There  ought  to  be  equality  of  payment,  too,  I  do  not  say 
between  missionaries  and  Indians,  but  among  the  Indians, 
just  as  all  the  foreign  missionaries  have  the  same  salary  with 
no  grades  or  discriminations  among  them." 

Several  days  later  the  Mission  took  the  matter  up,  with 
Anandrao  and  Shivaramji  meeting  with  it,  and  after  long 
discussion  in  which  the  question  of  the  financial  ratio  was 
the  chief  point  debated,  the  Mission,  in  addition  to  providing 
for  its  entire  reorganization  under  a  scheme  of  departmental 
committees,  passed  the  following  action : 

"1.  That  the  general  principles  presented  by  the  Saharan- 
pur  Conference  be  adopted. 

"2.  That  the  Saharanpur  plan  for  the  transfer  of  work 
in  Class  IV,  be  adopted  in  the  following  modified  form,  the 
Board  being  requested  to  sanction  same: 

"(a)  That  the  Mission  express  its  willingness  to  transfer 
Class  IV,  with  the  appropriations  for  the  same,  to  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Kolhapur  when  the  Presbytery  has  prepared  a  plan 
for  the  prosecution  of  the  work  satisfactory  to  the  Mission. 

"3.  That  action  on  the  Saharanpur  plan  for  the  transfer 
of  educational  and  medical  work  be  postponed. 

(b)  Actions  of  Presbyteries.  It  had  been  hoped  that  the 
representatives  of  the  five  Presbyteries  at  the  Saharanpur  Con- 
ference would  report  the  Conference  findings  at  the  regular 
Spring  or  Fall  meetings  in  1921  in  order  that  the  Missions 
when  they  met  might  have  the  help  of  the  previous  considera- 
tion of  the  question  by  the  Presbyteries.    For  various  reasons, 

206 


however,  the  Presbyteries  did  not  take  action  until  after  the 
Mission  meetings,  at  the  special  meetings  ^vhich  had  been 
called  to  meet  with  us.  The  one  exception  was  the  Kolhapur 
Presbytery.  In  1920  this  Presbytery  had  approved  a  plan 
proposed  to  it  by  Dr.  Wylie  and  which  had  been  considered, 
but  not  adopted  by  the  Western  India  Mission  at  its  meeting 
in  October,  1920.     This  scheme  was  as  follows: 

A  Proposed  Scheme  on  Relation  of  the  Church  to  the  Mission 

PREAMBLE 

Article  I.  The  Aim  should  be  to  make  the  Church  and  not 
the  Mission  the  center  of  all  work. 

II.  To  bring  this  about,  work  now  conducted  by  the  Mis- 
sion, should  be  made  over,  gradually,  to  the  Presbytery,  the 
missionaries  becoming  members  of  the  Presbytery,  so  that 
the  Mission  as  a  controlling  body,  should  disappear. 

III.  In  the  meantime,  until  the  transition  shall  be  accom- 
plished, a  temporary  body,  composed  of  representatives  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  Mission  should  be  formed,  which  should 
have  ultimate  control  in  all  forms  of  work. 

IV.  The  present  Mission  Stations  should  be  redistricted 
with  a  view  to  more  intensive  work,  and  new  Stations  opened 
and  so  districted;  and  qualified  Indians  should  be  appointed 
in  charge  of  districts  and  stations,  with  the  same  standing 
and  responsibility  as  Europeans. 

V.  The  Indian  Church  should  bear  from  the  first,  a  share 
proportionate  to  its  resources,  in  the  financing  of  missionary 
work,  and  steps  should  be  taken  to  put  the  finances  of  the 
Church  on  a  systematic,  business-like  basis. 

The  scheme  proposed  to  carry  out  the  proposals  in  the  above 
preamble : 

I.  The  organization  proposed  in  Article  III  above  should 
be  called  "The  Board  of  Control." 

1.  The  Board  of  Control  should  consist  of  members, 
chosen  in  equal  number,  the  total  not  to  exceed  four- 
teen, some  of  whom  should  be  women, — 

(1)  By  the  Presbytery, 

(2)  By  the  Mission, 

2.  All  members  of  the  Board  of  Control  should  have 
equal  voting  powers. 

3.  The  Board  of  Control  should  have  Control  of  all 
branches  of  Mission  Work,  including  Evangelistic, 
Educational  and  Medical. 

II.  The  Mission  should  consist  of  men  and  women  ap- 
pointed by  the  Home  Board ;  and  its  functions  should  be  to 

207 


deal  with  matters  which  have  to  do  with  the  foreign  mission- 
aries onl3%  such  as  furloughs,  resignations,  recalls,  etc. 

At  its  meeting  at  Islampur  on  October  13,  1921,  the  Kol- 
hapur  Presbytery  considered  the  report  of  the  Saharanpur 
Conference  and  took  the  following  action : 

"The  whole  scheme  of  Saharanpur  Conference  is  adopted 
except  the  following: 

"  'In  recognition  of  this  principle  there  should  be  some 
ratio  between  the  gifts  of  the  Church  for  Missionary  work 
and  the  share  she  takes  in  the  administration  of  funds  from 
America.'   (Principles,  last  sentence  of  Sec.  6.) 

"  'That  representation  shall  be  based  upon  the  amounts  con- 
tributed by  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  and  the  Presbytery 
respectively.  If  the  Presbytery  contribute  for  Pastoral  and 
evangelistic  work  within  the  bounds  of  the  Presbytery  1-5 
of  the  total  spent  by  the  Presbytery  and  the  Board  for  such 
work,  this  plan  may  be  adopted,  and  the  presbytery  shall 
have  the  right  to  elect  Indians  as  members  of  the  committee 
up  to  >4  the  total  membership  of  the  committee.  As  the  con- 
tributions of  the  Presbytery  increase  a  different  ratio  of 
representation  is  to  be  worked  out.'  "  (Saharanpur  Plan,  third 
paragraph  of  Sec.  1.) 

The  Allahabad  Presbytery  met  in  Allahabad  November 
18th,  and  devoted  the  entire  day  to  the  discussion  of  the 
subject.  We  were  cordially  greeted  by  the  Presbytery  with 
a  statement  which  spoke  of  the  new  generation  which  had 
grown  up  since  my  previous  visit  to  India  "with  new  ideas, 
new  equipments,  and  new  aspirations"  and  of  "the  delicate 
situation  existing  at  present  in  India  both  in  matters  national 
and  ecclesiastical." 

I  was  then  asked  to  make  a  statement  and  did  so  with  such 
judgment  and  Christian  spirit  as  I  possessed,  and  the  Pres- 
bytery proceeded  to  hear  explanations  first  of  the  Saharanpur 
principles  and  plan  and  then  of  the  substitute  plan  which 
had  been  adopted  by  the  North  India  Mission  at  its  meeting 
in  October.  A  resolution  was  presented  rejecting  the  North 
India  Mission  plan.  The  terms  of  the  resolution  were  not 
satisfactory  to  the  Presbytery,  and  after  a  long  discussion 
the  Presbytery  contented  itself  with  the  simple  statement 
that  the  plan  proposed  by  the  Mission  was  not  approved.  At 
the  end  of  the  day,  with  only  four  adverse  votes,  three  of 
which  were  cast  by  missionaries,  it  voted  to  approve  the 
Saharanpur  principles  and  plan  with  the  understanding  that 
the  Presbytery  might  desire  to  suggest  some  modifications  in 

208 


detail  and  that  it  might  be  desirable  to  fix  the  period  of  time 
for  the  experimental  testing  of  the  plan. 

I  followed  the  discussions  of  the  Presbytery  from  morning 
to  evening  with  the  greatest  interest,  and  regret  that  there 
is  no  stenographic  report  of  the  debate  which  was  very  ear- 
nest and  determined.  I  can  only  summarize  briefly  a  few  of 
the  statements  which  were  made.  "The  trouble  comes,"  said 
Professor  Mukerji,  "from  the  idea  of  co-operation.  What  we 
want  is  union  not  merging,  not  losing  independence  or  na- 
tional character — but  we  want  union."  And  he  developed  the 
idea  that  a  wrong  view  of  life  lay  behind  the  principle  of  co- 
operation embodied  in  the  North  India  scheme,  in  line  with 
the  thought  which  he  and  his  associates  had  presented  in  their 
letter  of  June  15,  1920.  (Appendix  III.)  Mr.  N.  K.  Mukerji 
followed,  pointing  out  the  differences  between  the  North 
India  Mission  and  the  Saharanpur  Conference  plans.  The 
former  put  a  few  Indians  into  a  committee  of  the  Mission. 
It  did  not  create  a  properly  representative  body  but  only  a 
glorified  departmental  committee,  which  would  not  meet  the 
needs.  Moreover,  it  provided  for  no  Indian  representation 
on  the  India  Council,  which  was  the  ultimate  body  which  could 
overrule  the  Mission  or  its  departmental  committee.  The 
scheme  still  kept  the  Mission  Committee  and  the  Presbytery 
separate  and  perpetuated  the  old  system.  "What  is  the  object 
of  the  Mission's  existence?"  asked  Mr.  J.  M.  David,  "Not 
the  supremacy  of  the  white  man.  But  the  North  India  scheme 
perpetuates  the  dominance  of  the  American  missionary.  The 
Saharanpur  scheme  appeals  to  Indian  imagination,  which  is 
done  with  the  idea  of  difference  between  brown  man  and 
white  man.  Indians  will  not  admit  any  such  scheme  as  this 
of  the  North  India  Mission.  It  is  not  authority  which  the 
Indian  Church  wants  but  the  opportunity  of  service."  Mr. 
Ralla  Ram,  pastor  of  the  Jumna  church  said,  "The  American 
Church  and  the  Indian  Church  are  both^at  work  in  India  to- 
day. Do  you  want  to  absorb  one  and  have  only  one  Church 
at  work  here?  If  all  the  work  is  absorbed  by  the  Indian 
Church,  it  loads  upon  that  Church  what  it  cannot  bear.  The 
Saharanpur  plan  sets  up  an  irresponsible  committee  which 
will  be  in  effect  independent  of  the  Presbytery.  It  does  not 
make  adequate  provision  for  the  participation  of  women 
missionaries.  It  endangers  indigenous  movements  towards 
Church  union  and  pure  Indian  work.  It  imperils  the  identity 
both  of  the  Indian  Church  and  of  the  Mission.  The  North 
India  scheme  preserves  these,  and  it  is  notable  that  in  that 
scheme  the  Mission  gives  up  its  old  veto  power."     The  Rev. 

209 


Sakh  Lai  of  the  Katra  Church  thought  the  Saharanpur  scheme 
was  generally  acceptable  to  the  people,  that  the  Conference 
which  had  drafted  the  principles  was  the  most  competent 
body  to  erect  a  plan  upon  it.  He  stated  also  that  the  com- 
mission of  the  North  India  Synod  which  had  been  appointed 
to  deal  with  the  question  of  co-operation  had  met  just  after 
the  Saharanpur  Conference  and  had  approved  its  report.  It 
was  a  great  advantage  that  both  Indians  and  Americans  could 
be  present  in  the  Presbyterial  committee  and  in  the  Inter- 
mediary Board.  The  Rev.  Moel  David,  superintendent  of  the 
Presbytery's  home  missions,  was  the  only  speaker  who  ques- 
tioned the  provisions  of  the  plan  with  regard  to  the  required 
ratio  of  giving  on  the  part  of  the  Church.  Mr.  Mukerji  pointed 
out  that  the  plan  was  an  experiment,  that  it  did  not  merge 
the  Mission  and  the  Presbytery,  that,  as  far  as  he  knew,  the 
women  missionaries  were  not  making  objection  to  the  plan, 
and  that  as  to  Church  union  it  was  not  wise  to  let  the  hope 
of  it  interfere  with  what  present  conditions  called  for  in 
each  communion.  Elder  Jacob  of  the  Jumna  Church  said 
that  houses  are  not  built  in  one  day,  that  it  was  not  necessary 
to  look  too  far  ahead,  that  it  was  the  present  situation  that 
needed  to  be  dealt  with,  and  that  any  present  action  might 
justly  be  thought  of  as  tentative. 

As  one  listened  to  this  discussion,  and  indeed  to  all  the 
others  at  which  we  were  present,  it  was  evident  that  there 
were  not  only  differences  of  view  between  those  who  recog- 
nized their  disagreement,  but  also  that  there  were  differences 
of  understanding  and  of  interpretation  and  of  expectation 
among  those  who  appeared  to  be  agreed.  It  was  voted  to  favor 
a  second  Saharanpur  conference  to  consider  all  the  different 
actions  that  had  been  taken  by  different  groups  and  to  pre- 
pare, if  possible,  a  plan  agreeable  to  all.  At  that  time  also 
any  points  of  uncertainty  as  to  the  meaning  or  effect  of  any 
of  the  provisions  of  l^e  Saharanpur  plan  might  be  examined. 
The  question  also  emerged  in  the  Allahabad  Presbytery  as 
to  what  the  relation  of  the  Presbytery  and  the  Mission  should 
be  for  the  immediate  future.  The  missionaries  present  pro- 
posed that,  pending  the  outcome  of  a  second  Saharanpur  con- 
ference, the  Mission  and  Presbytery  should  go  forward,  under 
the  plan  which  the  Mission  had  proposed  at  its  recent  meet- 
ing and  which  represented  a  great  advance  upon  the  previous 
departmental  organization.  The  Indian  brethren  opposed 
this  on  the  ground  that  the  new  plan  provided  no  alleviation 
of  the  past  conditions,  that  it  would  weaken  the  movement 
in  the  direction   of  more   satisfactory  co-operation,  that  it 

210 


would  be  construed  as  an  acceptance  of  a  scheme  which  the 
Presbytery  had  just  rejected,  that  it  was  better  to  go  on  under 
the  old  unsatisfactory  conditions  than  to  accept  a  half  loaf 
when  it  was  the  full  loaf  that  was  required.  The  vote  against 
this  proposal,  however,  was  much  less  emphatic  than  the  pre- 
vious actions  of  the  day. 

The  Farrukhabad  Presbytery  met  in  the  Bharpur  Church 
at  Fatehgarh  on  November  25,  1921.  It  appeared  that  under 
the  form  of  call  for  the  meeting  legal  action  could  not  be 
taken,  but  the  Presbytery  resolved  to  discuss  the  matter  and 
deal  with  it  informally,  reporting  its  action  to  the  next  regu- 
lar meeting  of  the  Presbytery.  In  its  address  of  welcome  the 
Presbytery  said :  "We  hope  and  desire  strongly  that  you  will 
kindly  give  us  a  message  from  the  Church  at  home,  and  that 
you  will  convey  our  thanks  and  compliments  to  it  in  the 
name  of  Him  who  has  laid  the  burden  of  evangelizing  India 
on  the  heart  of  the  American  Church,  and  who  is  working 
through  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  hearts  of  Indians  to  respond 
to  the  Gospel. 

"We  are  sure  that  you  are  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  Church 
in  India  is  seeking  a  fuller  and  stronger  relationship  between 
the  Mission  and  the  Church,  so  that  she  may  give  of  her  best 
in  sharing  the  responsibility  of  evangelizing  India,  together 
with  the  missionaries.  We  rejoice  that  a  Conference  was  held 
at  Saharanpur  last  winter,  where  a  scheme  was  drawn  up  to 
help"  solve  the  problem.  We  trust  that  through  this  scheme 
and  further  conferences  between  the  Church  and  Mission,  a 
happy  and  permanent  solution  of  the  problem  will  be  arrived 

"We  pray  that  God,  the  fountain  of  all  wisdom,  may  give 
you  and  all  of  us  the  guidance  necessary  to  work  out  all  the 
problems  connected  with  the  advance  of  His  Kingdom  in  India, 
in  such  a  way  that  all  may  work  whole  heartedly  together  for 
the  glorification  of  His  name  in  this  land." 

Only  about  one-half  the  members  of  the  Farrukhabad  Pres- 
bytery were  present,  and  when  after  the  afternoon's  discussion 
the  vote  was  taken  as  to  whether  the  Presbytery  should  ap- 
prove the  Saharanpur  principles  and  plan  or  accept  the  plan 
of  the  North  India  Mission,  it  was  voted  first  to  approve  the 
Saharanpur  principles,  and  second  by  a  vote  of  nine  to  six 
the  North  India  Mission  plan  (Appendix  XI)  was  preferred 
to  the  Saharanpur  plan. 

The  Ludhiana  Presbytery  met  at  Saharanpur  on  December 
1st.     In  its  address  of  welcome  the   Presbytery  said,   "We 

211 


hope  and  believe  that  this  visit  of  yours  will  prove  a  great 
blessing  to  our  Presbyterian  Church  in  India  by  opening  a 
way  for  the  full  exercise  of  our  talents.  No  doubt  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  has  taken  root  in  this  land,  but  we  are  still 
depending  on  you  for  assistance  in  the  development  of  the 
Church.  It  is  our  desire  so  to  strengthen  the  present  Church 
spiritually  that  she  may  become  a  strong  sister  of  the  churches 
in  Europe  and  America,  and  be  the  Master's  instrument  to 
lead  India  to  Him.  This  goal  is  the  centre  of  all  our  hopes. 
We  are  happy  in  the  recollection  of  past  relationship  between 
the  daughter  in  India  and  the  Mother  Church  in  the  United 
States,  but  growth  involves  change  and  we  feel  that  the 
future  relationship  must  be  different  from  what  it  has  been. 
To  this  end  we  are  here  today  in  the  Providence  of  God  to 
study  together  the  ways  and  means  of  the  speedy  realization 
of  the  above-mentioned  goal. 

"It  is  not  our  wish  that  you  should  leave  us  now,  but 
we  request  you  to  invite  us  to  share  with  you  your  present 
responsibilities;  not  that  we  seek  power  or  authority  for  its 
own  sake;  but  we  crave  the  training  necessary  to  the  full 
growth  of  the  Indian  Church. 

"Now  we  humibly  request  you  to  accept  our  hearty  welcome 
and  convey  our  deep  love  and  gratitude  to  our  brethren  in 
Christ  whom  we  love  though  we  have  not  seen  their  faces." 

The  points  which  received  chief  attention  in  the  discussion 
of  the  Saharanpur  report  were  the  provision  with  regard  to 
the  initial  ratio  of  the  Church's  giving  and  the  qualifications 
for  membership  in  the  Evangelistic  Committee.  The  argu- 
ments which  supported  the  ratio  provision  prevailed  and  the 
amendment  proposed  by  the  Punjab  Mission  regarding  qualifi- 
cations satisfied  the  Presbytery.  After  a  full  discussion  the 
Presbytery  approved  both  the  Saharanpur  principles  and  the 
Saharanpur  plan. 

The  Lahore  Presbytery  met  in  Lahore  on  December  12th. 
A  committee  of  the  Presbytery  of  which  Prof.  Saraj-ud-Din 
was  secretary  presented  three  resolutions  which  were  unani- 
mously adopted  by  the  Presbytery  and  to  which  a  fourth 
was  added  as  follows: 

"I.  Resolved,  That  we  ask  Dr.  Speer  to  make  a  declaration  of  the 
future  policy  of  the  Mission  with  regard  to  the  status,  emoluments,  etc., 
of  equally  capable  and  efficient  Indians  in  the  service  of  the  Mission,  as 
compared  with  those  of  the  foreign  missionaries;  and  that  we  ask  Dr. 
Speer  to  explain  his  attitude  regarding  the  desirability  of  such  Indians 
becoming  superintendents  of  district  work  on  the  same  conditions  as 
mentioned  heretofore,  minus  the  overseas  allowances, 

212 


"II.  Resolved,  That  we  ask  Dr.  Speer  to  express  his  attitude  towards 
the  question  of  Church  Union  in  India  and  towards  the  position  of 
the  Indian  agents  of  the  Mission  in  view  of  the  union. 

"III.  Resolved,  That  we  ask  Dr.  Speer  to  express  his  attitude  towards 
the  question  of  the  effect  of  such  union  upon  the  schemes  of  co-opera- 
tion between  the  Foreign  Missions  and  the  Indian  Church. 

"IV.  Resolved,  That  we  express  our  sense  of  gratification  to  the 
Mission  for  the  Saharanpur  scheme  with  which,  in  general,  we  show  our 
agreement." 

In  my  address  to  the  Presbytery  I  sought  to  deal  with  all 
these  points  and  with  the  whole  question  fully  and  frankly, 
and  the  Presbytery  expressed  itself  as  satisfied  with  the  state- 
ment which  was  made. 

(c)  The  India  Council  at  its  meeting  at  Jhansi,  December 
18  to  22,  1921,  reviewed  the  situation  resulting  from  these 
actions  of  the  Missions  and  Presbyteries  and  adopted  the 
following  minute: 

"(a)  A  Conference  composed  of  approximately  an  equal 
number  of  members  representative  of  both  the  three  Missions 
and  the  five  Indian  Presbyteries  met  at  Saharanpur,  March 
30  to  April  2,  1921,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Dr.  Ewing, 
the  Secretary  of  the  India  Council.  The  Conference  unani- 
mously approved  a  plan  for  co-operation  between  Church  and 
Mission  known  as  the  'Saharanpur  Plan.'  This  plan  was 
submitted  to  the  three  missions  for  their  approval  and  also 
to  the  Presbyteries. 

"(b)  The  Council  notes  (1)  that  each  of  the  three  Missions 
has  accepted  the  general  principles  proposed  by  the  Saharan- 
pur Conference,  and  (2)  that  each  Mission  differs  from  the 
other  two  in  the  application  of  the  general  principles  to  the 
solution.  The  Punjab  Mission  accepts  the  whole  of  the  'Sa- 
haranpur Plan'  with  some  slight  modification  in  details.  The 
Western  India  Mission  accepts  the  same  plan  in  a  modified 
form,  but  only  in  relation  to  Class  IV,  and  leaves  to  the  Kol- 
hapur  Presbytery  the  task  of  devising  a  working  plan  which 
shall  be  satisfactory  to  the  Mission.  The  North  India  Mission 
prefers  a  particular  development  of  the  'departmental'  idea  as 
a  modification  of  the  Saharanpur  plan,  and  adopts  the  same 
'tentatively  subject  to  the  assent  and  co-operation  of  the 
Presbyteries.' 

"(c)  The  Lahore  and  Ludhiana  Presbyteries  have  approved 
in  general  the  'Saharanpur  Plan'  in  the  form  adopted  by  the 
Punjab  Mission,  subject  to  modifications  in  detail,  and  hence 
this  Mission  is  justified,  with  the  approval  of  the  Board,  in 
bringing  the  new  plan  of  joint  control  into  effect  after  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Mission  and  of  the  two  Presbyteries  have 

213 


met  together  and  settled  all  details.  The  Kolhapur  Presbytery 
has  approved  the  'Saharanpur  Plan'  with  the  exception  of 
the  ratio  between  the  gifts  of  the  Church  in  India  and  its 
share  in  the  administration  of  funds  from  America,  but  has 
not  yet  formally  acted  upon  the  plan  approved  by  the  Western 
India  Mission.  The  Allahabad  Presbytery  has  accepted  the 
Saharanpur  Plan  and  rejected  the  plan  adopted  by  the  North 
India  Mission,  while  the  Farrukhabad  Presbytery  has  accepted 
the  North  India  Mission  plan. 

"(d)  The  Council  recognizes  that  different  rates  of  speed  in 
moving  forward  toward  the  goal  are  both  natural  and  legiti- 
mate. Each  Mission  understands  its  own  situation  and  must 
face  its  own  problems  and  perils.  The  Council  can  do  noth- 
ing more  at  this  meeting  than  to  recommend  that  every  proper 
effort  be  made  to  move  forward  in  hearty  co-operation  with 
the  Indian  Church." 

It  seemed  to  the  Council  that  no  other  action  than  this  was 
possible  at  the  present  time.  This  is  the  kind  of  question 
regarding  which  a  settlement  cannot  be  reached  by  coercion 
or  authority.  The  only  solution  which  is  real  must  be  volun- 
tary and  free  and  harmonious.  While  in  one  sense  it  would 
seem  desirable  and  necessary,  as  it  was  in  Japan,  that  our 
Missions  should  pursue  a  common  policy  in  the  matter,  it 
must  be  recognized  on  the  other  hand  that  the  conditions  are 
wholly  different  in  the  three  Missions  and  entirely  unlike 
the  conditions  in  Japan.  In  Japan  the  field  was  small  and 
the  Church  of  Christ  was  a  compact  body,  acting  as  a  unit 
through  its  central  organization.  In  India,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  traditions,  the  temper,  the  capacities,  both  executive  and 
financial,  of  the  Presbyteries  in  the  three  Mission  areas  differ 
widely.  There  would  seem  to  be  no  reason  why  the  Punjab 
Mission  and  the  Lahore  and  Ludhiana  Presbyteries  should  not 
go  forward  on  the  lines  of  the  Saharanpur  plan  so  far  as 
this  is  practicable  for  the  Punjab  alone.  Likewise  in  the  West- 
ern India  Mission  it  would  seem  entirely  possible  for  the  Mis- 
sion and  Presbytery  to  go  forward  to  the  extent  that  their 
respective  actions  allow.  The  Mission  has  agreed  to  waive 
the  financial  requirements  which  the  Presbytery  had  excepted 
from  its  approval,  although  it  appears  to  have  accepted  the 
principle  involved  in  these  requirements  in  its  action  of  1919 
which  has  been  quoted.  The  Mission  asks  only  that  for  the 
present  the  operation  of  the  Saharanpur  plan  should  be  con- 
fined to  evangelistic  work.  If  so  much  of  the  plan  is  to  be 
made  really  effective,  it  will  require  all  of  the  power  which  the 
Presbytery  possesses.     Any  effort  to  operate  the  educational 

214 


and  medical  sections  of  the  Saharanpur  plan  in  Western  India, 
would  certainly  be  premature  and  ineffective.  The  anomaly 
of  the  situation  in  Western  India,  however,  is  the  fact  that 
there  is  not  one  self-supporting  church  or  pastor  of  a  self-sup- 
porting church  in  the  Presbytery.  The  Presbytery  has  24 
ordained  members  and  12  of  these  are  missionaries.  The 
most  difficult  situation,  however,  is  in  the  United  Provinces 
where  the  North  India  Mission  and  the  Allahabad  Presbytery 
are  in  wide  disagreement  and  where  the  Farrukhabad  Pres- 
bytery accepts  the  mission's  plan  by  a  divided  vote  which  it 
is  conceivable  may  be  reversed  at  the  regular  meeting  of  the 
Presbytery.  It  would  seem  that  the  wise  and  only  practicable 
course  is  for  representatives  of  the  Mission  and  the  Presby- 
teries to  meet  in  full  and  unhurried  conference  and  to  work  out 
the  best  possible  solution  which  they  can,  by  such  adjustments 
of  view  as  may  be  necessary  to  hold  men  together  in  true  per- 
sonal confidence  and  love  and  fellowship. 

(E)  GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  SITUATION 

1.  This  is  a  great  human  problem.  Any  attempt  to  deal 
with  it  dogmatically  or  authoritatively  will  be  sure  to  go 
wrong.  Any  one  of  us  who  thinks  that  it  is  a  matter  which 
can  be  settled  by  a  formula  or  by  a  few  phrases  or  by  a  thesis 
or  a  program  is  mistaken,  and  any  one  who  discusses  the 
matter  impatiently  or  under  the  influence  of  national  or  race 
feeling  or  with  harsh  judgment  of  the  past  or  of  those  who 
disagree  with  him  is  not  contributing  to  a  constructive  and 
Christian  solution.  The  issues  that  are  involved  are  greater 
than  men's  thoughts  about  them,  and  the  problem  will  reach 
its  solution  not  by  the  processes  of  argument  and  politics  and 
organization,  but  by  the  processes  of  love  and  of  life. 

2.  The  problem  is  not  only  a  great  human  problem,  it  is 
also  and  on  that  account  an  inevitable  and  a  desirable  problem. 
It  is  inevitable.  It  is  to  be  met  in  every  mission  field.  The 
Board  is  familiar  with  the  forms  in  which  it  has  arisen  and 
been  dealt  with  in  the  past,  especially  in  Brazil  and  in  Japan. 
The  problem  is  inherent  in  the  foreign  mission  enterprise 
and  for  that  matter  in  the  home  missionary  enterprise,  wher- 
ever an  organized  Church  seeks  to  establish  another  organized 
Church,  or  even  where,  inside  any  one  Church,  an  organiza- 
tion of  that  Church  such  as  a  missionary  board  carries  on 
work  within  the  field  of  another  organization  of  that  Church 
whether  it  be  a  Presbytery  or  another  church  board.  Chris- 
tianity was  meant  to  spread  unceasingly,  spontaneously,  and 

215 


vitally.  The  attempt  to  atone  for  the  failure  to  evangelize 
the  world  through  such  organic  evangelization  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  missionary  societies  and  missionary  boards,  neces- 
sary as  this  attempt  is,  brings  with  it  the  problem  of  how 
to  relate  such  agencies  and  the  Church  acting  through  them 
to  other  forms  of  the  Church's  action  and  organization.  There 
are  those  who  believe  that  this  problem  as  a  problem  of  con- 
stitutional statement  or  form  of  government  is  insoluble. 
Certainly  every  attempt  to  write  such  organizations  into  the 
Form  of  Government  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U. 
S.  A.  has  thus  far  failed,  and  it  seems  probable  that  the  rela- 
tion of  home  boards  to  home  mission  Presbyteries  and  foreign 
Missions  to  native  Churches,  of  missionary  societies  to 
bishops,  of  the  whole  temporary  device  of  missionary  agencies 
to  the  permanent  institutions  of  the  Church,  can  never  be 
covered  and  settled  by  formulas  or  resolutions,  but  must  re- 
main as  a  discipline  for  the  spirit  of  Christian  men  and  an 
opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  their  qualities  of  good  sense 
and  patience  and  love.  And  the  problem  is  not  only  inevitable, 
but  is  also  desirable.  If  the  energies  of  life  should  die  down 
and  the  American  Churches  discontinue  their  missionary 
work  on  one  hand,  or  the  Indian  Churches  should  accept  the 
doom  of  a  perpetual  dependence  and  subservience  on  the  other 
hand,  the  problem  would  no  doubt  be  escaped,  but  at  the  price 
of  the  failure  both  of  Foreign  Missions  and  of  the  Indian 
Church.  Who  would  welcome  such  a  deliverance?  Foreign 
Missions  were  established  for  the  very  purpose  of  creating 
a  Church  which  would  raise  such  questions  as  have  now  been 
raised.  If  the  discussion  brings  with  it  painful  experiences 
and  foolish  words  on  one  side  or  the  other  or  on  both  sides, 
these  spring  not  from  the  necessities  of  the  problem  but  from 
our  own  human  infirmities  of  mind  and  spirit,  and  are  a  chal- 
lenge to  us  to  prove  that  the  Gospel  which  we  preach  as  suf- 
ficient for  all  the  needs  of  the  world  is  sufficient  for  our  own 
needs  as  Christian  men  engaged  in  the  business  of  building 
up  the  Christian  Church. 

3.  The  judgments  which  have  just  been  expressed  are  con- 
firmed by  the  fact  that  this  problem  is  common  to  every 
Church  and  every  Christian  agency  at  work  in  India.  From 
what  we  learned  in  India  I  am  sure  that  not  one  exception  is 
to  be  made.  One  meets  with  some  good  men  and  women  who 
think  that  in  their  particular  organization  the  problem  is 
not  present,  but  I  think  that  in  each  case  it  can  be  shown 
that  they  are  mistaken.  It  is  to  be  desired  that  it  can  be  so 
shown.     Otherwise  these  agencies  would  not  be  sharing  in  a 

216 


really  hopeful  and  living  movement.  It  is  not  the  existence 
of  the  problem  which  is  to  be  deprecated.  It  is  the  inability 
of  Indians  or  foreigners  to  deal  with  it  with  good  temper 
and  patience,  with  the  quietness  of  spirit  which  comes  from 
faith  in  God  and  brotherly  love,  and  the  ability  to  see  history 
and  the  processes  of  human  progress  in  long  perspective.  I 
have  gathered  material  from  many  Churches  and  Missions 
and  many  individual  missionaries  in  India  of  other  Churches 
than  our  own  and  from  Indian  Christians  of  various  denomi- 
nations which  is  at  the  disposal  of  the  Board  for  its  informa- 
tion. The  fact  that  these  discussions  have  arisen  in  the 
Church  in  India  with  which  we  are  co-operating  is,  accord- 
ingly, a  matter  not  of  distress  but  of  joy,  and  we  urged  this 
view  upon  our  Missions  and  pointed  out  to  them  how  much 
they  had  to  be  thankful  for  both  as  to  the  tone  and  the  form 
of  the  issue  as  it  has  arisen.  The  Church  is  not  asking  us 
to  withdraw.  It  is  not  setting  up  a  principle  of  non-coopera- 
tion. It  is  not  asking  for  the  control  of  the  missionaries  and 
contributions  sent  from  America.  It  is  asking  for  co-opera- 
tion and  for  the  closest  and  the  most  brotherly  and  the  most 
efficient  method  of  carrying  on  our  common  work.  If  now 
and  then  some  things  have  been  said  or  some  spirit  has  been 
shown  that  was  petty  and  unworthy,  this  has  been  the  excep- 
tion. The  tone  of  our  Presbyteries  and  our  fellow  workers 
has  been  in  general  manly  and  respectful  and  self-respecting. 
We  should  be  proud  that  such  a  Church  has  grown  up  as  it 
has  been  given  us  to  plant  and  foster.  I  trust  that  we  can 
all  feel  this  way  with  regard  to  the  matter  and  that  the  Pres- 
byteries and  the  Missions  can  carry  this  discussion  forward 
on  the  plane  of  the  highest  spirit  and  judgment,  setting  the 
thought  of  duties  constantly  above  the  thought  of  rights,  and 
seeking  to  realize  that  the  highest  interests  of  the  Missions 
are  the  interests  of  the  Church  and  that  the  highest  interests 
of  the  Church  are  the  interests  of  the  Missions. 

4.  It  is  helpful  in  the  consideration  of  this  matter  to  put 
ourselves  in  the  place  of  the  Indian  Church  and  its  leaders. 
Suppose  that  the  United  States  were  a  foreign  mission  field 
and  that  the  British  or  the  Japanese  Churches  were  carrying 
on  work  among  us.  How  would  we  wish  them  to  act?  How 
would  we  feel  toward  their  Missions  if  the  situation  in  Amer- 
ica were  just  what  it  is  in  India?  Furthermore,  we  need  to 
remember  that  the  India  Church  is  what  we  have  helped  to 
make  it.  No  doubt  conditions  of  character  and  environment 
over  which  we  have  no  control  have  had  a  great  deal  to  do 
in  making  the  Church  what  it  is,  but  it  was  we  who  con- 

217 


tributed  the  other  elements,  who  gave  it  organized  form,  who 
created  its  ideals  and  traditions,  who  by  our  own  methods  of 
work  and  personal  influence  helped  to  produce  many  of  the 
problems  which  are  now  perplexing  us  and  the  Church.  When 
some  proposed  as  a  solution  of  the  present  difficulties  that 
we  should  turn  over  everything  to  the  Church  and  break  loose 
from  it,  we  pointed  out  that  such  a  course  was  not  open  to 
us,  that  we  had  brought  the  Church  into  existence  and  that 
we  shared  full  responsibility  for  the  present  situation  and 
that  we  must  stand  by  and  with  the  Church.  And  we  must 
do  this  now  more  than  ever,  in  the  face  of  the  trial  which  may 
be  before  the  Church  in  India  and  in  which  it  has  a  right  to 
expect  us  to  walk  with  it  though  we  walk  through  fire.  More- 
over, we  pointed  out  as  it  was  pointed  out  years  ago  in  Japan 
that  our  missionaries  and  our  American  Church  have  no 
ecclesiastical  authority  in  India.  All  this  authority  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  independent  Indian  CRurch,  and  whatever  eccle- 
siastical functions  missionaries  perform  within  the  bounds  of 
the  Indian  Presbyteries,  they  can  perform  there  only  by  the 
authority  or  the  sufferance  of  those  Presbyteries.  The  only 
possible  solution  of  the  question  of  relationships  between  the 
Missions  and  the  Church  must  be  found  by  relationships  not 
by  disrelationships.  It  is  a  method  of  co-operation  which 
must  be  worked  out,  not  a  schism  which  must  be  opened  in 
a  family. 

5.  We  need  to  appreciate  also  the  present  situation  in 
India.  The  Church  is  in  the  midst  of  a  society  in  which  the 
two  most  living  present  ideas  are  the  idea  of  nationalism 
and  the  expression  of  this  idea  in  the  principle  of  non-coopera- 
tion. I  shall  speak  later  of  the  problem  of  the  relation  of 
the  Indian  Church  to  present  political  movements,  but  we 
need  to  note  here  the  bearing  of  these  movements  on  the  ques- 
tion of  relation  of  Church  and  Mission.  In  sympathy  with  the 
extreme  nationalistic  spirit,  shall  the  Indian  Church  break 
completely  free  from  all  foreign  relationships,  relate  itself  to 
Indian  tradition  and  temper  rather  than  to  the  stream  of 
historic  Christianity  and  thus  settle  the  question  in  the  radical 
way  that  an  occasional  missionary  suggested?  "The  Memo- 
randum on  The  Further  Development  and  Expansion  of  Chris- 
tianity in  India,"  issued  by  the  Christo  Samaj,  a  group  of 
young  Christian  leaders  in  the  Madras  Presidency  sets  forth 
this  possibility,  though  rather  as  a  theoretical  view,  I  judge, 
than  as  a  purposed  course  of  action: 

"The  new  nationalism  has  not  left  untouched  Christian  life 
and  thought.     It  has  afl'ected  the  community  both  from  the 

218 


inside  and  outside.  Within  the  community  it  has  made  us 
realize,  as  never  before,  that  Christianity  has  a  part  to  play 
in  national  life,  and  that  there  is  a  spiritual  heritage  of  the 
past  to  which  we  have  been  denied  access.  It  has  been  slowly 
dawning  on  us  that  it  is  only  to  the  extent  to  which  Christian 
life  reacts  to  the  Indian  past  and  present  that  Christianity 
can  become  a  living  factor.  But  the  unpreparedness  of  Indian 
Christians  for  fulfilling  their  destiny  is  now  becoming  more 
apparent  with  the  recognition  that  we  have  been  hitherto  in 
a  world  apart  from  India,  created  for  us  by  the  genius  of 
foreign  missions.  As  to  the  external  influence  of  Christianity 
in  politics,  though  there  have  been  conspicuous  cases  of  Indian 
Christians  in  public  life,  the  community  as  a  whole  has  not 
responded,  rightly  or  wrongly,  in  any  efltective  manner  to 
political  movements.  This  is  now  gradually  passing  away, 
and  Indian  Christians  are  showing  greater  interest  in  all  that 
concerns  the  political  future  of  India.  .   .   . 

"The  ideal  line  of  action  that  suggests  itself  to  us  is  com- 
plete independence  and  even  exclusiveness,  and  to  work  out 
the  salvation  of  Indian  Christianity  without  any  reference 
to  foreign  missions.  This  is  necessary  to  recover  our  normal 
character  as  Indian  Christians  and  will  have  to  be  jealously 
adhered  to,  until  there  comes  into  being  an  Indian  Christi- 
anity with  a  distinctive  character  of  its  own.  It  was  stated 
by  an  Indian  belonging  to  our  school  of  thought  that  we  do 
not  want  any  more  foreign  missionaries  and  that  the  better 
type  of  missionary  is  even  a  worse  enemy  of  Indian  Christi- 
anity than  the  ordinary  run  of  missionaries.  While  it  may 
be  suicidal  for  Indians  to  dissociate  themselves  from  and  com- 
pletely disown  Western  Christianity,  we  perceive  that  our 
training  under  the  present  system  has  so  greatly  westernized 
our  ideas  and  outlook  that  we  cannot  recover  or  discover  the 
Indian  standpoint  without  a  negative  policy  of  dissociation 
from  the  West  as  well  as  a  positive  policy  of  devotion  to  the 
East.  In  so  far  as  the  Indian  is  imbued  with  the  Western 
mentality,  he  is  himself  an  enemy  to  Indian  Christianity. 
While  therefore  the  Indian  has  to  fight  against  his  own  west- 
ern mentality  in  his  attempt  to  recover  his  Indian  outlook, 
he  would  immensely  complicate  the  situation  by  association 
with  Western  Christians,  who  could  hardly  be  expected  to 
fulfill  the  requirements  that  even  most  Indian  Christians 
lack.  And  the  more  avowedly  sympathetic  to  Indian  stand- 
point the  Westerner  is,  the  more  subtle  and  insidious  will  be 
the  way  in  which  he  will  consciously  or  unconsciously  transmit 
his  Western  mentality  and  retard  the  progress  of  the  Indian 

219 


in  the  path  that  he  alone  can  discover.  We  therefore  look  for 
real  salvation  from  only  such  adventurous  spirits  as  would 
turn  a  deaf  ear  for  the  present  to  the  temptations  of  associa- 
tion with  foreigners  and  dependence  on  foreign  help.  They 
will  pre-eminently  be  the  heralds  of  the  new  era  and  the  crea- 
tors of  the  new  Christian  edifice,  wherein  the  religious  as- 
pirants of  India  will  find  their  natural  abode.  For  the  sake 
of  Indian  Christianity  some  Indian  Christians  will  have  to 
take  this  self-denying  ordinance  and  will  have  to  be  severely 
left  alone  to  accomplish  the  task  to  which  they  have  been 
called.  It  will  be  the  great  privilege  of  sympathetic  Indians 
to  stand  by  these  pioneers  and  prophets  and  directly  help 
them.  It  will  be  the  duty  of  all  interested  in  the  progress  of 
Christ's  Kingdom  in  India  to  pray  for  the  advent  of  such 
men  and  hold  them  up  before  God  when  they  arise." 

One  cannot  but  have  a  great  deal  of  sympathy  with  this 
view.  He  almost  wishes  that  some  such  leaders  would  arise, 
and  yet  on  sober  second  thought  he  realizes,  as  the  writers 
of  this  Memorandum  have  done,  that  probably  the  present 
problems  are  to  be  worked  out  not  by  revolt  and  alienation 
but  by  co-operation  and  unity.  Certainly  the  leaders  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  India  have  taken  this  view,  and  as 
the  address  presented  to  us  by  the  churches  in  Allahabad 
indicated,  they  have  deliberately  turned  their  backs  on  the 
doctrines  of  bitterness  and  alienation.  They  have  not  taken 
this  attitude  lightly.  There  was  a  time  in  some  parts  of 
India  when  the  temptation  to  take  a  diiferent  attitude  was 
very  powerful.  We  ought  to  rejoice  that,  while  the  Church 
is  earnestly  seeking  to  find  its  right  place  in  Indian  national 
life,  it  has  steadfastly  refused  to  adopt  any  un-Christian  prin- 
ciples of  separation  and  withholding. 

6.  It  is  a  great  gain  that  all  three  Missions  and  five  Pres- 
byteries have  accepted  the  Saharanpur  statement  of  princi- 
ples. These  seem  to  me,  on  the  whole,  to  be  sound  principles. 
Indeed,  they  are  drawn  almost  verbally  from  the  letter  sent 
from  the  Board  in  reply  to  the  communication  from  the  four 
brethren  in  Allahabad.  No  doubt  this  statement  is  not  final 
and  complete.  No  doubt  it  has  taken  its  form  and  color  from 
outer  conditions  and  actual  experiences.  As  new  conditions 
develop  and  experience  enriches,  a  fuller  and  more  discern- 
ing and  more  comprehensive  statement  will  become  possible. 
No  doubt  also  these  principles  are  open  to  some  criticism. 
The  problem  is  really  not  one  of  relations  between  the  Church 
in  India  and  the  Church  in  America.  Such  a  view  of  it  can, 
I  think,  be  shown  to  be  unsound.    The  actual  problem  is  one 

220 


of  relations  between  the  MissionvS  and  the  Presbyteries,  and 
back  of  that  between  the  missionaries  and  the  Indian  Chris- 
tians as  persons.  Furthermore,  while  the  language  of  the 
principles  recognizes  that  the  Church  is  a  means  rather  than 
an  end,  it  has  been  difficult  in  the  discussion  of  the  matter 
and  of  the  acceptance  of  the  principles  always  to  keep  this 
clearly  in  view.  It  is  true  that,  in  one  sense,  the  end  of  Mis- 
sions in  India  is  the  establishment  of  the  Church,  but  the 
Church  itself  is  established  as  a  means  for  the  accomplish- 
ment in  human  life  of  the  will  of  God,  and  there  have  been 
Churches  which  God  destroyed  and  which  it  was  the  duty  of 
men  to  help  Him  in  destroying  because  they  were  not  f  ulfdling 
the  end  which  alone  justified  their  continuance.  Nevertheless, 
these  principles  are  so  good  and  they  go  so  far  towards  pro- 
tecting both  the  Church  and  the  Missions  from  evils  which  I 
believe  the  courses  of  action  proposed  in  some  of  the  other 
denominations  in  India  are  inviting,  that  it  seems  to  be  a 
matter  of  the  greatest  satisfaction  that  they  have  been  ac- 
cepted by  all  the  Missions  and  Presbyteries. 

It  was  a  special  satisfaction  to  the  members  of  the  Pres- 
byteries to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  independence 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  India  is  an  existing  fact  and 
that  it  is  not  for  ecclesiastical  autonomy  that  the  Indian 
Church  is  asking.  It  is  now  an  independent  national  Church 
subject  to  no  external  jurisdiction  or  ecclesiastical  control 
of  any  sort  whatever. 

Whether  the  Saharanpur  plan,  however,  is  in  accord  with 
the  Saharanpur  principles  is  a  very  significant  auestion  that 
was  raised  more  than  once  in  the  discussions  in  India  and  to 
which  different  answers  were  given.  Nevertheless  it  was  a 
plan  on  which  representatives  of  all  the  Missions  and  all  the 
Presbyteries  had  been  able  to  agree  and  when  we  landed  in 
India,  it  was  with  the  hope  that  the  plan  as  well  as  the  prin- 
ciples might  be  accepted  by  all  as  an  experimental  solution 
of  the  problem,  good  for  the  present  emergency.  This  hope 
was  not  based  on  the  belief  that  the  plan  was  an  ideal  em- 
bodiment of  the  principles,  nor  did  it  rest  upon  the  assurance 
that  the  working  out  of  the  plan  would  certainly  be  helpful 
to  the  achievement  of  its  right  character  and  ideals  by  the 
Indian  Church.  But  the  fact  that  the  plan  had  been  unani- 
mously adopted  by  the  Conference  and  that  unanimity  of 
plan  and  purpose  was  of  far  more  importance  than  any  pro- 
visions which  the  plan  might  or  might  not  contain,  led  us  to 
think  that  the  wise  course  of  action  at  the  present  time  would 
be  to  accept  the  plan  and  make  full  trial  of  it,  and  we  sup- 

221 


ported  this  view  in  the  Missions  and  the  various  conferences 
that  were  held. 

As  we  observed,  however,  the  different  conditions  and  atti- 
tudes of  mind  and  preparations  of  spirit  in  the  different  Mis- 
sions and  Presbyteries,  we  were  forced  to  abandon  as  im- 
practicable the  hope  with  which  we  had  landed  and  to  be 
content  with  the  judgment  already  expressed  in  reporting  the 
action  of  the  India  Council. 

7.  The  primary  question  as  it  seems  to  us  is  the  question 
of  the  true  interests  of  the  Indian  Church.  What  plan,  in 
the  actually  existent  circumstances  in  each  Mission  and  Pres- 
bytery and  with  the  actual  persons  who  have  to  be  related 
by  any  plan  and  to  carry  that  plan  into  effect,  will  really 
promote  the  freedom  and  power  of  the  Indian  Church  and 
its  attainment  of  the  ideal  of  what  a  Church  should  be?  Is 
the  Saharanpur  plan  a  plan  which  will  effect  this  or  would 
it  weaken  the  personality  of  the  Indian  Church  by  confusing 
its  functions  or  by  laying  upon  it  tasks  which  it  has  not 
the  resources  to  undertake  and  perhaps  of  its  own  accord 
would  not  have  undertaken  if  it  had  the  resources?  The  plan 
has  been  criticized  on  just  these  counts  by  two  members  of 
the  Allahabad  Presbytery,  one  of  whom  voted  for  it  and  the 
other  against  it. 

In  the  Makhzan  i  Masihi  of  February  15,  1921,  the  Rev. 
M.  Sunder  Lai  writes  in  comment  upon  the  letter  of  the  four 
Allahabad  brethren  and  the  Board's  reply: 

"If  I  err  not,  I  think  the  desire  for  the  fusion  of  the  Mis- 
sion and  the  Church  on  the  part  of  our  leaders  recognizes  the 
spiritual  and  organizing  superiority  of  the  American  Church 
as  represented  by  the  Mission.  The  communication  pays  a 
compliment  to  the  American  Church  (as  represented  by  the 
Mission)  by  desiring  closer  union.  This  compliment  is  as  un- 
suitable as  uncalled  for,  for  the  American  Church  is  as  in- 
capable of  leading  the  Indian  Church  of  today  as  the  Indian 
Church  is  unfit  to  co-operate  with  the  American  Church.  The 
national  consciousness  makes  us  underrate,  mistrust  and  even 
boycott  all  that  is  foreign,  even  in  the  religious  life.  It  may 
be  painful  to  hear  that  there  are  not  many  from  the  West 
who  really  inspire  us.  A  closer  union  that  is  demanded  is  on 
the  other  hand  not  based  on  the  conviction  that  the  Indians 
even  of  the  best  intellectual,  moral  and  spiritual  calibre  can 
lead  the  white  brethren.  No  union  of  organizations  will 
solve  the  problem.  The  problem  is  in  fact  more  one  of  religion 
than  of  administration  or  policy.  A  little  more  love,  backed 
by  spiritual  insight  and  obedience  will  do  more  good  than  our 

222 


unheeded  contentions  and  their  consequent  unpleasant  retorts. 
I  see  a  great  danger  in  the  fusion  of  the  American  Church 
(as  represented  by  the  Mission)  with  our  Church,  the  danger 
that  the  American  Church  may  swallow  up  our  Church,  which 
may  require  remedies.  There  is  already  a  cry  that  the  Indian 
Church  is  Western.  In  the  fourth  century  A.  D.  the  Roman 
Empire  conquered  the  Church,  the  unfortunate  results  of 
which  are  well  known.  Our  Church  needs  to  formulate  its 
own  methods  of  work  of  evangelization  and  uplift  of  souls 
along  with  ways  of  worship  (it  may  not  be  out  of  place  here 
to  disapprove  of  the  Western  idea  of  short  religious  services) 
and  need  of  Christian  literature.  Our  Church  ought  to  enter 
the  work  with  the  utmost  sacrifice  and  deepest  faith.  To  my 
mind  our  Church  should  abhor  the  idea  of  fusing  it  with  the 
Mission.  It  must  regard  itself  'related  to  other  Churches 
as  an  equal.'  Our  leaders  will  do  well  to  give  us  a  scheme 
which  will  really  increase  our  responsibilities  to  make  us 
feel  as  real  stewards  and  leaders.  .   .   . 

"The  question  of  fusing  the  Mission  with  our  Church  does 
not  get  any  support  from  the  advance  made  by  other  Missions 
in  the  matter.  Those  Churches  which  have  attempted  the 
solution  this  way  are  those  which  can  never  lose  sight  of 
their  ecclesiastical  authority  over  the  Indian  sections  of  their 
Churches.  They  will  develop  complicated  Church  organiza- 
tions and  doctrines  from  which  the  Indian  Churches  will 
need  to  break  off  some  day.  The  organic  union  of  the  Ameri- 
can Church  with  the  Indian  will  no  doubt  be  a  pretty  arrange- 
ment, quite  undesirable  and  unhealthy.  We  may  thankfully 
receive  annual  contributions  of  money  from  the  Board,  but 
only  for  the  time  being  and  on  the  condition  of  a  sliding  scale. 
This  pretty  arrangement  is  fraught  with  untold  possibilities 
for  our  losing  our  initiative  by  entangling  us  in  the  meshes 
of  the  Missionary  politics,  to  end  our  lives  in  vain.  We  do  not 
want  to  look  for  guidance  to  any  other  Church  in  this  matter 
even  at  the  expense  of  being  considered  too  self-sufficient  and 
even  arrogant. 

"Lastly,  we  shall  see  if  'the  organic  point  of  view'  of  life 
ought  to  desire  the  fusion  of  the  Mission  and  the  Church. 
Under  the  circumstances  this  view  of  life  does  not  solve  the 
problem.  Life  is  a  unity  and  one  life  must  influence  another 
life,  but  in  order  to  achieve  this  end  it  is  not  absolutely  essen- 
tial to  unite  one  life  with  another  to  make  one  organism  (if 
we  can  use  the  term).  Spirit  ought  to  meet  the  spirit  to 
bring  about  spiritual  results.  The  lives  that  inspire,  guide 
and  control  us  have  no  visible  or  organic  connection  with  us. 

223 


Our  Church  in  order  to  influence  the  American  Church  must 
be  free,  independent  and  national  in  a  way  that  it  can  go 
hand  in  hand  with  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  march  of 
progress,  in  the  regenerating  work  for  humanity.  We  ought 
to  find  our  Church  first,  to  relate  it  with  others  as  an  equal." 

In  a  long  letter  reviewing  the  whole  question  the  Rev. 
A.  Ralla  Ram,  pastor  of  the  Jumna  Church  in  Allahabad, 
writes  out  what  he  said  very  forcibly  in  explaining  his  nega- 
tive vote  on  the  Saharanpur  plan  in  the  Allahabad  Presbytery, 
"The  Saharanpur  scheme,  to  my  mind,  confuses  the  respon- 
sibilities and  work  of  the  Church  in  America  with  that  of 
the  Church  in  India.  In  plain  and  unmistakable  terms  it 
takes  the  work  of  the  Mission  and  hands  it  over  to  the 
Church  here  in  India  through  a  committee  responsible  to 
the  Church  through  its  recognized  organizations.  I  owe  it 
to  you  to  confess  that  at  Saharanpur  I  voted  for  the  scheme 
myself,  but  I  am  glad  that  my  thinking  did  not  terminate 
when  the  Scheme  was  drawn  up  in  a  cut  and  dried  form, 
and  my  further  contemplation  has  convinced  me  that  it  is  a 
move  in  a  wrong  direction.  It  is  but  right  that  I  should  cry 
'halt'  for  myself  and  give  expression  to  my  belief  which  is 
the  result  of  maturer  thinking.  In  one  word,  the  scheme 
gives  over  to  the  Church  in  India,  work  which  is  not  its  own, 
and  has  not  grown  out  of  its  experience,  and  while  on  the 
one  hand  it  may  look  very  generous  of  the  Church  in  America 
to  tack  this  work  on  to  the  Church  in  India,  it  will  in  the 
long  run  bring  about  results  that  shall  not  be  conducive  to 
the  promotion  of  the  best  interests  of  the  Church." 

The  writers  of  the  ''Memorandum"  of  the  Christo  Samaj 
set  forth  their  view  in  an  extreme  form :  "In  addition  to  the 
devolution  of  all  authority  to  the  Church  and  simultaneously 
with  it,  we  suggest  the  desirability  of  the  separation  of  the 
definitely  religious  ivork  from  the  institutional  work  (of  social 
service  carried  on  through  schools,  colleges,  hospitals,  etc.), 
and  placing  it  completely  on  a  basis  of  self-support.  Such 
institutional  work  will  be  a  millstone  round  the  neck  of  the 
Indian  Church  in  the  achievement  of  its  financial  independ- 
ence, and  still,  worse,  it  will  seriously  retard  its  spiritual 
emancipation.  If  the  Indian  Church  is  at  all  anxious  to  play 
its  role  as  the  spiritual  guide  of  India,  it  will  have  to  con- 
centrate itself  on  this  primary  task  and  divest  itself  of  its 
secular  responsibilities,  however  good  and  useful  they  may 
be.  Moreover,  the  institutionalism  of  the  present  missionary 
system  is  neither  a  creation  of  Indian  Christians,  nor  is  it 
the   distinctive   genius   of   Indian   religion.      Further,   these 

224 


forms  of  socal  service  legitimately  belong  to  the  State  and 
were  undertaken  by  missionary  bodies  as  pioneers  and  philan- 
thropists according  to  their  innate  genius  and  financial  ca- 
pacity. Our  conviction  is  that  foreign  money  is  neither  neces- 
sary nor  desirable  in  India  for  defiyiitely  religious  %vork.  In 
India  religion  has  never  suffered  through  lack  of  financial 
support,  and  the  financial  support  evoked  may  be  regarded 
almost  as  an  infallible  test  of  the  reality  and  worth  of  re- 
ligious service  in  any  country  and  especially  in  India." 

This  separation  of  religion  and  social  service  is  traditional 
in  India.  It  is  earnestly  to  be  hoped  that  it  is  not  this  part  of 
India's  religious  inheritance  which  is  to  be  the  contribution 
of  the  Indian  Church  to  Christian  faith  and  life.  The  Indian 
Church  could  not  more  completely  cut  itself  off  from  the  New 
Testament  and  from  the  living  forces  and  fellowship  of  Chris- 
tianity nor  could  it  more  surely  effect  futility  and  decay  than 
to  set  up  such  a  distinction.  The  resolutions  of  the  All  India 
Christian  Conference  at  Lahore  the  last  week  of  December, 
1921,  do  not  set  it  up.    They  look  in  the  opposite  direction. 

Nevertheless  there  is  great  force  in  all  these  contentions, 
and  one's  anxiety  with  regard  to  the  Saharanpur  plan  is  lest 
in  its  actual  working  out  it  should  result  in  the  debility  and 
dependence  and  not  in  the  power  and  freedom  of  the  Church. 
The  strongest  men  with  whom  we  have  talked  among  the  Indian 
leaders  are  sure  that  it  will  not  have  this  effect.  They  are 
confident  that  the  Church  has  come  to  a  position  where  the 
new  responsibility  will  act  as  a  stimulus  and  an  incentive  to 
it  to  increase  its  own  contributions  as  they  cannot  otherwise 
be  increased,  and  we  believe  that  the  experiment  of  the  Saha- 
ranpur plan  should  be  made  in  the  hope  that  their  judgment 
will  be  justified. 

8.  In  order  that  this  hopeful  judgment  may  be  justified 
it  is  necessary  that  the  Church  should  keep  before  itself  un- 
ceasingly the  full  ideal  of  a  Church.  A  Church  does  not  be- 
come such  by  merely  assuming  the  name.  It  must  achieve 
the  character,  and  only  as  it  does  so  can  there  be  such  a 
thing  as  real  co-operation.  The  Missions  are  real  Missions 
and  the  Church  must  be  a  real  Church  in  order  that  there  may 
be  real  co-operation.  And  one  of  the  essentials  of  a  real 
Church  is  financial  self-dependence.  There  has  been  and  is 
real  danger  in  India,  that  this  element  in  the  ideal  and  char- 
acter of  a  Church  may  be  slurred  over.  "I  am  sick,"  writes 
one  Indian  Christian,  "of  hearing  self-support,  self-support 
on  all  sides.  Self-respect,  self-government,  self-propagation 
always  precede  self-support.     Self-support  should  never  be 

225 

S — India   aiul  Persia 


the  initial  step.  It  is  a  blessing  that  comes  of  itself  without 
the  present  straining  of  nerves  and  pounding  of  pulpits  with 
self-support  sermons"  (The  National  Missionary  Intelligencer, 
August,  1921,  p.  84).  "With  regard  to  money  contributed 
by  Churches  in  the  West  for  the  evangelization  of  India,"  says 
an  appeal  signed  by  South  Indian  missionaries  and  Indian 
Christians,  "the  chief  question  is  not  by  whom  the  money  is 
administered,  but  whether  it  is  spent  in  the  most  fruitful  way 
for  the  extension  of  Christ's  kingdom.  The  principle  that  a 
body  because  it  contributes  money  must  have  a  voice  in  the 
spending  of  it,  should  not  operate  in  the  Church  of  Christ." 
{Christian  Patriot,  June  8,  1918).  "Let  the  doctrine  of  he 
who  pays  the  piper  has  the  right  to  call  for  the  tune  be 
decently  buried"  ("Memorandum"  of  the  Christo  Samaj,  p. 
20).  As  a  reaction  against  wrong  views  on  the  other  side 
and  the  use  of  missionary  money  as  a  basis  for  missionary 
influence  and  authority,  there  is  much  that  is  wholesome  in 
this  emphasis,  but,  while  the  Indian  Church  may  properly 
resent  the  idea  that  foreign  funds  entitle  foreign  Missions 
to  control  the  Indian  Church,  it  must  not  shut  its  eyes  to  the 
hard  fact  which  does  not  grow  out  of  missionary  obstinacy 
and  domination,  but  rests  on  true  psychology,  true  economy 
and  true  history,  that  the  Indian  Church  must  be  financially 
self-dependent.  That  does  not  mean  that  it  may  not  receive 
financial  help  from  without.  The  American  Church  is  intel- 
lectually independent  and  spiritually  independent,  but  it  is 
drawing  all  the  time  upon  the  churches  of  Great  Britain  for 
intellectual  and  spiritual  help,  and  it  is  even  more  indebted 
for  spiritual  help  to  its  foreign  missions  and  their  work  in 
foreign  lands.  But  the  principle  to  which  I  am  referring  does 
require  relentlessly,  and  the  Indian  Church  will  never  be  able 
to  escape  from  it,  that  that  Church  should  set  for  itself  the 
goal  of  complete  self-support  and  should  go  a  great  deal 
further  at  once  towards  the  achievement  of  that  goal  than 
it  has  gone. 

There  are  those  in  the  Missions  and  the  Indian  Church  who 

see  this  clearly.    "Mr. ,"  writes  the  Rev.  Bernard  Lucas 

in  an  article  entitled  "The  Indian  Church  and  Indian  Leader- 
ship," "would  relegate  to  a  quite  subordinate  position  the 
financial  aspect  of  the  question,  and,  ignoring  the  source  from 
which  the  funds  are  obtained,  would  use  the  funds  of  the 
Home  Church  for  the  support  of  Indian  missionaries,  who 
as  regards  status  and  salary  would  be  very  much  superior 
to  their  ministerial  brethren.  I  would  put  the  financial  aspect 
of  the  question  in  the  forefront,  and  make  the  Indian  Church 

226 


funds  the  controlling  factor  in  the  matter  of  salary,  and  the 
Indian  Church  organization  the  supreme  sphere  in  the  matter 
of  position  and  influence.  The  goal  which  must,  in  my  judg- 
ment, regulate  the  whole  missionary  policy  is  the  substitution, 
not  of  Indian  for  European  missionaries,  but  of  the  Indian 
Church  with  its  own  ministerial  and  mission  service,  for  the 
Home  Church  with  its  foreign  missionaries  and  its  foreign- 
supported  workers"  (The  Harvest  Field,  November,  1917, 
page  423) .  And  the  Rev.  Andrew  Thakur  Dass  in  a  paper  on 
the  "New  Day  in  the  Indian  Church"  writes:  "While  it  is 
becoming  clear  that  Christianity  is  to  be  naturalized  in  India, 
it  is  not  easy  to  depict  and  define  its  future  forms  and  features. 
We  have  not,  as  a  community,  fully  set  ourselves  to  this  task. 
It  is  easy,  however,  to  see  the  steep  path  which  will  lead 
us  to  the  goal.  An  indigenous  church  has  to  be  an  independent 
and  self -sustained  Church.  Undoubtedly  one  of  the  keys  of 
this  situation  is  an  Indian  ministry.  As  long  as  the  Indian 
agents  are  dependent  on  foreign  funds  and  subject  to  foreign 
control,  so  long  it  will  be  impossible  for  the  Indian  Church 
to  take  a  vigorous  step  forward  towards  this  ideal.  Foreign 
support  and  control  are  apt  to  act  as  narcotics,  and  check  the 
spontaneous  development  of  Indian  Christianity.  A  mission- 
paid  ministry  tends  to  create  a  barrier  between  the  minister 
and  his  people,  by  bringing  him  more  into  touch  with  the  for- 
eigner than  with  those  whom  he  serves,  and  makes  him  re- 
sponsible not  to  the  Church,  but  to  the  Foreign  Mission  which 
supplies  the  money.  The  situation  becomes  very  serious  when 
we  consider  that,  while  on  the  one  hand  foreign  paymaster- 
ship  is  deadening,  on  the  other  hand  Indian  congregations 
are  not  rich  enough  to  support  suitable  ministers.  It  may  be 
possible  for  Missionary  Societies  to  continue  payment  without 
exercising  control,  but  it  will  damp  Indian  self-respect  and 
advance."  "What  we  have  to  do,"  said  Mr.  Thakur  Dass  at 
the  Punjab  Mission  Meeting,  is  to  keep  steadily  before  our 
eyes  the  necessary  goal  of  replacing  foreign  money,  foreign 
men,  and  foreign  administration  by  Indian  money,  Indian  men, 
and  Indian  administration." 

As  I  pointed  out  in  my  letter  of  July  18,  1921  to  Mr. 
Mukerji,  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  which  for  a  time 
had  been  taking  the  view  which  the  first  writers  quoted  above 
have  taken,  came  to  see  clearly  that  for  its  own  sake  and  as 
a  prerequisite  to  being  able  to  deal  satisfactorily  with  the 
question  of  co-operation  it  must  achieve  a  genuine  financial 
independence  and  it  adopted  heroic  measures  towards  this 
end.     Nothing  helped  more  to  accomplish  the  results  which 

227 


the  churches  in  Japan  have  achieved  than  the  example  of  men 
Hke  Paul  Sawayama  who  not  in  a  spirit  of  bitterness  or 
separatism  or  resentment  against  the  foreign  Missions,  but 
in  the  spirit  of  love  and  co-operation  and  for  the  sake  of  the 
life  of  the  Japanese  Church  and  for  the  sake  of  the  evangeli- 
zation of  Japan  undertook,  at  great  self-sacrifice  and  perhaps 
at  the  cost  of  his  life,  the  responsibility  of  leadership  in  estab- 
lishing both  evangelistic  and  educational  work  in  Japan  on  a 
purely  Japanese  and  absolutely  self-supporting  basis.  It  would 
undoubtedly  be  a  great  help  in  India  if  men  would  come  for- 
ward, with  the  courage  described  in  the  "Memorandum"  of 
the  Christo  Samaj  and  with  Sawayama's  spirit,  to  found  and 
carry  forward  purely  indigenous  and  self-supporting  activi- 
ties. All  who  long  for  this  will  pray  that  such  undertakings 
as  that  of  the  hospital  and  brotherhood  at  Tirupatter  may 
meet  with  great  success  and  be  the  forerunners  of  many  such 
agencies  in  India  (National  Missionary  Intelligencer,  April, 
1921). 

It  should  be  said  again  that  this  insistence  upon  the  self- 
dependence  of  the  Church  is  not  an  obstinate  prejudice  of 
the  Missions  nor  the  attempt  to  use  the  money  help  of  the 
American  Churches  as  a  condition  of  authority.  The  Boards 
and  Missions  are  eager  to  have  the  Indian  Church  take  up 
and  exercise  all  the  power  that  it  can.  It  is  in  its  own  best 
interest  that  one  desires  to  see  the  Church  filled  with  a  keener 
consciousness  as  to  the  inevitable  connection  between  self- 
respect,  self-administration  and  self-dependence. 

The  conditions  in  this  respect  differ  greatly  in  different 
sections  of  the  Church  in  India,  due  in  part  to  economic  con- 
ditions and  in  part,  no  doubt,  to  the  missionary  education 
of  the  Church.  In  some  stations  we  were  flooded  with  letters 
asking  for  financial  help,  for  the  education  of  children  at  mis- 
sion expense,  for  the  increase  of  salaries  of  preachers  and 
teachers,  etc.  In  other  parts  of  the  field  not  one  communica- 
tion of  this  kind  would  be  made  either  in  writing  or  in  speech. 
The  Missions  do  not  fail  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  the 
principle  of  self-support,  and  a  great  deal  of  progress  has 
been  made  in  some  parts  of  the  field  and  in  some  institutions. 
A  great  deal  more  progress  remains  to  be  made,  and  the  ques- 
tion needs  ever  to  be  kept  alive  as  to  whether,  here  and  there, 
different  forms  of  organization,  or  of  the  rejection  of  organi- 
zation, may  not  be  employed  from  those  which  characterize 
the  church  in  the  West. 

9.  We  suggested  to  the  Indian  Church  that  in  the  discus- 
sions of  the  subject  of  co-operation  it  was  desirable  to  keep 

228 


in  mind  the  effects  of  what  might  be  said  and  of  what  plans 
might  be  adopted  upon  the  mind  of  the  Church  in  America. 
If  the  day  had  come  when  the  Indian  Church  no  longer  needed 
help  from  without  and  when  it  was  entirely  able  to  undertake 
the  task  of  Christianity  in  India,  this  consideration  was  of 
less  consequence,  but  no  one  who  would  look  at  the  facts  in 
India  could  for  one  moment  think  that  the  day  of  distinctively 
foreign  mission  work  was  over.  On  the  other  hand,  the  bare 
fringes  of  the  work  needing  to  be  done  have  as  yet  been 
touched.  A  thousand  times  the  present  volume  of  evangelistic 
work  must  be  done  by  some  one.  Hundreds  of  institutions 
are  needed,  schools,  hospitals,  leper  asylums, — innumerable 
ministries  which  it  may  be  said  are  the  business  of  the  State, 
but  which  the  state  in  India  cannot  now  undertake  and  will 
not  until  Christianity  has  permeated  far  more  deeply  and 
broadly  the  life  of  India.  If  now  the  Indian  Church  should 
create  in  Great  Britain  and  America  the  impression  that  it 
does  not  need  or  desire  any  more  missionaries  or  that  it  was 
very  ready  to  accept  the  money  of  Great  Britain  and  America 
but  did  not  care  for  their  personal  help  or  if,  in  the  way  it 
thought  and  spoke  of  money,  the  Church  should  give  the 
American  Churches  the  impression  that  its  ideas  of  self- 
respect  and  self-dependence  and  of  the  relation  of  money  to 
responsibility  are  different  from  the  sturdy  notions  to  which 
our  people  at  home  are  accustomed,  we  said  that  we  thought 
the  effect  would  be  to  chill  the  sympathy  of  the  Church  at 
home  with  the  Church  of  India  and  to  diminish  the  contri- 
butions of  money  and  of  life  and  of  prayer  which  India  needs 
more  today  than  she  ever  needed  them,  before.  The  Presby- 
terian Churches  in  India  were  not  slow  to  disabuse  us  of  any 
misgivings  on  this  point.  Their  utterances  which  I  have  al- 
ready quoted  express  their  sincere  spirit.  It  is  not  less  of 
our  help  that  they  want  but  more,  and  they  want  it  in  yet 
closer  and  more  personal  and  co-operative  form. 

10.  It  was  of  help  both  to  many  missionaries  and  to  many 
of  the  Indian  brethren  to  reflect  that  any  plan  of  co-operation 
must  of  necessity  be  tentative  and  experimental,  that  in  adopt- 
ing either  the  Saharanpur  or  the  North  India  plan  they  would 
be  seeking  to  deal  with  the  present  situation  by  a  present 
expedient,  and  that  they  were  not  binding  themselves  in  a 
permanent  commitment.  New  conditions  will  inevitably 
arise  with  the  growing  strength  of  the  Church  and  will 
require  the  revision  of  any  present  arrangements.  What 
was  desirable  was  any  arrangement  that  would  fairly  and 
justly  meet  present  psychological  necessities,  provide  for  the 

229 


expansion  and  harmonious  development  of  the  work,  and  bring 
individuals  together  in  good  will.  The  fundamental  difficul- 
ties of  the  problem  are  after  all,  I  believe,  just  two,  and  one 
is  personal  and  the  other  is  financial.  There  are  some  who 
resent  this  view  of  the  matter,  but  I  think  the  "Memorandum" 
of  the  Christo  Samaj  is  right  in  singling  out  these  two  ele- 
ments. K.  L.  Ralha  Ram,  Esq.,  as  moderator  of  the  Lahore 
Presbytery  in  his  honest,  blunt  way  went  straight  to  these 
two  points  in  his  closing  remarks  at  our  meeting.  "First 
of  all,"  he  said,  "this  is  a  matter  of  personal  relationships,  and 
whatever  we  may  say  at  times,  the  fact  is  we  love  and  trust 
the  missionaries  and  we  want  them  and  we  want  to  work  with 
them.  If  any  one  tried  to  harm  the  missionaries  of  the  Punjab 
Mission,  they  would  have  to  trample  over  our  bodies  to  reach 
them.  If  you  propose  to  withdraw  them,  we  will  protest, 
and  we  will  interpose  every  hindrance  and  objection  before 
we  will  let  them  go.  In  the  second  place  this  question  is,  in 
spite  of  what  any  one  may  say,  largely  a  question  of  money. 
That  is  the  root  of  the  trouble.  Sometimes  I  think  it  would 
be  a  good  thing  if  all  the  foreign  money  should  be  stopped. 
I  know  that  this  is  foolish  and  that  the  financial  help  of  the 
foreign  Churches  and  the  use  of  money  in  missionary  work 
is  indispensable.  It  is  legitimate  and  necessary  in  many  ways 
and  for  many  things,  but  it  is  out  of  the  problem  involved  in 
its  administration  that  much  of  our  difficulty  comes."  I  be- 
lieve that  this  is  true,  and  I  often  have  grave  and  unexpressed 
misgivings  as  to  the  character  and  method  of  the  modern  mis- 
sionary enterprise.  But  dealing  with  the  whole  matter  on 
the  basis  of  reality,  we  have  just  two  things  to  do.  One  is 
to  try  to  handle  the  financial  aspect  of  the  matter  under  the 
best  and  most  acceptable  plan  we  can  devise,  and  the  other 
is  to  pour  into  personal  relationships  the  deepest  measure 
of  love  and  life,  and  by  the  cultivation  of  friendships  and  the 
conquest  of  racial  pride  and  distinction  and  by  the  glow  of 
a  richer  evangelistic  fervor,  of  which  the  Indian  Church  is 
in  even  greater  need  than  the  Missions,  solve  this  problem  of 
relationships  on  the  only  ground  upon  which  it  can  be  solved, 
namely,  on  the  ground  of  personality  and  life,  on  the  ground 
of  Christ. 

It  would  help  greatly  if  in  the  Indian  Church  there  might 
arise  a  larger  number  of  men  who,  in  prayer,  in  the  glow  of 
devotion,  in  evangelistic  power,  in  spiritual  authority  and 
influence,  would  surpass  the  missionaries  and  exercise  a 
leadership  in  true  religion  which  is  India's  great  need  as  it  is 
the  longing  of  the  Missions  and  of  the  writers  of  the  Christo 

230 


Samaj  "Memorandum,"  and  before  which  the  Missions  would 
fall  back  with  the  ancient  cry,  "This  my  joy,  therefore,  is  ful- 
filled." The  real  core  of  the  whole  problem  is  that  the  Mis- 
sions, with  their  conscious  imperfections,  have  had  to  fur- 
nish, until  the  Church  comes  to  its  own,  this  energy  of  spiritual 
and  executive  action.  F'or  the  Missions  to  share  with  the 
Church  the  administration  of  funds  from  the  West  is  a  longer 
road  to  the  true  goal  than  for  the  Church  to  draw  the  resources 
of  a  full  spiritual  freedom  and  a  bold  spiritual  leadership 
from  on  High. 

2.      THE  RELATION  OF  THE  INDIAN  CHURCH   TO  POLITICAL 

PROBLEMS 

I  have  discussed  elsewhere  in  this  report  the  general  politi- 
cal environment  of  the  Church  and  the  Missions  in  India  to- 
day. Something  needs  to  be  said  here  in  this  section,  which 
deals  with  the  Church  and  its  problems,  regarding  the  rela- 
tion of  the  Church  to  politics.  The  question  is  a  far  more 
difficult  one  for  the  Indian  Church  than  for  the  Church  at 
home,  and  it  is  difficult  enough  at  home.  Both  in  India  and 
America  it  is  only  a  part  of  the  larger  and  still  completely 
unsolved  question  of  the  relationship  of  Church  and  State. 

The  present  situation  of  the  Church  is  not  unlike  that  of 
the  Anglo-Indian  or  Eurasian  community,  the  large  and  grow- 
ing community  of  mixed  Indian  and  European  blood  which 
is  neither  European  nor  Indian  and  which  values  most  its 
European  inheritance  but  experiences  the  greatest  prejudice 
from  the  side  of  its  Indian  inheritance.  So  long  as  India 
itself  was  part  British  and  part  Indian  the  problem  of  the 
Anglo-Indian  community,  though  real  and  perplexing,  was 
still  greatly  softened.  Now,  however,  India  is  to  be  not  British 
and  Indian  but  Indian.  What  will  the  Anglo-Indian  be?  He 
cannot  leave  India.  He  cannot  live  in  India  as  a  European 
or  a  half  European.  Will  he  throw  his  iot  in  absolutely  with 
India  as  an  Indian  or  will  he  go  forward  into  the  new  day  that 
is  coming  into  India  as  an  Indian  Ishmael,  an  Indian  who  is 
no  Indian  at  all,  rejecting  India  and  rejected  by  India,  and 
yet  bound  to  India?  There  are  few  more  interesting  problems 
in  the  world  than  this.  The  one  right  and  possible  course  is 
obvious  and  yet  it  is  immensely  difficult  and  it  remains  to 
be  seen  whether  the  Anglo-Indian  will  take  it,  and  take  it  in 
time,  and  throw  his  whole  lot  in  unreservedly  with  India 
and  win  now  a  place  in  the  new  life  of  India  which  he  may 
never  have  a  chance  to  win  again. 

Something  of  the  same  problem  confronts  the   Christian 

231 


Church.  It  is  a  problem  which  no  one  can  solve  for  it,  but  in 
which  it  is  entitled  to  the  prayer  and  sympathy  of  the  Church 
at  home  as  it  seeks  to  find  and  follow  the  right  way.  It  will 
help  the  Board  and  the  home  Church  in  their  understanding 
of  the  situation  and  in  their  prayer,  to  have  before  them  two 
papers  on  this  subject  which  appeared  while  we  were  in  India 
and  which  I  report  herewith.  The  first  on  the  subject  of 
'The  Indian  Church  and  India's  Crisis"  was  read  before  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  Western  India  Mission  by  the  Rev. 
Shivaram  Masoji,  one  of  the  oldest  ministers  of  the  Kolhapur 
Presbytery  and  one  of  the  representatives  of  our  India  Mis- 
sions at  the  Edinburgh  Missionary  Conference.  (Appendix 
XII.)  The  second  of  these  papers  appeared  in  the  Urdu  lan- 
guage in  *'Nur  Afshan"  of  November  25,  1921,  the  vernacular 
paper  of  the  Punjab  Mission  and  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  Punjab  which  has  now  been  placed  by  the  Punjab  Mis- 
sion wholly  under  Indian  editorship.  It  was  anonymous  and 
bore  the  title  "God,  the  Crown,  and  the  Nation."  (Appendix 
XIII.) 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  India  is  facing  the  same 
question  and  also  the  question  of  its  own  unity.  The  All-India 
Catholic  Conference  was  held  in  Bombay  while  we  were  there 
at  Christmas  time,  and  we  read  the  address  of  the  president, 
Mr.  T.  Arminatheum  Pillai,  a  member  of  the  Madras  Legisla- 
tive Council. 

"The  President  said  the  Catholics  of  India  were  living 
amongst  the  teeming  millions  of  non-Catholics — Protestant, 
Hindus  and  Mohammedans — and  in  that  state  of  affairs  the 
question  arose,  What  was  the  position  of  the  Catholics  going 
to  be?  They  had  to  consider  that  position  from  three  stand- 
points: (1)  What  was  their  duty  towards  the  Catholic  hier- 
archy? (2)  What  was  the  duty  of  the  Catholics  towards  their 
own  community?  And  (3)  What  ought  to  be  the  attitude  of 
the  Catholics  towards  the  sister  communities  ?  As  to  the  first 
question,  an  assurance  had  been  given  to  them  that  in  all 
their  endeavors  to  promote  the  material  and  social  interests 
of  the  Catholics  of  this  land  they  would  have  the  whole-hearted 
sympathy  and  ardent  support  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy,  and 
they  must  thank  them  for  that  assurance.  The  laymen  on 
their  part  had,  on  the  other  hand,  to  consider  what  they  could 
do  to  help  the  clergy  in  the  selfless  work  which  they  had  been 
carrying  on  in  this  country  for  such  a  long  time.  As  to  the 
second  question,  the  position  was  this.  In  this  vast  continent 
of  India  the  Catholics  were  separated  by  miles  and  miles, 
and  yet  they  had  to  meet  each  other.     Their  interests  were 

232 


united.  What  affected  the  Catholics  of  Bombay  affected  the 
Catholics  of  Madras  or  any  other  province,  and  therefore  it 
was  essential  that  all  the  Catholics  of  India  should  be  united 
and  stand  up  as  one  single  man.  Unfortunately  they  were 
divided  by  all  sorts  of  castes  and  other  sub-divisions,  and  it 
would  be  the  aim  of  this  Conference  to  overcome  this  difficulty 
and  make  the  Catholics  united.  In  this  connection  he  was 
afraid  the  South  Indian  Catholics  had  to  take  a  lesson  from 
the  Hindus.  The  fact  that  Mr.  Gandhi  had  made  it  a  condition 
that  the  removal  of  untouchability  was  a  necessary  step  to- 
wards national  advancement,  showed  that  the  Hindus  were 
realizing  the  necessity  of  doing  away  with  the  social  bars 
on  the  depressed  classes.  He  asked :  Was  it  not  right  that 
they,  the  members  of  one  Church,  should  have  got  rid  of  this 
thing  long  ago? 

"As  to  the  last  question,  namely,  the  attitude  of  the  Catho- 
lics towards  other  communities,  they  had  to  bear  in  mind 
that  the  Catholics  after  all  formed  an  infinitesimal  portion  of 
the  people  of  this  country.  As  the  Chairman  of  the  Reception 
Committee  had  said  a  challenge  had  been  thrown  out  to  them 
as  to  what  they  were  going  to  do  in  the  present  state  of 
affairs.  He  would  say  they  would  be  committing  the  worst 
sin  possible  if  the  Catholics  were  to  take  up  a  stand  against 
any  of  the  reforms  coming  in.  However  much  they  might 
complain  and  murmur,  and  say  that  India  was  not  fit  for 
these  reforms,  still  the  reforms  were  going  to  come  in.  They 
had  to  recognize  that  fact,  and  if  they  were  not  prepared  to 
take  their  share  in  the  affairs  of  the  country,  they  would  be 
absolutely  washed  off  and  would  bring  about  their  own  down- 
fall as  a  community  and  also  that  of  their  Church.  Hitherto 
the  Catholics  had  neglected  their  duty  in  this  respect  and 
not  taken  their  proper  share  in  public  affairs.  In  proportion 
to  their  numbers  they  had  more  educated  men  than  any  other 
community,  and  it  was  up  to  them  to  direct  the  affairs  of  the 
country  in  a  saner  manner  than  some  people  sought  to  do 
at  present  and  save  it  from  ruin"  (Times  of  India,  Dec.  28, 
1921). 

Just  as  we  were  leaving  India  the  All-India  Christian  Con- 
ference was  assembling  in  Lahore  simultaneously  with  the 
meetings  of  the  Indian  National  Congress  and  the  Indian 
Moslem  Association  in  Ahmedabad  and  of  the  General  As- 
sembly of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  India  in  Allahabad. 
The  resolutions  of  the  conference  were  almost  exclusively 
devoted  to  social  and  political  problems.  One  resolution  dealt 
with  the  relation  of  the  Missions  to  the  Indian  Church  and 

233 


one  with  the  two  union  educational  institutions  at 
Alwaye  and  Bangalore.  All  the  other  resolutions  were  politi- 
cal. There  was  no  utterance  regarding  the  evangelization  of 
India,  regarding  the  attainment  by  the  Church  of  the  essen- 
tial attributes  of  a  free  and  independent  national  Church,  or 
regarding  the  spiritual  life  and  functions  of  the  Church  as 
a  religious  force  in  India.  There  was  no  reference  to  the  low 
castes  or  the  untouchables  or  to  the  mass  movement,  although 
the  movement  against  untouchability  is  social  as  well  as  re- 
ligious and  was  emphatically  dealt  with  in  the  resolutions  of 
the  National  Congress  at  Ahmedabad.  The  other  social  and 
political  problems  before  India  today,  however,  were  dealt 
with  in  fourteen  resolutions.  They  urged  that  on  the  one 
hand  the  campaign  of  non-cooperation  should  cease  and  that  on 
the  other  the  Government  should  desist  from  enforcing  the 
acts  repressing  alleged  seditious  agitations  and  should  release 
those  who  had  been  arrested  and  imprisoned  under  these  acts. 
They  advocated  true  swadeshi  and  the  wearing  of  clothes 
of  Indian  manufacture,  woman  suffrage,  industrial  and  tech- 
nological education,  the  protection  of  Indian  industry,  pro- 
hibition, improvement  of  labor  conditions,  the  immediate 
granting  of  a  much  larger  measure  of  responsible  self-gov- 
ernment, the  establishment  of  local  Indian  Christian  Associa- 
tions for  the  satisfactory  discussion  of  all  public  questions, 
etc.,  etc. 

The  two  resolutions  which  bore  most  directly  on  the  subject 
of  the  relations  of  the  Indian  Christians  to  the  Nationalist 
movement  were  the  following : 

"III.     The  Present  Situation. 

"In  view  of  the  gravity  of  the  present  political  situation 
in  the  country  and  also  in  view  of  the  possibility  that  the 
situation  may  become  still  more  acute  in  the  near  future,  this 
Conference  resolves:  (a)  That  in  order  to  restore  peace  and 
harmony  in  the  country  it  is  necessary  for  Government  to 
adopt  a  policy  of  conciliation  by  ceasing  to  put  into  force 
the  Criminal  Law  Amendment  Act,  1908,  and  the  Prevention 
of  Seditious  Meetings  Act  of  1911  and  such  other  measures 
as  have  a  repressive  effect,  and  by  releasing  those  arrested 
and  imprisoned  under  these  Acts,  while  on  the  other  hand 
the  campaign  of  Non-cooperation  should  forthwith  be  sus- 
pended by  the  leaders  of  Non-cooperation  so  as  to  facilitate 
a  sane  settlement  under  conditions  essential  for  mutual  under- 
standing, (b)  That  in  order  to  facilitate  a  sane  settlement, 
a  Round  Table  Conference  be  arranged  of  some  leading  Non- 
234 


cooperators,  Moderates  and  Government  Officials,  to  see  on 
what  grounds  a  compromise  can  be  arranged." 

"XI.     Responsible  Self -Government. 

"This  Conference  is  of  opinion  that  as  a  result  of  one  year's 
working  of  the  Reforms  Scheme,  a  much  larger  measure  of 
Responsible  Self-Government  should  immediately  be  given  to 
the  people  of  India  by  making  the  Provincial  Governments 
to  a  greater  extent  responsible  to  the  legislature  and  by  mak- 
ing such  modifications  in  the  Government  of  India  Act  as 
would  introduce  the  principle  of  responsibility  in  the  Central 
Government." 

No  reproach  of  neglect  of  social  and  political  ques- 
tions could  lie  against  the  deliverances  of  the  All-India 
Christian  Conference.  Judging  from  the  resolutions,  how- 
ever, some  might  feel  a  misgiving  lest  the  primary  religious 
character  and  the  primary  religious  business  of  the  Indian 
Church  should  not  be  adequately  dealt  with.  If  some  of  our 
American  Churches  have  neglected  the  social  aspects  of  re- 
ligion, it  will  be  a  poor  compensation  to  have  the  Indian 
Church  neglect  the  religious  aspects  of  society.  It  needs  to 
be  recognized,  however,  that  it  is  with  the  social  and  political 
aspects  of  their  life  and  duty  that  the  Indian  Churches  have 
organized  the  All-India  Christian  Conference  to  deal,  as 
the  Mohammedans  have  dealt  with  them  in  the  Indian  Moslem 
Association  and  the  Hindus  in  the  Indian  National  Congress, 
until  recently  when  the  Hindus  and  the  Mohammedans  merged 
their  gatherings. 

3.      THE  MASS  MOVEMENT 

What  is  known  as  the  mass  movement  of  the  low  caste  or 
out-caste  people  into  the  Christian  Church  began  in  Northern 
India  about  thirty  years  ago.  This  was  not  the  first  mass 
movement  in  India.  In  earlier  years  large  bodies  of  people 
had  come  both  into  the  Roman  Catholic  and  into  the 
Protestant  churches  in  Southern  India  and  the  extensive 
Christian  communities  among  the  Tamils  and  Telugus  were 
the  result.  For  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  movement  has  gone 
on  in  the  United  Provinces  and  the  Punjab,  and  as  a  result 
some  scores  of  thousands  have  been  enrolled  as  Christians 
by  our  own  and  the  United  Presbyterian  Missions  and  several 
hundred  thousand  by  the  energetic  missionaries  of  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church,  under  the  lead  of  Bishop  Thoburn  and 
his  successors.  Within  the  last  few  years,  although  on  a 
much  smaller  scale,  there  has  been  a  similar  movement 
among  the  outcastes  in  the  Sangli  and  Kodoli  fields  in  the 

235 


Western  India  Mission.  There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the 
reahty  of  this  movement  as  a  social  and  intellectual  and,  I 
believe  also,  a  religious  up-reaching.  Something  of  its  mean- 
ing was  set  forth  in  a  remarkable  address  presented  to  us 
in  the  village  of  Phoriwal  in  the  Jullundur  district  on  the 
occasion  described  in  the  letter  on  the  Jullundur  station.  The 
address  was  written  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Goloknath  of  Jullun- 
dur and  read  in  Punjabi  by  one  of  the  Indian  evangelists  while 
the  Mohammedan  land  owners  of  the  village  listened  in  breath- 
less amazement  to  this  fearless  utterance  from  the  spokesman 
of  the  people  who  for  centuries  had  endured  their  lot  of  serf- 
dom without  murmur  of  complaint  or  of  aspiration.  This 
was  the  address: 

"We  welcome  you,  Sir,  with  a  shout  of  cheer.  . .  . 

"We  express  our  appreciation  of  what  has  been  and  is  being 
done  by  your  Mission  towards  our  uplift.  We  with  others  of 
the  unfortunate  class  who  are  condemned  as  untouchables, 
constitute  one-sixth  of  the  whole  population  or  say  six  crores, 
or  sixty  millions  all  told.  We  are  counted  low,  based  not  on 
the  natural  standard  of  personal  qualities  but  on  the  accident 
of  birth.  We  are  thus  condemned  to  live  the  low  life  of  utter 
wretchedness,  servitude,  and  mental  and  moral  degradation. 
The  forces  of  custom,  religion,  and  social  prejudice  have  de- 
prived us  of  equality  of  opportunity  to  enjoy  the  good  things 
of  the  world.  We  are  deprived  of  public  service,  free  use 
of  tanks  or  public  works,  or  inns  or  temples.  We  are  handi- 
capped in  business  and  work  through  untouchability.  We 
are  deprived  of  the  benefit  of  civilization,  the  solace  of  educa- 
tion and  society.  We  are  deprived  of  all  those  accessories 
which  are  indispensable  in  a  social  organization,  such  as  the 
services  of  a  barber,  washerman  and  so  forth.  We  are 
regarded  for  all  purposes  of  national  self-interest  with  them, 
but  for  purposes  of  caste,  not  of  them. 

"Thanks  to  the  efforts  of  Christian  Mission  and  thanks  to 
the  Gospel  of  touchability  by  love  as  taught  and  lived  by  our 
Lord  and  Saviour,  self-respect  is  awakened  in  us,  and  we  re- 
sent deeply  the  treatment  meted  out  to  us  by  caste-ruled  men. 
We  are  beginning  to  be  restless,  to  be  no  longer  content  with 
our  present  lot  which  is  galling  in  the  extreme,  and  we  refuse 
to  acquiesce  in  environment  not  of  our  making,  but  in  which 
we  find  ourselves  to  be.  We  want  to  progress  with  the  tide 
in  the  affairs  of  men,  and  which  waits  for  nobody.  For  pur- 
poses of  preservation  of  society,  caste  may  have  achieved 
something,  but  in  caste  system  we  are  doomed  forever  to  a 
life  of  bondage  and  serfdom.     For  purposes  of  progress  we 

236 


have  come  out  of  caste,  for  it  is  unsuitable  to  progress,  thanks 
again  for  the  God-sent  dehverer  from  bondage,  namely,  your 
Christian  Mission  to  this  country.  We  appreciate  and  are 
grateful  for  what  it  has  done  and  is  doing  for  our  uplift. 
Habits  of  self-respect  and  cleanliness  have  come  to  us,  and 
so  also  an  interest  for  education  of  our  children  and  for  self- 
improvement.  In  our  efforts  to  improve  ourselves,  the  spirit 
of  antagonism  shows  itself  in  villages  where  we  reside.  Even 
here,  where  we  are  met  on  such  a  happy  occasion  when  you. 
Sir,  and  your  party  and  others  have  made  common  cause  with 
us,  we  are  looked  at  by  the  villagers  with  suspicious  rather 
than  friendly  eyes,  as  encroachers  on  vested  rights,  and  as 
opponents  of  Privilege  and  Exclusiveness.  But  Christianity 
has  taught  us  to  respect  ourselves  as  human  beings,  and  there- 
fore we  want  to  be  led  to  higher  planes  of  life  and  to  nobler 
pursuits.  Christianity  having  pointed  the  way,  and  given 
us  the  truth  regarding  ourselves,  even  as  we  are  groveling  in 
the  dark  and  in  the  lowest  ditch,  our  dead  bones  in  the  valley 
are  becoming  instinct  with  life.  We  are  done  with  grovel- 
ing at  the  foot  of  the  social,  intellectual  and  moral  and  mate- 
rial ladder  of  life.  Our  children  must  be  trained  and  edu- 
cated, and  made  vital  parts  of  the  social  organism,  and  not 
as  at  present  the  isolated  and  dead  parts  of  the  same.  Now 
is  come  at  once  a  challenge  and  opportunity  to  save  us  from 
this  caste  tyranny  of  ages,  and  give  us  a  lift  in  the  scale  of 
humanity.  We  send  forth  a  strong  appeal  to  you,  as  represen- 
tative of  the  great  and  living  Church  of  America,  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  our  mass  movement  towards  Christianity  which 
like  the  tide  is  flowing  full  in  this  district  and  elsewhere,  and 
undertake  to  educate  and  train  our  children  in  useful  voca- 
tions. We  need  medical  relief;  we  need  to  be  taught  ideas 
of  cleanliness  and  hygiene.  Help  us  to  remove  our  gross 
ignorance.  We  have  found  God,  and  we  want  to  find  our- 
selves. In  this  district  there  is  already  a  baptized  Christian 
community  of  4,000.  We  are  trying  to  be  cleaner  and  more 
decent  in  our  persons  and  homes.  We  are  giving  up  vices 
to  which  we  are  addicted.  We  are  gradually  substituting 
Christian  marriage  and  other  practices,  and  displacing  heath- 
enish practices.  Our  Panchayats  are  becoming  more  and 
more  a  power  for  good.  But  we  are  handicapped  in  many 
ways  and  we  need  your  help.  Some  of  our  men,  in  other 
districts  of  the  Punjab  in  view  of  equal  opportunity  for  all 
have  stood  their  own  and  have  acquitted  themselves  as  men, 
and  are  holding  influential  positions  in  life.  We  too  have 
been  sending  our  boys  to  your  Boarding  Schools;  others  are 

237 


studying  in  village  schools;  and  the  percentage  of  literacy 
is  on  the  increase.  We  need  vocational  and  industrial  schools, 
and  we  are  willing  to  contribute  our  mite  towards  our  chil- 
dren's education  in  this  district.  We  employed  a  man  from 
our  own  class  some  months  ago  to  teach  village  Christian 
children.  He  is  now  sent  with  his  wife  to  the  five  months' 
teachers'  course  in  Moga,  and  we  are  meeting  the  cost  of 
his  maintenance  in  that  school.  Other  non-Christian  commu- 
nities are  now  up  and  doing,  who  see  in  our  conversion  to 
Christianity  the  serious  depletion  of  vital  blood  from  the 
Hindu  organism.  Shudi  or  purification  work  is  now  started 
by  Arya  Samajists  and  the  Sikhs.  All-India-Shudi  Sabha  has 
been  established.  It  has  inaugurated  day  and  night  schools 
and  lectureships;  and  a  medical  mission  is  maintained  for 
the  benefit  of  the  depressed  classes.  Those  communities  are 
actuated  more  by  National  self-interest  and  consideration  of 
self-preservation  than  by  humanitarian  considerations.  The 
percentage  of  literacy  of  the  total  population  of  India  can  be 
between  fifteen  and  twenty  per  cent.  It  was  five  per  cent  in 
1901.  When  such  is  the  progress  of  literacy  in  the  whole 
of  India  among  the  higher  classes  during  all  these  years,  how 
can  it  be  expected  that  they  would  undertake  to  educate  us, 
laboring  as  we  do  even  now  under  serious  limitations  and  dis- 
abilities. Besides,  we  are  so  poor  that  in  our  families  each 
woman  and  child,  boy  or  girl,  has  to  be  wage  earning.  It  is 
a  tremendous  effort  of  sacrifice  of  both  time  and  money  on 
our  people  to  undertake  to  educate  our  children,  but  in  spite 
of  this  we  are  doing  all  we  can. 

"Government  has  not  stood  by  us  in  any  practical  way.  It 
has  asserted  the  equality  of  men  under  the  law,  and  it  main- 
tains order,  but  it  has  not  provided  means  of  progress  for  the 
depressed  communities.  The  declared  policy  of  neutrality 
on  the  part  of  Government  in  our  case  cuts  both  ways.  It 
will  not  interfere  with  the  religious  and  social  customs  of 
India,  and  yet.  Sir, 'those  customs  are  a  dead  weight  resting 
on  our  breasts.  Under  their  weight  no  progress  is  possible 
from  either  within  or  without.  Government  is  concerned  with 
providing  education  for  higher  classes  alone.  It  has  not 
attempted  to  remove  or  abolish  social  disabilities.  It  has 
not  moved  as  yet  to  open  special  schools  for  us.  In  schools 
that  are  opened  to  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  the  parents 
do  not  hke  their  children  to  study  side  by  side  with  our  chil- 
dren; and  those  of  our  children  who  are  attending  village 
schools  are  made  to  sit  apart  from  others,  which  makes  our 
children  feel  that  they  are  of  commoner  clay  than  their  neigh- 

238 


bors.  In  spite  of  such  indignities  our  children  go  on  study- 
ing, small  in  number  as  they  are.  The  tyranny  of  custom  is 
being  felt  more  and  more.  The  Christian  Mission  alone  stands 
the  chance  of  removing  our  disabilities.  It  is  true  that  Cha- 
mars,  Ramdasias  and  Rahtias  of  the  Punjab  have  not  as  yet 
moved  towards  Christianity,  but  it  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
modern  movements  of  new  sects  in  India  have  allowed,  with  a 
thin  veneer  of  their  own  special  teachings,  side  by  side  the 
primitive  beliefs  of  the  depressed  classes  to  exist.  They  are 
tolerant  of  the  superstitions  and  primitive  practices;  but 
Christianity  is  from  the  first  intolerant  of  a  mixture  with 
it  of  other  faiths.  It  weans  its  votaries  from  untruth  and 
superstitions.  Hence  the  mass  movement  among  them  has 
not  as  yet  taken  root.  But  once  give  us  education  and  Chris- 
tian enlightenment,  improve  our  character  and  help  us  towards 
our  own  uplift,  and  we  will  soon  appear  as,  an  object  lesson 
to  follow.  Education  will  not  pauperize  us,  but  rather  it 
would  lead  us  on  to  new  ideas  of  the  value  and  the  possibihty 
of  progress  and  create  in  us  the  feeling  of  self-help  and  self- 
respect. 

"With  these  remarks  we  close  and  now  wish  you  God-speed 
in  your  arduous  undertaking  in  India,  and  safe  voyage  home ; 
and  we  humbly  request  you  to  convey  our  message  of  hope  to 
the  good  and  generous  people  of  America  that  they  may  con- 
tinue to  be  as  ever  in  the  forefront  of  their  Christian  and 
humanitarian  work  in  India  and  elsewhere,  because  we  too 
join  in  hope  and  prayer  that  in  due  time  they  will  see  the 
groaning  of  the  Spirit  and  the  travail  of  their  zealous  yearn- 
ing for  us  give  place  to  joy  in  sight  of  the  birth  of  a  Christian 
nation  in  India." 

The  detailed  problems  involved  in  this  mass  movement  have 
been  presented  to  the  Board  annually  in  the  reports  of  the 
Missions  and  the  minutes  of  their  meetings.  How  can  this 
mass  of  ignorance  be  enlightened  so  as  not  to  be  a  dead  incu- 
bus upon  the  Church?  How  can  the  economic  conditions  of 
these  poor  people,  many  of  them  serfs  and  many  of  them 
not  free  even  to  rise  to  the  privilege  of  cultivating  the  soil 
be  improved?  How  can  the  thousands  who  have  been  bap- 
tized, but  who  are  not  prepared  either  in  knowledge  or  in 
character  to  be  admitted  as  full  communicants,  be  properly 
trained  and  developed  into  worthy  members  of  the  Church? 
How  can  they  be  organized  into  churches?  Into  what  sort 
of  churches  should  they  be  organized  and  with  what  kind 
of  a  ministry?  How  can  their  children  be  best  educated,  and 
how  can  they  be  provided  with  churches  and  schools  without 

239 


pauperization  or  permanent  dependence  upon  mission  sup- 
port? How  can  heathen  customs  be  eradicated  and  how  can 
Christian  customs  and  institutions  be  introduced,  which  will 
have  a  living  flavor  and  a  native  color  and  not  be  mere  dry 
importations  from  the  West?  How  can  this  work  be  rightly 
related  to  work  for  the  higher  castes  and  made  a  help  to  it 
and  not  a  hindrance?  How  can  the  composite  and  hetero- 
geneous Church  which  is  growing  up  be  made  democratic? 
On  these  and  other  such  questions  we  gathered  a  mass  of 
material  from  individual  conversations  with  all  kinds  of 
people,  from  many  happy  conferences  with  the  low  caste 
Christians  themselves  in  groups,  and  from  dozens  of  naive 
letters  from  these  Christians  and  the  teachers  and  preachers 
who  had  come  from  their  ranks.  Never  shall  we  forget  the 
morning  with  the  Christians  of  Kodoli  in  the  hall  of  the  Kodoli 
School,  or  the  afternoon  with  the  group  from  the  villages  of 
the  Kasganj  field  under  the  big  mango  trees  at  Banhari  ka  Ian, 
or  the  meeting  in  the  big  tent  at  Etah  with  the  rugged  farm- 
ers who  were  earning  their  own  bread  and  preaching  Christ, 
or  the  night  in  Luliani  where  the  sides  had  to  be  taken  out 
of  the  tent  and  the  village  Christians  sat  in  a  packed  mass 
reaching  far  out  into  the  moonlit  spaces,  where  I  could  see 
the  last  row  of  them  sitting  in  white  sheikh-like  dignity 
against  the  mud  walls.  No  one  could  have  gone  among  these 
people  as  we  did  without  feeling  as  though  he  were  back  in 
the  New  Testament  and  seeing  the  primitive  Gospel  beginning 
to  lay  hold  on  the  bottom  groups  of  life  in  human  society. 

The  questions  which  have  arisen  regarding  the  relations  of 
the  Mission  and  the  Church,  however,  have  included  within 
their  sweep  the  question  of  the  legitimacy  of  this  mass  move- 
ment work.  Some  who  do  not  question  the  legitimacy  of  what 
has  been  done  still  raise  enquiries  as  to  the  wisdom  of  its  exten- 
sion. The  new  attitude  of  mind  which  has  grown  up  on  this 
subject  among  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  Indian  Church,  par- 
ticularly some  of  those  who  have  discussed  with  strength  of 
feeling  and  competence  of  mind  the  question  of  relationships, 
is  well  illustrated  in  the  "Memorandum"  of  the  Christo 
Samaj : 

"A  discussion  of  the  problems  relating  to  the  Indian  Church 
will  be  incomplete  without  a  reference  to  the  chief  method 
of  enlarging  the  Christian  Church,  followed  perhaps  by  all 
missions,  viz.,  mass  movements  or  mass  conversions.  We  do 
look  forward  to  a  time  when  India  will  be  brought  to  a  uni- 
versal recognition  of  the  undoubted  supremacy  of  Christ  in 
the  realm  of  religion  and  would  not  but  rejoice  when  its 

240 


peoples  shall  vie  with  one  another  in  forcing  their  way  into 
the  Christian  Church.  But  we  find  serious  drawbacks  and 
mistakes  in  connection  with  the  way  in  which  whole  villages 
and  families  have  been  and  are  being  brought  into  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  We  raise  no  serious  objection  on  the  score  that 
these  mass  movements  are  from  the  lower  classes;  for  the 
Gospel  should  indeed  be  preached  to  the  poor.  But  we  per- 
ceive questionable  motives  mixed  up  in  the  mass  movement 
phenomena,  which  have  led  to  serious  complications  in  the 
Christian  organism.  It  is  to  the  social  and  material  aspira- 
tions of  the  lower  classes  that  the  method  has  largely  appealed 
and  the  spiritual  motive  is  not  given  the  emphasis  and  pre- 
eminence that  it  always  should  claim.  It  is  openly  avowed 
that  persons  without  a  real  perception  of  Christianity  are 
admitted  into  the  Christian  fold  in  anticipation  of  the  spir- 
itual benefits  that  might  result  to  their  children  or  succeeding 
generations.  While  we  seriously  question  even  such  a  result, 
we  submit  emphatically  this  is  a  fatal  error  in  the  building 
up  of  the  Church,  which  was  intended  to  be  an  assembly  of 
those  who  have  deliberately  given  themselves  to  the  lordship 
of  Christ.  Also  it  does  little  justice  to  the  inherent  religious 
capacity  of  the  lower  classes  attested  by  their  past  history, 
and  does  permanent  harm  to  Indian  Christianity  by  estab- 
lishing a  low  standard  of  spirituality  in  the  Indian  Church. 
This  low  standard  of  spiritual  life  is  one  of  the  chief  stumbling 
blocks  to  the  true  expansion  of  Christianity  in  the  land;  for, 
converts  of  a  higher  order  who  have  accepted  Christianity 
through  higher  motives  could  hardly  find  their  spiritual  home 
in  the  Christian  community  as  it  is  at  present  composed, 
with  the  result  that  they  either  succumb  to  the  prevailing 
standard  of  the  community  or  go  out  of  the  Christian  Com- 
munity or  remain  as  unbaptized  Christians  outside.  Mass 
movements  have  also  reproduced  the  caste  divisions  inside 
the  Christian  Church  and  have,  we  are  afraid,  forever  com- 
mitted Christianity  to  development  on  caste  lines.  They 
have  given  the  lie  to  the  hopes  held  out  by  Christian  mission- 
aries in  the  past  of  Christianity  proving  the  most  effective 
force  in  the  formation  of  an  Indian  nation.  We  are  there- 
fore even  forced  to  disown  the  Christian  community  as  not 
being  a  creation  of  the  spirit  of  Christ  and  would  differentiate 
between  this  community  and  the  true  Christian  Church,  which 
should  consist  of  true  followers  of  Christ.  Such  methods  of 
enlarging  the  Christian  Church  have  been  followed  in  the  West, 
and  such  nominal  Christianity  does  exist  in  the  West.  But 
that  is  no  sufficient  reason  for  perpetuating  them  here,  where 

241 


the  Christian  Church  is  yet  in  its  initial  stages  with  its  task 
of  evangelization  still  largely  before  it.  This  drawback  comes 
to  the  forefront  especially  at  the  present  juncture  in  India, 
where  the  struggle  between  Christianity  and  Hinduism  clearly 
lies  in  the  spiritual  realm.  That  the  large  accession  to  the 
Christian  churches  from  these  classes  is  a  drag  on  the  wheels 
of  progress  becomes  apparent.  Whenever  any  desirable  re- 
form is  proposed,  the  missions  that  are  responsible  for  these 
movements  at  once  point  out  that  it  is  only  a  small  section 
that  would  countenance  the  change  and  that  the  less  developed 
Christians  are  averse  to  it.  Thus,  by  the  continual  expansion 
of  the  Churches  by  the  initow  of  mere  numbers,  their  period 
of  tutelage  and  subordination  can  be  indefinitely  postponed, 
and  it  is  even  contended  that  these  lower  classes  cannot  be 
entrusted  to  their  more  educated  brethren,  and  that  the  mis- 
sionary alone  can  hold  the  scales  even  between  the  two 
parties." 

Some  of  the  discussions  of  this  question  in  which  we 
shared  led  us  to  ask  whether  if  those  with  whom  we  were 
speaking  had  had  matters  in  their  own  hands  there  ever  would 
have  been  any  mass  movement  at  all  or  whether  if  they  could 
have  their  way  now  the  movement  would  be  allowed  any  fur- 
ther development.  In  our  own  Presbyteries  these  questions 
were  answered  unequivocally  in  the  affirmative,  and  one  does 
not  see  how  any  other  answer  could  be  given.  The  teaching 
of  our  Lord  and  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church  in  the 
New  Testament,  in  the  centuries  of  the  expansion  of  the 
Church,  in  the  Reformation,  in  the  best  activities  of  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  Church;  the  institution  of  the  human  family 
with  the  principles  and  processes  of  its  unequalled  power; 
the  laws  of  life  and  progress  in  institutions  and  in  society 
are  all  against  too  tight  and  hampering  an  attitude  with  re- 
gard to  the  providence  of  God  in  the  founding  of  His  Church. 
One  can  sympathize  deeply,  as  we  do,  with  the  individualistic 
and  selective  view  expressed  in  the  quotation  from  the  memo- 
randum of  the  Christo  Samaj,  and  yet  one  cannot  but  believe 
that  in  the  long  run  we  shall  see  that  this  mass  movement 
with  all  its  problems  and  difficulties  was  and  is  of  God's  will. 
Only  we  should  certainly  seek  to  make  fewer  mistakes  than 
we  have  made  and  should  certainly  look  with  restiveness  and 
discontent  upon  our  present  failure  to  make  all  that  should 
be  made  out  of  this  opportunity.  There  are  those  who  believe 
that  only  Indian  Christians  of  the  higher  castes  could  use  this 
opportunity  to  the  full.  It  would  be  a  tragic  thing  if  leaders 
of  the  Indian  Church  from  the  better  castes  were  led  to  ter- 

242 


minate  or  to  oppose  a  movement  which  they  might  not  only 
save  from  mistake  and  loss,  but  by  which  it  might  be  the  will 
of  God  through  them  to  save  India. 

4.      A  NEW  ASPECT  OF  THE  MOVEMENT  TOWARD  CHURCH  UNION 

Within  the  bounds  of  our  three  Missions  there  appear  to 
be  no  ecclesiastical   movements  under   way  looking  toward 
any  new  form  of  Church  union.    A  commission  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  the   Presbyterian   Church   in   India   is   in   cor- 
respondence on  the  subject  with  various  bodies,  but  no  defi- 
nite proposals  were  passed  upon  by  the  last  Assembly,  and 
we  heard  of  none  that  were  to  come  before  the  Assembly  in 
Allahabad  on  December  28,  1921.    We  found  the  Presbyterian 
attitude  of  mind  wherever  we  met  it  almost  always  friendly 
toward  every  union  proposal.    Our  Missions  are  in  the  habit 
of  welcoming  every  possibility  of  co-operation  and  unity  which 
does  not  imperil  essential  evangelical  conviction.     We  met, 
however,   especially   in   connection   with   the   discussions   of 
union  between  the  United  Church  of  South  India   (Presby- 
terian, Reformed   and   Congregational)    and  the   Church   of 
England,  but  emerging  elsewhere  also,  a  new  attitude  of  mind 
growing  out  of  the  present  nationalistic  spirit  and  critical 
of  the  union  movement  or  of  any  leadership  or  aggressive 
effort  on  the  part  of  the  foreign  Missions  with   regard  to 
it.     Hitherto   Missions  have  been   reproached   for  their  re- 
luctance in  this  matter.     Now  they  are  reproached  for  their 
zeal.     The   new  situation   is   well  illustrated   in  an   address 
on  "The  Co-operative  Efforts  of  Missions  and  their  Relations 
to  the  Indian  Church"  before  the  Bangalore  conference  by 
Mr.  K.  T.  Paul  and  the  editorial  comment  on  the  address  in 
the  organ  of  the  National  Missionary  Society  of  India:     "In 
the  course  of  an  address  on  'The  Co-operative  Efforts  of  Mis- 
sions and  their  Relation  to  the  Indian   Church'  before  the 
Bangalore  Conference  Continuation,  Mr.  K.  T.   Paul  is  re- 
ported to  have  said:     'In  the  mission  field  various  Missions 
were  pooling  their  resources  in  a  greater  or  smaller  degree 
of  co-operation  for  educational  and  medical  work  resulting 
in  institutions   like  the   Bangalore  Theological   College,   the 
Madras  Christian  College,  the  Women's  Christian  College,  the 
Serampore  College,  the  Vellore  and  Ludhiana  Medical  Schools. 
Side  by  side  with  these  there  are  trusts  and  combines  for 
administrative  purposes  and  government  patronage  and  recog- 
nition, like  the  Provincial  Representative  Councils  of  Mis- 
sions, the  National  Missionary  Council  and  the  International 
Missionary  Association  which  replaced  the  Edinburgh  Con- 

243 


tiniiation  Committee  which  the  war  had  killed.  These  were 
all  purely  mission  combinations  in  which  the  Indian  Church 
as  such  had  no  place  although  by  courtesy  a  few  Indians  are 
nominated.  He  emphasized  the  fact  that  these  mammoth 
organizations  were  magnifying  the  difficulties  of  the  Infant 
Indian  Church.  Lack  of  training  in  leadership,  funds  and 
unsuitability  of  such  institutions  to  the  Indian  genius  make 
it  difficult  for  the  Indian  Church  to  cope  even  with  the  powers 
transferred  to  the  Indian  Churches  by  some  Missions,  with 
the  result  that  the  latter  remain  the  dominant  factor  in  the 
situation.  The  thing  becomes  more  difficult  when  the  Indian 
Church  is  confronted  with  the  huge  organizations  of  national 
and  super-national  combines  of  missions.  He  seemed  to  in- 
dicate that  the  solution  might  be  in  the  direction  of  a  re- 
organization of  the  Indian  Church  which  would  tackle  the 
situation  more  effectively.'  We  have  always  been  told  that 
the  co-operative  efforts  of  missions  are  the  very  crown  and 
glory  of  missionary  work.  Some  of  the  best  and  ablest  mission- 
aries in  India  are  engaged  in  the  activities  carried  on  by 
these  organizations  with  the  financial  and  moral  support  of 
powerful  American  and  British  missionary  combinations  and 
influential  missionary  statesmen.  And  there  is  no  doubt 
these  inter-mission  organizations  are  becoming  effective  in- 
struments in  the  hands  of  missionaries  for  carrying  out 
their  ideas  and  policies.  What  is  the  effect  of  the  growth 
of  these  organizations  on  the  infant  Indian  Church?  Can 
the  Indian  Church  in  her  present  state  of  financial  dependence 
on  foreign  missions  and  lack  of  leaders  who  could  hold  their 
own  with  keenly  diplomatic  missionary  statesmen  hope  to 
make  her  influence  felt  on  these  bodies  in  any  way?  If  not, 
what  are  the  steps  the  Indian  Church  has  to  take  to  protect 
herself  from  the  danger  of  being  carried  off  her  feet  on  vital 
questions  affecting  the  progress  of  real  Christianity  in  this 
land?" 

This  view,  which  as  those  who  hold  it  recognize,  has  much 
to  be  said  against  it,  has  also,  I  believe,  a  great  deal  to  be  said 
for  it,  and  it  is  set  forth  very  positively  in  "The  Memorandum 
on  the  Further  Development  and  Exposition  of  Christianity 
in  India,"  issued  by  the  Christo  Samaj : 

"Another  foreign  feature  of  the  present  order  is  the  de- 
nominationalism  of  Western  Christianity.  It  has  divided 
Indian  Christians  into  different  compartments,  some  of  whom 
have  imbibed  the  exclusiveness,  rivalry,  dogmatism  and  false 
pride  that  is  characteristic  of  it  in  the  West.  It  finds  expres- 
sitDn  in  these  days  when  the  question  of  Christian  Unity  is 

244 


pressed  home,  in  such  vehement  cries  as  'Lutheranism  in 
danger/  'Methodism  at  stake.'  It  may  be  pointed  out  that  a 
spurious  loyalty  is  often  assumed  with  a  view  to  please  or 
bring  oneself  into  line  with  the  missionary  heads  and  pay- 
masters. Whether  assumed  or  imbibed,  western  denomina- 
tionalism  is  not  true  to  Indian  conditions,  its  historic  roots 
being  found  in  circumstances  which  are  foreign.  At  a  time 
when  even  in  the  West  there  are  movements  toward  Christian 
Unity,  it  should  certainly  appear  curious  to  find  reaction- 
aries in  the  adopted  homes  of  the  denominations  in  the  mis- 
sionary fields.  The  equality  and  brotherhood  of  all  Christians 
and  all  ministries  belonging  to  the  different  denominations 
must  be  regarded  not  only  as  a  widely  accepted  article  of  faith 
with  the  Indian  Christian,  but  as  the  only  desirable  position 
that  is  natural  and  calculated  to  promote  the  highest  interests 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  this  land. 

"We  have  here  to  refer  to  the  Church  Union  movement  or 
controversy  that  has  been  absorbing  the  time  and  energies 
of  some  of  the  missionary  bodies  and  Indian  Christians  for 
the  past  two  years.  It  may  appear  rather  strange  to  those 
who  have  not  gone  deep  into  the  matter  that  the  progressive 
party  represented  by  the  Christo  Samaj,  the  Bangalore  Con- 
ference and  the  Christian  Patriot  should  have  arrayed  itself 
against  it.  It  has  brought  upon  us  the  charge  of  being  im- 
bued with  merely  an  anti-missionary  spirit  that  opposes  the 
missionary  in  everything  that  he  does — in  days  gone  by  for 
his  denominationalism  and  at  present  for  his  unionism.  We 
partially  accept  the  charge,  but  disown  any  desire  to  criti- 
cise for  criticism's  sake.  Most  certainly  our  chief  objection 
to  the  union  movement  has  been  the  lead  that  has  been  given 
and  taken  by  the  foreign  missionaries  in  the  matter,  and  in 
the  questionable  manner  in  which  Indian  support  has  been 
elicited  through  conclaves  of  clericals  and  some  laymen  in 
mission  service,  dependent  on  and  ever  anxious  to  please  the 
missionaries,  and  the  unbecoming  haste  with  which  the  move- 
ment was  being  precipitated  without  any  attempt  to  find  out 
the  wishes  of  the  general  body  of  Indian  Christians  or  to 
educate  them  in  the  issues  involved.  When  after  a  Church 
Council  with  all  its  clergy  have  been  persuaded  by  interested 
parties  to  pass  a  resolution  accepting  the  Union  proposals,  the 
mission  goes  on  to  arrange  a  Summer  School  for  the  clergy- 
men to  impart  instruction  in  the  elementary  issues  involved 
in  Church  Union; — for  Indian  Christians  to  protest  against 
this  method  of  putting  the  cart  before  the  horse,  rather,  of 
constructing  the  building  before  the  foundation  is  laid,  nay, 

245 


of  treating  the  Indian  clergy  and  community  as  mere  pawns 
in  the  game  of  missionary  diplomacy  is  but  to  make  the 
barest  demands  of  self-respect  for  his  community.  The  above 
remarks  apply  to  the  negotiations  for  union  carried  on  between 
the  S.  I.  U.  C.  and  the  Anglican  Church  in  S.  India,  which 
fortunately  have  received  a  set-back  recently  and  we  hope 
the  reaction  will  put  an  end  to  the  contemplated  organizational 
union  on  the  basis  of  the  historic  episcopacy.  But  an  eccle- 
siastical crime  of  a  worse  character  has  been  perpetrated 
in  the  inception  and  establishment  of  Episcopacy  in  the  Tamil 
Lutheran  Church  within  the  space  of  twelve  hours  by  the 
Church  of  Sweden  Mission — a  feat,  we  believe,  unprecedented 
in  the  history  of  the  world  and  indicative  of  the  helplessness 
of  the  Indian  Church  on  the  one  hand  and  the  high-handed- 
ness of  missionaries  on  the  other.  Before  proceeding  further 
we  wish  to  draw  your  attention  to  the  Edinburgh  Missionary 
Conference  Report  about  Church  Union  in  South  India,  which 
says: 

"  'When  we  turn  to  India,  the  evidence  is  more  conflicting. 
It  has  hitherto  at  least  been  undoubtedly  a  characteristic  of 
the  Indian  to  leave  action  for  the  most  part  to  any  one  with 
energy  or  authority,  and  merely  to  acquiesce  or  stand  aloof, 
according  to  circumstances.  The  movements  in  the  direction 
of  unity  thus  far  have  owed  their  inception  and  success 
chiefly  to  the  work  of  foreign  missionaries.' 

"But  not  only  have  the  union  manipulations  been  an  offence 
against  the  self-respect  of  the  Indian  Christian,  but  the  whole 
movement  belongs  essentially  to  the  present  order  of  things, 
which  we  have  criticised  as  being  foreign  to  the  Indian  soil. 
Apart  from  a  foreign  denominationalism  that  Western  Chris- 
tianity has  introduced  into  India,  it  has  also  brought  with  it, 
as  we  have  pointed  out,  an  administrative,  ecclesiastical  and 
evangelistic  machinery  that  is  beyond  the  natural  capacity 
and  unsuited  to  the  instructive  genius  of  the  Indian.  Indian 
religion  has  laid  far  less  emphasis  on  close  organization  and 
on  costly  institutions  and  has  depended  far  more  on  the  per- 
sonal and  voluntary  service  of  unorganized  religious  workers 
of  the  type  of  Sadhus.  While  the  present  missionary  system 
itself  is  open  to  criticism  from  this  standpoint,  the  excessive 
centralization  of  authority  and  the  much  more  complicated 
and  heavy  machinery  that  a  united  church  implies  will  be  the 
culmination  and  triumph  of  a  foreign  system  that  will  clothe 
young  David  not  only  in  the  armour  of  King  Saul,  but  still 
worse  in  that  of  the  Philistine  Goliath.  It  will  have  the  re- 
sult of  perpetuating  the  present  administrative  and  financial 

246 


dependence  on  foreign  missions  and  create  a  brown  bureau- 
cracy within  the  Indian  Church,  who  will  become  a  menace 
to  the  true  progress  of  Indian  Christianity  far  more  than 
the  present  missionary  rulers.  The  administrative  independ- 
ence of  the  Indian  Church  cannot  be  effected  by  the  imposi- 
tion of  a  machinery  essentially  foreign  in  its  conception  and 
execution,  but  by  making  room  for  simpler  and  spontaneous 
organizations  natural  to  the  soil.  We  entirely  disapprove 
the  proposal  for  the  formation  of  a  centralized  single  eccle- 
siastical organization  comprehending  the  entire  Christian 
community  in  all  India.  It  will  be  a  national  church  of  the 
western  pattern,  which  will  for  ever  be  a  handicap  to  the 
development  of  Christianity  on  Indian  lines.  It  is  doubtful 
if  Indian  Christianity  will  ever  evolve  a  national  church  on 
the  western  model,  but  even  if  such  a  possibility  be  antici- 
pated it  will  have  to  be  allowed  time  to  take  shape  naturally. 
But  we  plead  that  the  development  of  an  Indian  type  of  Chris- 
tianity, embodying  Indian  ideals,  should  precede  any  effort 
to  organize  an  Indian  Church.  Our  attitude  towards  the 
problem  of  church  unity  has  already  been  made  public  through 
the  Indian  Christian  Manifesto  published  in  the  Christian 
Patriot  and  the  Resolutions  on  Church  Union  passed  by  two 
successive  sessions  of  the  Bangalore  Conference." 

The  manifesto  and  the  resolutions  referred  to  will  be  found 
in  Appendix  XIV. 

The  desire  to  safeguard  the  simplicity,  the  reality,  and  the 
freedom  of  the  Indian  Church  is  a  right  desire.  It  is  an  open 
question,  however,  whether  if  the  Indian  Christians  were 
really  united  in  one  Church  they  would  not  be  in  a  better 
position  to  protect  and  assert  their  freedom  than  they  are 
now.  Once  or  twice  we  heard  able  Christian  leaders  contend- 
ing that  if  the  separate  denominational  Missions  did  not 
settle  satisfactorily  the  question  of  their  relationships  with 
their  co-operating  Churches  these  Churches  would  take  mat- 
ters into  their  own  hands  and  unite  and  then  be  in  a  position 
to  have  their  own  way.  We  were  disposed  to  reply  that  there 
were  many  in  the  West  to  whom  such  a  prospect  was  far 
from  being  a  warning  and  who  would  be  disposed  to  follow 
a  course  of  action  that  might  have  this  result. 

Among  the  leaders  in  the  five  Presbyteries  with  which  we 
dealt,  we  found  no  such  attitude  of  mind  as  has  been  just 
set  forth.  The  Kolhapur  Presbytery  seems  to  be  coming  into 
closer  relation  with  the  Congregational  and  Scotch  mission 
churches  and  the  four  other  Presbyteries,  especially  the  Lahore 
and  the  Allahabad  Presbyteries,  are  in  close  relations  with 

247 


other  Church  bodies,  and  we  were  glad  to  find  the  minds  of 
their  leaders  thoroughly  hospitable  to  the  idea  of  Church 
unity.  In  the  Lahore  Presbytery,  indeed,  it  is  not  mission- 
aries but  Indian  Christians  who  are  taking  the  leadership, 
and  the  Punjab  Christian  Conference  represents  a  notable 
drawing  together  in  common  understanding  and  common 
action  of  the  Christians  of  all  denominations. 

One  of  my  most  interesting  hours  in  India  was  a  meeting 
with  a  committee  of  this  Punjab  Christian  Conference.  There 
were  ten  Indians  present.  Most  of  them  were  the  strong 
men  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  who  are  the  foremost  Chris- 
tian leaders  in  the  Punjab.  The  others  were  from  the  Church 
of  England  and  one  or  two  other  bodies.  One  of  their  num- 
ber explained  the  origin  and  work  of  the  Indian  Christian 
Conference.  There  had  been  an  Indian  Christian  Association 
in  existence  for  twenty  years.  At  first  it  had  to  do  with 
education.  Then  political  questions  arose.  The  Indian  Chris- 
tian Conference  declined  to  engage  in  these  qaestions,  and 
in  consequence  the  Punjab  Christian  Conference  was  formed 
for  this  purpose  two  years  ago.  First  it  asked  the  Govern- 
ment for  Christian  representation  on  the  Provincial  Legis- 
lative Council.  The  Government  assented  and  Mr.  K.  L.  Rallia 
Ram  was  chosen  as  the  Christian  representative.  Through 
his  influence  a  local  option  measure  had  been  passed  which 
was  a  good  thing  because  Christians  had  been  regarded  by 
the  public  as  favoring  the  liquor  traffic.  The  Conference  had 
also  taken  up  the  cause  of  Christian  workers  on  the  North- 
western Railway  and  had  secured  for  them  more  equitable 
treatment.  At  one  of  its  meetings,  in  half  an  hour's  time, 
the  Conference  had  subscribed  more  than  enough  to  provide 
the  salary  of  one  of  the  Indian  Christian  teachers  in  Kinnaird 
College.  They  believed  that  the  Christian  community  had 
great  resources  which  had  not  yet  been  called  out,  and  they 
had  started  a  Christian  bank  with  shares  and  deposits 
of  Rs.  30,000  and  aimed  at  Rs.  100,000.  They  wanted  Missions 
to  help  in  this  and  in  many  other  enterprises.  What  they 
desired  was  a  real  co-operation  in  all  the  work  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  in  the  Punjab.  Without  mentioning  names,  it 
may  be  well  to  summarize  statements  which  the  individual 
members  of  the  committee  proceeded  to  make.  A.  "I  am  not 
a  Presbyterian.  I  will  tell  you  the  opinion  of  the  Christian 
man  in  the  street.  As  a  child  I  avoided  the  padres.  As  a 
man  I  have  never  heard  a  Mission  servant  say  that  such  ser- 
vice was  good.  When  the  war  came,  I  heard  the  call  to  Chris- 
tian service,  and  I  joined  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  because  I  thought 

248 


it  was  the  least  objectionable  Christian  agency.  The  situation 
of  missionary  servants  is  poverty,  insufficient  support,  and 
insecurity  of  tenure,  but  I  find  these  in  other  Christian  agen- 
cies besides  the  Missions.  My  complaint  is  that  the  Missions 
have  never  given  responsibilities  to  Indians,  and  the  impres- 
sion prevails  that  this  has  affected  the  type  of  men  who  join 
Mission  service.  I  am  glad  to  see  that  you  are  giving  more 
responsibility  to  Indians  now.  As  to  money  and  power,  we 
feel  that  the  money  should  be  spent  on  the  best.  We  do  not 
think  it  follows  that  those  who  give  the  money  should  control 
its  expenditures.  We  feel  that  we  are  the  equals  of  the  mis- 
sionaries and  that  we  should  be  related  to  expenditure  as 
well  as  the  Missions.  We  deprecate  the  attitude  of  the  Mis- 
sions in  making  men  feel  that  they  are  doing  wrong  if  they 
go  into  business  or  law  or  worldly  affairs.  The  Missions 
should  rejoice  in  this.  Also  I  believe  the  Missions  have  been 
wrong  in  discouraging  political  interest  and  activity.  Fur- 
thermore, judgments  on  Indian  workers  should  be  deter- 
mined by  the  judgments  of  Indians,  and  in  the  case  of  mis- 
sionaries Indian  fellow  workers  should  have  the  right  to 
express  their  judgment  as  to  whether  missionaries  are  tem- 
peramentally fitted  to  India  and  whether  they  should  return 
after  their  furloughs."  B.  "You  can  tell  the  missionaries 
what  I  say.  Indians  know  India  better  than  foreigners  know 
it,  and  we  are  honest  and  devoted.  We  are  hospitable  too. 
Why  is  it  then  that  there  is  so  little  friendship  between  us 
and  missionaries.  I  will  tell  you  why.  We  have  lived  in 
India  under  autocracy  for  thousands  of  years.  We  have  been 
made  a  servile  people,  and  we  have  taken  an  attitude  of  ser- 
vility towards  sahibs,  including  missionary  sahibs.  On  the 
other  side  also,  missionaries  came  here  thinking  to  find  an 
inferior  people,  atheistic  or  idolatrous  and  heathen.  They 
came  as  employers  to  employees.  Westerners  have  brought 
organization  to  India  too.  We  had  never  had  it  before.  Mis- 
sionaries brought  it  with  them, — organization  and  the  prin- 
ciple of  salaries  in  religious  service.  They  did  not  found 
mission  work  on  the  old  Indian  religious  basis  nor  are  they 
and  the  Indian  workers  they  have  trained,  yogis.  When  the 
missionaries  give  up  salaries  and  become  yogis,  I  will  do  so 
at  once.  We  want  to  live  as  they  live.  If  the  missionary  move- 
ment is  to  be  projected  on  a  basis  without  money  the  mis- 
sionaries must  do  it  first.  Our  mode  of  living,  our  method 
of  support,  our  desires  are  only  patterned  after  the  mission- 
aries. Europeans  and  even  missionaries  have  clubs  without 
Indian  members.    We  can  pray  together  but  we  cannot  play 

249 


together."     C.     The   third   speaker   was   of  the   Church   of 
England.     "The  situation  is  the  same  in  all  churches,"  said 
he.     "There  are  exceptional  missionaries  of  course  in  the 
different  Missions  to  whom  what  we  are  saying  would  not 
apply,  but  the  general  system  of  missionary  organization  and 
rules  and  the  paymaster  scheme  of  things  prevails  in  all  the 
Missions  and  soon  engulfs  any  exceptional  individuals.     If 
a  new  missionary  wants  to  enter  the  life  of  unity  with  India 
he  is  soon  coerced  by  the  influence  of  his  associations.    I  have 
read  the  Saharanpur  plan,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  that  offers 
a  solution."    D.    "The  impression  prevails  in  India  that  mis- 
sionaries  are   in   general   an   obstacle  to   political   progress. 
Their  behavior  in  certain  political  crises  within  the  past  few 
years  may  have  a  permanent  evil  effect.     They  must  beware 
of  being  anti-national.    There  are  missionaries  who  have  lost 
all  influence  even  among  Christians  because  of  their  political 
attitude.     The  people  call  them,  especially  some  of  the  Eng- 
lish missionaries,  government  spies.    It  is  increasingly  difficult 
for  these  reasons  for  missionaries  to  preach  to  non-Chris- 
tians."    Upon  this  an  animated  discussion  arose  which  de- 
veloped divergent  views.     Some  held  that  in  all  matters  of 
politics,  missionaries  should  be  scrupulously  neutral,  others 
that  on  public  questions  missionaries  ought  to  take  sides  with 
what  they  believed  was  right,  even  though  it  was  antagonistic 
to  Government.    As  to  the  mass  movement  they  thought  that, 
if  left  to  themselves,  they  would  have  gone  forward  with  it, 
but  admitted  that  there  was  a  time  when  Indian  Christians 
were  indifferent  to  the  village  people.     "It  is  not  so  now, 
however."     If  the  mass  movement  had  been  in  their  hands, 
they  believed  different  methods  would  have  been  used,  and 
that  more  of  an  effort  would  have  been  made  to  make  the 
village  Christians  independent.     Missionaries  too  often  went 
to  them  with  the  idea  that  the  people  were  poor  and  could 
not  be  made  independent.     I  intimated  that  if  they  were  in 
favor  of  an  ideal  of  financial  independence  for  the  churches  in 
the  villages,  they  must  not  demur  if  Missions  held  up  a  simi- 
lar ideal  for  the  churches  in  the  towns  and  the  cities,  and  I 
asked  them  whether  the  history  of  the  National  Missionary 
Society  confirmed  their  opinion  that  the  Missions  had  followed 
unwise  methods  in  the  village  work.     They  replied  that  the 
National  Missionary  Society  had  followed  the  same  methods 
as'  the  Missions.     They  did  not  think  that  the  mass  move- 
ment had  hindered  the  Christian  movement  among  the  castes. 
Some  argued,  however,  that  it  had  done  so,  that  it  had  not 
raised  the  outcaste  people  socially  or  the  higher  castes  would 

250 


have  been  more  influenced  by  it.  Here  too  there  was  diverg- 
ence of  view.  Some  one  cited  resolutions  which  the  Indian 
Christian  Conference  had  adopted  criticising  the  Missions  for 
pressing  the  mass  movement  too  fast  and  for  carrying  it  be- 
yond the  point  where  education  adequately  followed  it  up.  "I 
do  not  agree  with  these  strictures,"  said  one.  "The  mass  move- 
ment has  been  a  great  success  and  an  unqualified  help,  politi- 
cally and  religiously,  to  the  whole  Church.  Many  of  our  city 
churches  have  been  fed  by  Christians  who  have  come  in  from 
the  villages."  "My  complaint,"  said  B.,  "is  that  missionaries 
are  transferred  too  often.  Especially  in  the  village  work 
frequent  transfers  weaken  the  sense  of  responsibility  of  mis- 
sionaries in  the  matter  of  speedy  baptisms,  arouse  rivalry  as 
to  the  number  of  baptisms,  and  interfere  with  the  continuity 
of  a  sustained  policy  of  village  visitation." 

Whatever  one  might  think  of  these  varying  views,  he  was 
glad  to  meet  with  such  a  group  of  men  and  proud  to  have 
them  for  his  friends,  and  he  was  sure  that  God  would  guide 
them  and  the  missionaries  who,  as  they  well  know,  are  their 
truest  and  strongest  allies,  into  right  forms  of  co-operation 
and  keep  them  all  in  the  spirit  of  Christlike  love  and  trust. 

5.      THE  NATIONALISTIC  IDEAL  OF  THE  CHURCH 

One  meets  in  India  today  the  question  which  was  so  familiar 
in  Japan  twenty-five  years  ago  as  to  the  influence  of  the  nation- 
alistic spirit  upon  the  ideal  of  the  Church  both  as  to  organi- 
zation and  as  to  doctrine,  and  many  articles  are  written  and 
many  speeches  are  made  with  regard  to  the  contribution  which 
India  should  make  in  the  development  of  Christian  institu- 
tions and  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Gospel.  It  is  always 
wholesome  to  have  such  questions  raised,  more  wholesome 
perhaps  even  for  the  home  Churches  than  for  the  Churches 
on  the  Mission  field.  We  may  be  sure  that  life  is  an  organic 
process  and  that  it  all  hangs  together.  The  roles  of  East 
and  West  would  be  exchanged  today,  if  it  were  not  the  fact. 
In  politics  and  economics  and  social  progress  and,  just  as 
truly,  in  religion,  yes  even  more  truly  in  religion,  the  East 
has  a  great  deal  more  to  learn  than  it  has  to  teach.  The 
East  did  teach  its  best  to  the  West  nineteen  centuries  ago 
when  it  gave  it  Christianity.  It  has  nothing  to  give  now 
comparable  with  that  gift  whose  influence  is  responsible 
more  than  all  else  for  the  difference  between  the  East  and 
the  West.  If  the  West  has  not  adequately  understood  Chris- 
tianity or  not  adequately  developed  its  institutions,  the  cor- 
rection will  be  made  as  much  by  the  West  as  by  the  East. 

251 


I  think  that  the  view  which  Mr.  Lowes  Dickinson  sets  forth 
in  his  little  book  on  the  "Civilizations  of  India,  China,  and 
Japan,"  is  open  to  criticism,  but  I  fear  also  that  it  holds  a 
great  deal  of  truth,  "To  sum  up,"  he  writes,  "I  find  in  India 
a  peculiar  civilization  antithetical  to  that  of  the  West.  I 
find  a  religious  consciousness  which  negates  what  is  really 
the  religious  postulate  of  the  West,  that  life  in  time  is  the 
real  and  important  life  and  a  social  institution,  caste,  which 
negates  the  implicit  assumption  of  the  West  that  the  desirable 
thing  is  equality  of  opportunity.  I  find  also  that  in  India 
the  contact  between  East  and  West  assumes  a  form  peculi- 
arly acute  and  irritating  owing  to  the  fact  that  India  has  been 
conquered,  and  is  governed  by  a  Western  power,  but  the 
contact  none  the  less  is  having  the  same  disintegrating  effect 
it  produces  on  other  Eastern  countries,  and  I  do  not  doubt 
that  sooner  or  later,  whether  or  no  British  rule  maintains 
itself,  the  religious  consciousness  of  India  will  be  transformed 
by  the  methods  and  results  of  positive  science,  and  its  insti- 
tutions by  the  economic  influences  of  industriahsm.  In  this 
transformation  something  will  of  course  be  lost,  but  my  own 
opinion  is  that  India  has  more  to  gain  and  less  to  lose  by  con- 
tact with  the  West  than  any  other  Eastern  country."  Mr. 
Dickinson  closes  his  essay  with  the  contention  that  the  future 
civilization  will  not  be  the  balance  or  new  synthesis  of  Eastern 
contemplativeness  and  Western  energy,  that  the  West  will 
not  learn  new  lessons  from  the  East  while  the  East  holds  its 
ancient  inheritance  and  traditions  and  learns  some  selected 
lessons  from  the  West.  "The  West  may  receive  a  stimulus 
from  the  East.  It  can  hardly  take  an  example.  And  the  East 
taking  from  the  West  its  industrial  organization  will  have 
to  take  everything  else.  I  should  look,  therefore,  for  a  redress 
of  the  balance  in  the  West,  not  directly  to  the  importation 
of  ideals  from  the  East  but  to  a  reaction  prompted  by  its 
own  sense  of  its  excesses  on  the  side  of  activity.  And  on 
the  other  hand  I  expect  the  East  to  follow  us,  whether  it  like 
it  or  not,  into  all  these  excesses  and  to  go  right  through  not 
around  all  that  we  have  been  through  on  its  way  to  a  higher 
phase  of  civilization.  In  short,  I  believe  that  the  renewal 
of  art,  of  contemplation,  of  religion  will  arise  in  the  West  of 
its  own  impulse  and  that  the  East  will  lose  what  remains 
of  its  achievement  in  these  directions  and  become  as  'materi- 
alistic' (to  use  the  word)  as  the  West  before  it  can  recover 
a  new  and  genuine  spiritual  life." 

The  consciousness  and  the  conscience  of  India  and  especi- 
ally of  the  Christian  Church  in  India,  are  right  in  resisting 

252 


and  seeking  to  falsify  this  forecast.  Nothing  will  help  them 
better  in  this  effort  than  the  actual  facing  of  facts  and  the 
successful  resistance  of  the  temptation  to  gloss  facts  over 
under  the  influence  of  the  nationalistic  spirit.  The  glorifica- 
tion of  a  past  that  never  really  existed,  the  attempt  to  read 
into  the  past,  its  institutions  and  its  language,  ideals  that 
never  were  there,  the  composition  of  impossible  eclectic  pro- 
grams, the  exaggerated  imagination  of  social  and  intellectual 
and  religious  contributions  which  India  has  to  make  to  Chris- 
tianity and  to  civilization,  all  these  things  are  enemies  of  the 
truest  life  and  the  greatest  power  in  the  Indian  Church  and 
the  leaders  of  the  Church  should  pray  to  be  delivered  from 
them.  This  is  exceedingly  unpopular  counsel,  but  is  sound 
counsel  none  the  less.  The  real  contributions  to  human  pro- 
gress and  to  wider  vision  and  larger  life  have  not  been  made 
in  this  self-sacrificing  way  either  by  individuals  or  by  races. 
If  India  can  develop  simpler  forms  of  Christian  life,  if  she 
can  find  more  effective  ways  of  making  Christ  known  to  men 
and  enthroning  Him  in  their  wills  and  in  human  society,  if 
fresh  methods  of  missionary  propaganda  can  be  devised, 
as  it  was  hoped  the  National  Missionary  Society  as  an  indi- 
genous missionary  organization  might  devise  them,  if  any 
lessons  can  be  learned  beside  the  obvious  lesson  from  the 
amazing  lack  of  organization  in  Hinduism  and  the  desultori- 
ness  and  yet  pervasiveness  of  its  worship  and  activity,  if  in- 
dividuals and  groups  will  actually  develop  new  models  of 
Christian  achievement  and  pay  the  costs  which  such  new  dis- 
coveries ever  involve,  the  whole  Church  throughout  the  world 
will  be  grateful.  But  it  needs  always  to  be  kept  in  mind  in 
these  matters  that  one  deed,  one  steadfast,  continuous  and 
persistent  deed,  is  worth  more  than  many  dreams.  India's 
religious  history  shows  her  capacity  for  these  deeds,  and 
many  names,  ancient  and  modern,  rise  to  one's  mind.  It  is 
for  the  Indian  Church  to  show,  as  it  will  show,  how  much 
more  wonderful  the  achievements  of  Christ  in  Indian  hearts 
can  be.  It  is  for  the  Indian  Church  to  show,  also,  as  it  will 
show,  that  such  deeds  can  be  done  not  in  the  spirit  of  sepa- 
ratism, of  race  assertion,  or  of  national  pride,  but  after  the 
mind  of  Christ. 

S.  S.  Varsova, 

Persian  Gulf,  Jan.  2,  1922. 


253 


6.     SOME   ASPECTS   OF   THE   PROBLEM   OF   MIS- 
SIONARY EDUCATION  IN  INDIA 

1.      GENERAL  SITUATION 

Not  a  few  pages  but  a  volume,  and  not  one  volume  but 
many,  would  be  required  to  deal  in  any  adequate  way  with 
the  problem  of  missionary  education  in  India.  That  problem 
is  interwoven  with  the  general  problem  of  Indian  education, 
and  how  immense  and  intricate  this  general  problem  is  may 
be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  the  report  of  Sir  Michael 
Sadler's  Commission  on  the  University  of  Calcutta  embraces 
thirteen  large  volumes.  This  unique  report  deals  indeed  with 
many  general  educational  questions,  but  to  no  greater  extent 
than  seemed  necessary  in  connection  with  its  specific  task. 
Missionary  education  is  even  more  intimately  related  to  the 
whole  of  Indian  education  and  to  the  whole  of  Indian  life 
than  is  the  problem  of  the  Indian  university,  and  if  any  in- 
dividual or  commission  were  to  set  out  to  deal  with  it  exhaus- 
tively, the  task  would  be  formidable.  Our  deputation  would 
have  no  competence  for  such  a  task  nor  be  possessed  of  the 
resources  or  the  several  lifetimes  which  it  would  require. 
Our  duty  is  merely  to  report  briefly  to  the  Board  on  a  few  of 
the  concrete  educational  problems  with  which  our  Missions 
are  called  to  deal  responsibly  at  the  present  time. 

Education  in  India  today  is  pretty  constantly  under  fire. 
An  influential  Christian  leader,  Dr.  S.  K.  Datta,  in  a  paper  on 
"The  Problem  of  Education,"  very  judicious  and  temperate 
in  comparison  with  much  discussion  of  the  subject,  sum- 
marizes the  criticism  of  the  modern  situation.  In  the  ancient 
days  he  holds  that  there  was  a  system  of  temple  or  mosque 
schools  widespread  all  over  the  country,  that  the  learning  they 
provided  was  cultural  and  supplied  the  students  with  a  phil- 
osophy of  life,  that  this  was  accompanied  by  a  vocational 
education  through  the  caste  as  an  occupation  guild  which 
taught  the  young  trades  or  handicrafts  by  family  education 
and  by  a  system  of  apprenticeship.  "Apart  from  cultural  and 
vocational  education,"  Dr.  Datta  writes,  "The  family  has 
been  a  most  powerful  source  of  education.  .  .  .  which  indi- 
cated to  each  of  its  members  from  the  days  of  childhood 
their  duties,  the  relationship  of  man  to  man,  responsibilities 
and  rights — all  that  the  Hindu  includes  in  the  term  Dharma 
or  duty.     The  father  taught  the  son,  by  precept  or  example, 

254 


his  trade  or  profession.  The  priest  gave  him  his  culture, 
but  to  the  mother  came  the  duty  of  training  the  boy  in 
Dharma,  and  this  last  has  been  the  most  powerful  factor  in 
education."  Perhaps  this  view  of  ancient  education  in  India 
glorifies  the  past  just  as  we  are  wont  to  do  in  America  and 
Europe.  What  we  know  of  mosque  schools  and  of  temple 
teaching  where  these  have  still  been  carried  on,  unharmed  by 
Western  influence,  does  not  support  a  high  estimate  of  their 
educational  effectiveness,  and  only  an  erroneous  principle  in 
the  interpretation  of  history  warrants  the  judgment  in  the 
West,  and  no  doubt  the  same  is  true  in  the  East,  that  the 
economic  and  social  efficiency  of  society  in  the  earlier  cen- 
turies was  to  be  preferred  to  the  conditions  of  today,  un- 
satisfactory as  these  assuredly  are. 

Whatever  may  be  our  judgments  of  the  past,  however, 
whether  in  the  East  or  the  West,  it  is  certain  that  our  present 
day  systems  of  education  are  meeting  and  ought  to  meet 
the  most  stringent  and  unflinching  criticism.  The  Calcutta 
University  report  deals  exhaustively  with  the  present  situa- 
tion, and  Dr.  Datta  in  his  paper  summarizes  its  findings: 
the  whole  of  modern  education  has  been  directed  towards 
the  University;  it  has  restricted  the  economic  worth  of  the 
individual  through  its  purely  literary  values  and  has  produced 
a  supply  of  men  with  this  type  of  education  in  excess  of  the 
needs  of  society;  it  has  multiplied  institutions  of  unsatisfac- 
tory educative  values  whose  product  swells  the  ranks  of 
the  badly  employed ;  it  provides  a  curriculum  so  restricted 
in  scope  as  to  prove  useless  to  the  student  when  he  enters  life ; 
the  use  of  a  foreign  language  as  a  medium  of  instruction  and 
the  pressure  of  examinations  renders  education  lifeless  and 
unprofitable ;  the  disharmony  between  social  education  and 
cultural  education  is  complete,  bringing  moral  bankruptcy  in 
its  train.  Dr.  Datta  recognizes  the  good  in  the  midst  of  the 
evil:  "In  spite  of  pessimism  the  failure,  though  obvious,  is 
relieved  by  great  gains.  Western  education  has  contributed 
very  greatly  to  the  intellectual  life  of  India.  The  knowledge 
of  the  English  language  has  made  available  to  thousands  the 
thought  and  ideas  of  the  most  forward  nations  of  the  world. 
Thousands  have  benefited  by  this  renascence ;  above  all  it 
has  stimulated  nationalism,  which  in  spite  of  its  defects  has 
been  the  most  purifying  moral  influence  in  modern  times." 
But  in  common  with  other  Indian  leaders  he  feels  yet  more 
deeply  the  evils  and  seeks  for  a  remedy  in  a  new  system  of 
education.  He  quotes  Sir  John  Woodroffe's  statement  in  the 
Calcutta  University  report:     "The  fault  of  the  Anglo-Indian 

255 


educational  system  is  that  instead  of  harmonizing:  with  and 
supplementing  national  culture  it  is  antagonistic  to  and  de- 
structive of  it.  .  .  .  Wrong  education  is  the  cause  of  physical 
and  mental  strain  and  sapping  of  moral  strength.  It  is  pro- 
ductive of  instability,  leading  in  the  case  of  some  to  violence, 
in  the  case  of  others  to  the  paralyzing  inner  conflict  or  a 
sense  of  intolerable  oppression,  and  in  a  large  number  of 
ordinary  and  inferior  natures  to  imitation,  automatism  and 
subservience."  Dr.  Datta's  program  of  educational  recon- 
struction calls  for  a  national  system  of  education  whose  pur- 
pose is  to  create  a  united  self-governing  India,  to  abolish 
illiteracy,  to  insure  that  every  one  learns  how  to  earn  his 
livelihood  by  the  provision  of  industrial  and  vocational  educa- 
tion, to  provide  social  education  by  remaking  the  home  an 
educational  center,  to  develop  an  Indian  cultural  training  that 
will  be  not  a  return  to  the  old,  which  is  impossible,  but  a  har- 
monizing of  the  old  and  the  new,  by  a  race  of  students  like 
Bose  and  Roy  and  Tagore,  who  know  the  modern  education 
but  whose  minds  have  not  been  made  sterile  by  it  and  who 
will  preserve  the  ancient  treasures  of  India. 

These  views  have  been  quoted  not  because  thev  are  excep- 
tional, but  because  they  are  so  illustrative.  With  us  in  the 
West  at  present  there  is  a  great  tide  of  criticism  of  tradi- 
tional education  which  probably  errs  both  in  its  idealizations 
and  in  its  condemnations,  but  which  does  not  err  in  its  reso- 
lute purpose  to  get  rid  of  what  is  found  to  be  evil  or  in- 
eff'ective  and  to  discover  a  better  way.  Great  as  the  need 
of  reform  may  be  with  us  in  America,  it  is  greater  still  in 
India.  If  the  problem  were  one  simply  of  better  education  of 
the  youth,  it  would  be  great  enough,  but  the  real  problem 
of  national  education  in  India,  where  only  a  small  fraction 
of  the  people  have  ever  gone  to  school  or  ever  will  go,  is 
far  greater.  The  problem  here,  as  another  of  the  ablest  of 
the  Christian  leaders  in  India,  has  vigorously  stated  it,  "is 
the  education  of  three  hundred  and  twenty  million  people,  a 
fifth  of  the  human  race,  and  it  has  got  to  be  done  forthwith. 
The  problem  cannot  be  solved  by  accelerating  the  education 
of  the  young.  The  whole  question  of  education  in  India  suffers 
greatly  because  the  term  is  equated  in  the  mind  exclusively 
with  the  school  room  and  the  child.  If  the  education  of  the 
nation  depended  entirely,  or  even  mainly,  on  elementary 
schools,  figures  tell  a  significant  story: 


256 


Total    No.   of  children  Expenditures 
Years                    in  all  institutions         (in  crores,  i.  e.,  10,000,000. 

(in   millions)  of   rupees) 

1861    25  .40 

1871    75  1.25 

1881    2.00  1.75 

1801    3.75  2.75 

1901    4.25  3.75 

1911    6.25  6.75 

1919    8.00  13.00 

"While  in  forty  years  the  progress  has  been  from  .25  to 
8.00  millions,  the  proportion  to  the  population  is  still  only 
3  per  cent.,  whereas  population  is  now  increasing  every  year 
at  half  per  cent.,  i.  e.,  an  addition  of  1.5  millions.  And  it  is 
officially  stated  that  39  per  cent,  of  the  children  educated  in 
India  relapse  into  illiteracy  within  five  years  of  their  leaving 
school.  The  fact  is  that,  notwithstanding  our  high  death- 
rate,  our  teeming  millions  pile  up  in  such  numbers  that,  with 
all  the  enthusiasm  for  it  which  will  undoubtedly  result  in 
consequence  of  the  Reforms,  elementary  schools  for  the  young 
cannot  possibly  overtake  the  task  of  educating  the  community 
sooner  than  in  some  centuries.  They  are  entirely  out  of  con- 
sideration in  the  matter  of  fitting  the  average  Indian  of  today 
to  the  task  of  citizenship  to  which  he  is  summoned  with  im- 
mediate urgency." 

The  best  point  of  attack,  however,  upon  the  problem  of 
national  education,  as  every  nation  has  discovered,  is  the  edu- 
cation of  the  young.  Side  by  side  with  this,  as  national  ex- 
perience has  also  shown,  is  the  preaching  of  religion.  In  both 
of  these  respects  Christianity  has  its  contribution  to  make 
and,  as  the  foreign  missionary  enterprise  presupposes,  is  the 
one  force  essential  and  effective  toward  moulding  the  char- 
acter and  service  of  individuals  and  of  peoples.  What  it  can 
do  in  India  at  the  present  time  is  twofold.  It  can  make  the 
best  of  the  present  situation  wherever  its  institutions  are  a 
part  of,  or  of  necessity  conditioned  by.  the  government  edu- 
cational requirements.  By  the  Christian  spirit  and  the  provi- 
sion of  adequate  personal  contacts  and  influence,  it  can,  as 
far  as  possible,  atone  for  the  evils  of  the  present  system  and 
make  an  even  greater  contribution  than  it  has  been  making 
towards  producing  men  of  character  and  unselfishness.  In 
the  second  place  it  can  supply  model  institutions,  departing 
from  the  government  types  and  aiming  to  meet  the  real  needs 
of  India.  Tagore  is  working  out  at  his  home  at  Bolpur  an 
institution  to  preserve  the  good  of  India's  past  and  to  meet 
the  needs  of  the  present  and  the  future.    Many  must  experi- 

257 

!) — Iiulia   and   Persia 


ment  in  this  field,  and  liere  Missions  have  the  same  contribu- 
tion to  make  which  Christian  men  acting  under  the  Christian 
spirit  have  made  again  and  again  in  other  lands  in  the 
struggle  for  educational  reform. 

It  is  in  some  such  concrete  and  experimental  v^^ays  alone, 
perhaps,  that  any  progress  can  be  made  at  the  present  time. 
No  one  can  read  the  innumerable  discussions  and  reports  on 
the  subject  in  India  without  perceiving  how  chaotic  the  situa- 
tion is  and  how  great  is  the  mixture  of  dream  and  illusion 
and  fact  and  reality.  As  in  the  case  of  swaraj,  or  political 
independence  and  swadeshi,  or  economic  independence,  so  in 
the  case  of  national  education  no  one  is  able  to  state  just 
what  the  term  means  or  what  its  limits  are  or  how  it  is  to  be 
achieved  or  how  it  is  reconciled  with  those  larger  universal 
conceptions  with  which,  without  impoverishment  or  limita- 
tion on  either  side,  we  now  see  that  all  our  national  concep- 
tions must  be  co-ordinated.  The  difficulty  of  the  problem 
is  indicated  by  many  facts.  For  example,  for  some  time  edu- 
cation in  many  parts  of  India  has  been  in  Indian  hands.  In 
all  the  native  states  it  has  been  under  Indian  control,  and 
they  embrace  one-third  the  area  and  one-fourth  the  population 
of  India.  Since  the  Montague-Chelmsford  reforms  were  in- 
troduced, education  has  been  entirely  under  Indian  control, 
limited  only  by  the  financial  resources  available.  In  the  Pun- 
jab, for  years  the  University  which  has  control  of  all  the  ideals 
and  principles  of  higher  education  has  been  in  the  hands 
of  a  large  Indian  majority.  Furthermore,  great  independent 
Indian  universities  have  been  established  such  as  the  Hindu 
University  in  Benares  and  the  Moslem  University  in  Aligarh. 
One  would  say  that  there  had  been  ample  opportunity  for 
Indian  educational  leadership  to  have  developed,  or  at  least 
to  have  illustrated,  what  is  meant  by  "National"  or  "true 
'Indian"  education.  The  fact  that  practically  nothing  of  the 
kind  has  emerged,  but  that  in  all  these  fields  the  traditional 
forms  of  modern  British  education  in  India  have  been  followed 
shows  how  immensely  difficult  the  problem  is.  What  one 
fears  is  not  the  present  spirit  of  criticism  and  reform.  The 
thing  to  be  dreaded  is  that  men  may  not  be  willing  to  endure 
the  pains  and  sacrifices  necessary  for  the  discovery  of  a  better 
way.  The  easy  course  will  be  to  make  dissatisfaction  with  the 
Western  forms  of  education  a  reason  for  independence  and 
then  to  use  independence  in  the  imitation  of  the  Western 
forms,  elapan  has  been  under  no  constraint  with  her  educa- 
tional policy,  and  her  system  of  national  education  has  been 
only  an  intensification  of  the  educational  policies  of  Germany 

268 


and  America.  The  Indian  temper  which  will  be  likely  to  save 
India  from  this  course  is  beset  with  no  less  perils  of  a  dif- 
ferent kind.  If  India  cannnot  save  herself  from  these  perils, 
no  one  can  save  her,  and  she  cannot  save  herself  from  them 
by  mosque  or  temple.  They  have  had  their  day.  If  now 
Christ  cannot  save  her,  or  if  she  cannot  save  herself  by 
Christ,  then  the  problems  which  the  past  has  not  solved  will 
be  unsolved  still. 

2.      THE  CONSCIENCE  CLAUSE 

One  of  the  specific  problems  in  the  field  of  education  which 
we  were  to  consider  with  the  Missions  was  the  question  of 
the  course  of  action  which  should  be  taken  in  case  the  govern- 
ment should  require  as  a  condition  of  its  grants-in-aid  the 
acceptance  of  a  conscience  clause  by  which  the  Missions 
would  bind  themselves  to  make  religious  teaching  optional 
and  to  excuse  from  chapel  services  and  Bible  classes  all  pupils 
whom  parents  or  guardians  should  desire  to  have  excused. 
The  question  is  not  a  new  one.  It  was  considered  at  the  time 
that  the  present  system  of  government  grants-in-aid  to  pri- 
vate institutions  was  adopted  in  1882.  At  that  time  a  com- 
mission of  which  Sir  William  Hunter  was  chairman,  realizing 
the  impossibility  of  the  adequate  development  of  educational 
facilities  by  government  and  the  desirability  of  promoting 
private  enterprise  recommended  that  the  responsibility  for 
higher  education  should  be  laid  on  private  bodies  with  govern- 
ment aid.  It  was  believed,  also,  that  this  system  would  make 
provision  for  religious  teaching,  which  Government,  by  its 
principle  of  neutrality,  was  prohibited  from  giving,  and  that 
as  financial  aid  would  be  given  to  all  institutions  of  whatever 
religious  view,  which  might  still  meet  the  Government's  edu- 
cational requirements,  there  would  be  no  abridgment  of  the 
principle  of  religious  freedom  and  neutrality.  Sir  William 
Hunter's  commission  recommended  the  introduction  of  a  con- 
science clause  in  the  case  of  institutions  located  in  what  are 
now  known  as  "single  school  areas" :  "When  the  only  institu- 
tion of  any  particular  grade  in  any  town  or  village  is  an  insti- 
tution in  which  religious  instructon  forms  a  part  of  the  ordi- 
nary course,  it  shall  be  open  to  parents  to  withdraw  their  chil- 
dren from  attendance  at  such  instruction  without  forfeiting 
any  of  the  benefits  of  the  institution."  It  was  to  be  under- 
stood that  parents  in  entering  their  children  in  any  school 
consented  to  the  children  taking  the  full  curriculum,  includ- 
ing the  religious  teaching,  unless  notice  was  given  of  the 
withdrawal   of  the   child  from   religious  instruction   at  the 

259 


time  when  the  child  was  entered  or  at  the  beginning  of  the 
subsequent  term.  When  the  Government  of  India  considered 
the  recommendations  of  the  Commission  in  1884.  it  declined 
to  embody  any  conscience  clause  as  a  condition  of  grant-in- 
aid,  "as  no  practical  difficulty  has  arisen  from  the  absence 
of  such  a  condition  in  the  scheme  of  education  laid  down  under 
the  despatch  of  1854." 

The  present  discussion  of  the  question  originated  in  1915 
in  the  publication  of  a  pamphlet  by  the  Honorable  V.  S.  Srini- 
vasa  Sastri.  who  was  India's  representative  at  the  Peace  Con- 
ference at  Versailles,  and  who  is  now  one  of  the  leading  mem- 
bers of  the  Government  of  India.  Mr.  Sastri  proposed  a 
great  deal  more  than  Sir  William  Hunter.  He  wanted  a 
conscience  clause  that  would  assure  that  no  religious  instruc- 
tion was  to  be  given  to  any  child  in  any  Government-aided 
school  until  the  written  consent  of  the  parent  or  guardian 
had  been  given.  Ostensibly  his  proposal  affected  all  religions, 
but  it  was  clear  even  in  his  original  statement,  and  it  became 
much  clearer  in  later  discussions,  that  it  was  Christianity 
that  was  aimed  at.  He  held  that  a  conscience  clause  "would 
probably  secure  a  more  considerate  treatment  of  our  religions 
and  religious  institutions  at  the  hand  of  teachers  of  Christi- 
anity." Further,  his  proposal  at  first  seemed  to  relate  to  the 
problem  of  religious  instruction  as  part  of  the  curriculum, 
but  later  discussions  appeared  to  indicate  that  what  was 
aimed  at  was  not  religious  instruction  in  the  curriculum 
only,  but  the  use  of  the  school  as  an  evangelizing  agency. 
Here  also  it  was  Christianity  again  at  which  the  agitation 
was  obviously  directed.  The  discussions,  moreover,  indicated 
that  the  Koran  and  the  Shastras  would  be  left  in  a  position 
from  which  the  Bible  would  be  excluded.  Mr.  Sastri,  we  were 
told,  later  made  no  concealment  of  his  purpose  to  deprive 
Christianity,  if  possible,  of  the  power  which  it  had  exerted 
in  its  Government-aided  schools. 

If  it  had  been  a  question  as  to  the  religious  neutrality  of 
Government  schools,  there  would  never,  of  course,  have  been 
any  doubt  in  the  minds  of  American  missionaries.  That  was 
not,  however,  the  question.  The  question  was  as  to  whether 
in  the  schools  and  colleges  built  and  conducted  and  maintained 
by  Mohammedan,  Hindu  and  Christian  bodies,  which  no  one 
was  required  to  attend  if  he  did  not  desire  to  do  so,  and  which 
the  Government  had  encouraged  because  they  relieved  it 
of  a  great  educational  burden  and  were  free  to  meet  the  re- 
ligious necessities  of  the  people  as  the  Government  could  not, 
the  payment  of  grants-in-aid  by  the  Government  warranted 

260 


it  in  forbidding  such  institutions  to  require  of  all  their  stu- 
dents that  they  should  take  the  religious  instruction  embodied 
in  their  curricula.  In  as  much  as  the  (juestion  was  raised 
as  a  matter  of  conscience,  the  Christian  Missions  at  once  care- 
fully reviewed  the  whole  matter.  No  body  of  men  in  India 
are  more  sensitive  to  conscientious  considerations  than  they. 
They  realized  that  "a  conscience  which,  while  holding  firmly 
to  the  consolations  of  its  religion,  is  unwilling  to  wound  the 
religious  susceptibilities  of  others,  is  pre-eminently  Christian. 
Once  more,"  wrote  one  of  them,  "we  have  evidence  of  some 
harvest  from  seeds  we  ourselves  have  sown,  and  if  there 
are  tares  mingled  with  the  wheat,  we  need  not  be  surprised." 
The  missionary  body  in  India,  accordingly,  reviewed  the  whole 
matter,  and  in  October,  1916,  at  Jubbulpore,  Dr.  Ewing,  as 
convener  of  the  Standing  Committee  on  Christian  Education 
of  the  National  Missionary  Council  of  India,  called  a  meeting 
at  which  the  whole  question  was  discussed.  There  were  some 
missionaries  who  argued,  as  many  do  now,  in  favor  of  purely 
voluntary  religious  teaching,  on  the  grounds  on  which  the 
same  position  is  supported  in  America,  with  supplementary 
considerations  drawn  from  the  situation  of  Christianity  in 
India.  There  were  others  who  believed  that  the  religious  in- 
struction should  be  an  integral  part  of  the  teaching  in  every 
missionary  school.  Still  others  believed  that  the  principle 
of  a  conscience  clause  ought  to  be  recognized  in  the  case  of 
schools  which  Missions  are  conducting  m  single  school  areas, 
if  they  receive  Government  grants  for  such  schools,  and 
especially  if  these  grants  are  accepted  with  the  understand- 
ing that  the  area  will  be  left  to  the  Mission  school.  I  have 
a  most  instructive  private  report  of  the  discussions  at  this 
conference  which  is  at  the  Board's  disposal.  As  a  result  of 
this  discussion  and  upon  the  recommendation  of  this  com- 
mittee, the  National  Missionary  Council  at  its  meeting  im- 
mediately following,  October  27  to  31,  1916,  adopted  the  fol- 
lowing resolutions: 

Resolved: — 

V. — 1.  That  all  education  given  by  Missions  or  Missionaries  must  be 
i-adically  Christian,  centering  in  the  revelation  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  including  instruction  in  the  Bible  as  the  greatest  of  books  for  the 
teaching  of  truth  and  the  building  of  character,  and  at  the  same  time 
as  a  book  necessary  to  the  understanding  of  the  history  and  literature 
of  Christian  peoples. 

The  Council  therefore  claims  a  definite  sphere  in  which  Missions  may 
give  practical  expression  to  this  conviction. 

On  the  other  hand,  Christian  principle  requires  both  respect  for  rights 
of  conscience  and  the  exercise  of  fairness  and  justice. 

261 


The  problem  of  reconciling  these  two  aspects  of  Christian  duty  has 
always  engaged,  and  still  engages,  the  attention  of  Missionaries,  and  it 
is  essential  that  they  should  solve  it  for  each  new  set  of  conditions  by 
their  own  spontaneous  action. 

2.  That  a  careful  memorandum  should  be  prepared  by  the  Educa- 
tional Committee  and  sent  to  the  Home  Boards  and  Provincial  Councils 
on  the  subject  of  the  Conscience  Clause  in  single  school  areas,  stating 
(a)  the  different  arguments  which  have  been  adduced  as  bearing  on  this 
subject,  and  (b)  the  facts  about  single  school  areas,  their  numbers,  con- 
ditions, etc.  And  the  Home  Boards  should  be  invited  to  give  attention 
to  the  subject  without  delay. 

3.  That  a  statement  of  the  Council's  policy  in  regard  to  the  question 
of  a  Conscience  Clause  be  postponed  till  further  information  is  available. 

4.  That  the  Council,  while  commending  the  subject  to  the  careful 
study  of  Provincial  Councils,  and,  through  them,  of  Missionary  Societies, 
urges  these  bodies  to  take  no  independent  action  without  the  fullest  con- 
sultation with  this  Council  through  the  Educational  and  Executive 
Committees. 

The  issues  which  were  raised  were  very  carefully  examined 
by  the  Missions  on  the  field  and  by  many  of  the  missionary 
agencies  at  home,  with  ever  increasing  clarity  of  conviction, 
although  with  by  no  means  unanimity  of  judgment.  Indeed 
it  has  been  the  diversity  of  judgment  which  has  been  expressed 
which  has  opened  the  missionary  body  to  the  risk  of  misunder- 
standing. The  expressions  of  those  who  were  prepared  to 
accept  a  conscience  clause  as  a  condition  of  receiving  Govern- 
ment grants  or  even  to  put  it  into  effect  on  their  own  judg- 
ment and  initiative  led  some  Indians  to  suppose  that  this 
was  the  general  missionary  view.  Arguments  to  this  effect 
were  presented,  while  we  were  in  India,  before  the  Madras 
Legislative  Council  in  behalf  of  the  enactment  of  a  conscience 
clause.  If  missionaries  are  not  agreed,  it  is  of  course  illegiti- 
mate to  misrepresent  them,  but  a  great  deal  would  have 
been  gained  if  missionaries  could  have  seen  eye  to  eye  in  this 
matter,  or  even  if  those  whose  educational  responsibilities 
and  contributions  are  slight  had  not,  by  their  expressions, 
weakened  the  position  of  the  missionary  agencies  who  are 
doing  most  of  the  higher  educational  work  in  India  and  which 
are  clear  in  their  convictions  that  they  cannot  relinquish  their 
full  liberty  of  religious  teaching  and  influence. 

The  official  sentiment  of  the  missionary  bodies  which  were 
called  upon  to  deal  with  the  question  was  generally  clear  and 
harmonious.  At  its  meeting  in  May,  1917,  the  Representative 
Council  of  Missions  of  the  United  Provinces  adopted  the  fol- 
lowing resolution : 

"A.  This  Council  is  of  opinion  that  while  the  present  agitation  for  a 
Conscience  Clause  does  not  spring  mainly  from  conscientious  objection 
of  parents  and  pupils  and  is  largely  due  to  a  growing  uneasiness  at  the 

262 


increasing-  influence  of  Christianity  in  this  country,  it  yet  behooves  the 
Missionary  Societies  to  define  their  attitude  towards  it. 

"B.     It  desires  to  affirm  its  own  position  as  follows: — 

"(1)  Christian  Missionaries  have  founded  Schools  and  Colleges  with 
the  object  of  extending  a  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  of  im- 
parting an  education  which,  based  on  Christian  conception  of  life,  will 
foster  the  growth  of  Christian  character,  and  they  have  been  encouraged 
in  the  maintenance  of  institutions,  whose  object  was  known  to  be  this, 
by  the  Government  and  people  of  India  for  more  than  60  years.  They 
are  not  prepared  to  withdraw  from  this  policy  and  to  devote  themselves 
to  the  promotion   of  a  purely  secular  education. 

"(2)  They  regard  the  regular  and  direct  teaching  of  the  Bible  as  the 
main  though  by  no  means  the  only  way  of  fulfilling  their  object,  and 
therefore  while  they  have  no  desire  to  offend  the  conscience  of  anyone 
and  while  they  will  always  be  glad  to  give  consideration  to  particular 
cases  of  genuine  grievance  they  are  not  willing  as  a  general  principle 
to  make  attendance  at  the  daily  scripture  period  optional  even  in  the 
so-called  single  school  areas. 

"(3)  They  consider  that  in  the  event  of  a  Conscience  Clause  being 
introduced  into  the  Educational  Code,  Missionary  Societies  should  close 
down  (except  in  very  special  cases)  such  Schools  and  Colleges  as  cannot 
be  carried  on  without  Government  Grants,  but  that  in  view  of  the  place 
which  is  now  held  by  Missionary  Institutions  in  the  Education  system  of 
the  country,  it  would  be  just  to  Government  and  the  public  not  to  close 
down  any  Colleges  or  High  Schools  till  two  years  from  the  date  on 
which  the  Conscience  Clause  comes  into  effect." 

The  National  Missionary  Council  at  its  fourth  meeting  at 
Coonoor,  November  9  to  13,  1917,  adopted  the  following 
resolutions : 

"Resolved: — 

"1.  That  this  Council  expresses  its  conviction  of  the  soundness  of  the 
principle  on  which  the  educational  policy  of  the  Government  in  India 
is  based,  viz.  of  giving  impartial  aid  to  all  institutions  which  contribute 
efficiently  to  general  education,  without  reference  to  the  religious  instruc- 
tion given,  and  deprecates  any  departure  from  that  principle  in  the 
widest  interests  of  the  public. 

"2.  That  all  education  given  by  missions  or  missionaries  must  be 
radically  Christian,  centering  in  the  revelation  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  including  instruction  in  the  Bible  as  the  greatest  of  books  for  the 
teaching  of  truth  and  the  building  of  character,  and  at  the  same  time 
as  necessary  to  the  understanding  of  the  history  and  literature  of  Chris- 
tian peoples. 

"3.  That  Christian  educational  institutions  exist  to  provide  such 
education  for  all  who  are  willing  to  receive  it  and  claim  a  definite  sphere 
in  which  to  exercise  this  function,  and  it  is  unreasonable  to  require 
Christian  missionaries  to  participate  in  giving  any  education  which  is 
not  fundamentally  Christian. 

"4.  That  inasmuch  as  missionaries  have  always  taught  as  a  Christian 
principle  the  duty  of  loyalty  to  conscience,  they  rejoice  at  every  mani- 
festation of  such  loyalty  and  desire  to  show  the  utmost  regard  for  the 
conscientious  convictions  of  others. 

"5.  That  wherever  there  is  a  sufficient  demand  for  other  than  Chris- 
tian education,  the  Council  holds  it  is  the  duty  of  private  or  public  bodies 

263 


to  provide  it.  In  all  save  single-school  areas  such  education  is  available, 
and  all  that  can  be  rightly  demanded  by  those  who  object  to  Christian 
teaching  is  already  provided.  In  single-school  areas  where  local  con- 
ditions warrant  it  relief  may  be  found  by  the  provision  of  alternative 
schools.  But  where  either  the  total  number  of  pupils  or  the  number  of 
conscientious  objectors  is  too  small  to  render  this  course  feasible,  the 
wishes  of  parents  for  the  exemption  of  their  children  from  the  Scripture 
period,  when  expressed  in  writing,  should  be  given  effect  to  by  the  school 
authorities. 

"6.  That  in  regard  to  Missionary  Colleges,  this  Council  holds  that  no 
College  can  be  said  to  occupy  a  position  analogous  to  that  of  a  school 
in  a  single-school  area,  and  that  it  remains  for  Principals  of  Missionary 
Colleges  to  make  it  abundantly  clear  that  religious  instruction  is  part 
of  the  regular  curriculum,  and  recommends  that  this  be  stated  on  all 
forms  of  admission  which  have  to  be  filled  in  by  intending  students;  and 
further  that  at  the  commencement  of  each  academic  year  the  offer  of 
a  free  transfer  be  given  to  any  student  desiring  to  leave  on  conscientious 
grounds." 

These  resolutions  were  ratified  by  the  India  Council  of 
our  American  Presbyterian  Missions  at  its  meeting  in  Decern.- 
ber,  1917,  with  the  following  changes:  In  the  second  reso- 
lution after  the  word  ''Bible"  insert  "as  God's  revealed  mes- 
sage of  salvation  and  of  eternal  fellowship  and  service  with 
Him.  We  also  regard  the  Bible,  etc."  In  the  fourth  resolution 
before  the  word  "conscientious"  insert  "genuine."  In  the 
third  resolution  for  the  word  "relief"  substitute  "other  than 
Christian  education"  and  for  the  words  "given  effect  to"  sub- 
stitute "dealt  with  sympathetically."  In  the  sixth  resolution 
after  "Missionary  Colleges,"  in  the  first  line,  insert  "and 
technical  schools" ;  for  "College"  in  the  second  line  substitute 
"such  institutions";  and  for  "Missionary  Colleges"  in  the 
third  and  fourth  lines  substitute  "such  missionary  institu- 
tions." 

On  our  visit  to  India  we  discussed  this  question  wherever 
we  went,  especially  with  the  Scotch  Presbyterian  missionaries 
in  their  three  great  colleges  in  Madras,  Calcutta  and  Bombay, 
with  Indian  Christian  educationalists  like  Dr.  Banerjea,  vice 
principal  of  the  Hindu  College  in  Calcutta,  with  the  head- 
masters of  our  remarkable  group  of  Mission  High  Schools  in 
the  Punjab,  with  other  missionary  and  Indian  teachers  and 
laymen  and  with  the  three  Missions  at  their  annual  meetings. 
While  some  held  the  contrary  view,  we  were  glad  to  find 
the  large  majority  with  whom  we  talked  unequivocally  in 
favor  of  the  maintenance  by  Mission  schools  and  colleges  of 
their  full  freedom  of  religious  teaching  and  influence.  The 
India  Council  at  its  seventh  annual  meeting  of  December, 
1920,  had  adopted  the  following  resolution:  "It  is  the  con- 
viction of  this  Council  that  Missions  would  not  be  justified 

264 


in  carrying  on  educational  work  in  India  if  deprived  of  the 
right  to  give  Biblical  and  Christian  teaching.  While  in  the 
single-school  areas  special  regulations  should  be  made  to 
meet  the  conscientious  convictions  of  patrons,  who  can  send 
their  children  to  no  other  school,  the  Council  holds  that  the 
right  to  require  attendance  at  Bible  classes  and  chapel  exer- 
cises in  all  other  areas  cannot  be  surrendered."  Each  of  the 
three  Missions  at  their  meetings  which  we  attended  took  this 
position.  The  North  India  Mission  ratified  the  action  of  the 
Representative  Council  of  Missions  quoted  above  which  the 
Mission  had  already  adopted  at  its  meeting  in  October,  1917, 
and  appointed  a  committee  consisting  of  Dr.  Janvier  and  Mr. 
Mitchel  to  draw  up  and  present  to  Government  the  Mission 
position  as  expressed  in  this  action.  The  Punjab  Mission  on 
the  recommendation  of  its  Boys'  Schools  Committee  of  which 
the  Indian  headmasters  of  the  high  schools  and  Prof.  Siraj- 
ud-din  of  the  Forman  Christian  College  were  members  adopted 
the  following  resolution:  "Resolved  that,  in  the  event  of 
the  introduction  of  the  'Conscience  Clause,'  we  recommend 
that  the  High  Schools  announce  in  their  prospectuses  that 
those  who  are  permitted  by  their  parents  and  guardians  to 
attend  the  regular  Bible  period  shall  be  enrolled  as  pupils  if 
they  be  otherwise  qualified.  In  case  this  procedure  is  dis- 
allowed by  the  Government,  we  recommend  that  Government 
grants-in-aid  be  no  longer  received."  The  Western  India 
Mission  adopted  as  its  action  the  resolution  of  the  India 
Council  of  December,  1920. 

It  may  be  well  to  summarize  the  arguments  which  were 
advanced  in  support  of  this  view  in  the  different  Mission 
meetings.  1.  We  have  a  right  and  a  duty  to  determine  what 
should  be  the  content,  especially  the  moral  and  religious  con- 
tent of  the  education  of  the  students  for  whom  we  are  re- 
sponsible and  who  bear  the  name  and  stamp  of  our  institu- 
tions with  them  into  life.  They  will  be  known  always  as 
they  are  now  known  as  Forman  Christian  College  or  Mainpuri 
High  School  men,  etc.,  and  it  is  our  legitimate  responsibility 
to  seek  to  fashion  them  into  the  kind  of  men  who  should  bear 
our  name.  2.  The  men  who  built  up  these  colleges  and  who 
alone  can  maintain  them  are  men  who  believe  in  religion  as 
the  deepest  thing  in  life,  who  did  not  come  to  India  to  give  a 
non-religious  education,  but  who  have  come  in  the  past  and 
will  come  in  the  future  only  because  of  their  belief  in  a  full 
education,  including  the  open  and  earnest  avowal  and  teaching 
of  their  religion.  3.  We  object  to  the  term  "compulsory  Bible 
study."     No  one  has  to  attend  our  colleges  or  schools.     For 

265 


those  who  voluntarily  come,  the  Bible  is  a  regular  part  of  the 
curriculum  and  is  known  in  advance  to  be  so.  Parents  or 
students  who  do  not  desire  such  instruction  or  who  are  not 
willing  to  receive  it  for  their  children  or  for  themselves  are 
at  entire  liberty  to  use  other  institutions.  4.  The  Government 
grant-in-aid  did  not  create  our  schools  and  it  does  not  con- 
stitute them  state  institutions.  It  is  not  given  to  schools 
with  any  reference  to  religious  considerations,  but  solely  be- 
cause of  the  educational  contribution  made  by  the  school  and 
its  fulfillment  of  Government  educational  requirement.  The 
schools  are  aiding  the  Government  rather  than  the  Govern- 
ment the  schools.  We  are  relieving  the  Government  of  a  great 
burden  which  it  would  otherwise  have  to  bear,  on  the  simple 
condition  that  we  shall  not  be  interfered  with  in  our  religious 
work  and  shall  receive  any  grant  we  may  earn.  On  this  under- 
standing and  assumption  many  of  the  Mission  institutions 
were  built  up,  and,  as  the  Scotch  missionaries  in  Madras  repre- 
sented to  the  Government,  this  assumption  and  understanding 
cannot  now  be  lightly  disregarded.  5.  The  idea  that  by 
accepting  a  conscience  clause  we  should  be  making  Bible  study 
and  religious  instruction  voluntary  is  without  foundation, 
(a)  The  voluntariness  will  not  be  on  the  part  of  the  students 
but  on  the  part  of  the  guardians.  A  conscience  clause  would 
not  provide  accordingly,  as  some  argue,  a  body  of  students 
who  would  be  taking  Bible  study  of  their  own  accord,  (b) 
By  making  Bible  study  attendance  voluntary  we  should  actu- 
ally, in  the  present  conditions,  be  making  it  compulsory  for 
the  student  to  stay  away.  A  very  large  proportion  of  the 
students  are  glad  to  come,  but  under  a  conscience  clause  re- 
quiring the  parents  or  guardians  to  give  written  consent,  the 
pressure  of  caste  or  of  organizations  like  the  Arya  Samaj  or 
the  intimidation  of  various  forms  of  influence,  now  especially 
in  evidence  in  India,  would  inevitably  compel  many  people, 
who  send  their  children  to  Mission  schools  because  they  want 
them  to  be  under  the  full  influence  of  these  schools,  to  require 
their  non-attendance  at  chapel  and  religious  teaching.  Re- 
quired religious  teaching,  instead  of  coercing  the  conscience, 
is  the  only  method  by  which  many  Indian  parents  and  children 
are  allowed  their  freedom.  6.  Unrequired  religious  teaching 
places  false  ideals  before  students  and  gives  them  wrong  con- 
ceptions. By  it  we  say  to  them,  in  effect,  "It  is  for  secular 
teaching  we  are  here,  and  we  are  quite  satisfied  if  you  will 
come  and  pay  your  fees  and  take  the  secular  instruction.  We 
require  you,  whatever  your  conscience  may  be  with  regard  to 
animal  life,  to  study  biology,  and  you  must  take  physics  and 

266 


astronomy,  no  matter  how  they  collide  with  Hindu  cosmology, 
but  we  are  willing  to  waive  our  teaching  of  religion,  though 
we  believe  that  this  is  the  very  foundation  of  all  things  and 
though  we  have  always  told  you  that  we  held  that  the  most 
important  thing  of  all  in  education  and  life  is  what  we  be- 
lieve about  the  basis  of  duty  and  ideals  of  character  and  the 
power  of  righteousness."  7.  Why  is  it  wrong  to  require  men 
to  study  one  kind  of  truth,  and  right  to  require  them  to  study 
another  kind?  If  it  is  immoral  to  insist  that  a  boy  who 
comes  to  our  schools  should  study  for  himself  what  we  believe 
as  to  the  very  highest  ranges  of  truth,  is  it  not  still  more  im- 
moral to  try  to  make  him  study  anything  else?  There  are 
many  who  speak  of  required  teaching  as  though  it  were 
synonymous  with  the  required  acceptance  of  teaching.  It 
would  be  un-Christian,  as  it  is  impossible,  to  compel  the  stu- 
dent to  believe.  This  is  true  in  mathematics  and  science  as 
well  as  in  ethics  and  religion.  But  it  is  both  Christian  and 
necessary  to  require  students  to  study  truth  and  the  founda- 
tions of  truth  and  to  make  up  their  minds  with  regard  to  it 
for  themselves.  8.  The  argument  that  voluntary  Bible  teach- 
ing would  be  more  effective  and  persuasive  than  required 
teaching  is  simply  a  confession  on  the  part  of  the  teacher. 
If  voluntary  attendance  is  essential  to  efficiency  it  is  not  less 
so  in  other  subjects.  That  Bible  teaching  has  not  been  as 
well  done  as  it  ought  to  have  been  is  undeniable,  and  it  is 
not  probable  that  with  some  teachers,  for  a  little  while,  the 
attempt  to  make  voluntary  classes  a  success  would  spur  them 
to  an  effort  which  they  had  not  made  before,  but  with  such 
teachers,  such  a  motive  would  operate  only  temporarily,  and 
they  would  soon  be  as  inefficient  in  their  duty  under  one  set 
of  conditions  as  they  had  already  been  under  another.  Better 
Bible  teaching  should  be  secured  in  our  schools  by  a  con- 
science clause  of  a  different  and  very  much  older  type  applied 
to  teachers.  9.  The  plan  of  voluntary  Bible  study  is  disastrous 
from  the  viewpoint  of  discipline.  We  divide  the  student  body 
into  two  contending  camps,  the  Bible  men  and  the  anti-Bible 
men,  each  inevitably  working  against  the  other.  More  than 
that,  we  encourage  lads  to  do  what  surely  any  one  can  see  is 
mean  and  dishonorable,  namely,  to  accept  all  the  benefits  of 
our  institutions  and  then  to  refuse  to  submit  to  the  very 
thing  for  the  sake  of  which  they  know  that  our  institutions 
exist.  10.  "Without  judging  those  who  take  the  opposite 
view,"  says  the  Principal  of  one  of  the  Mission  Colleges,  "or 
at  least  assuming  that  they  have  not  realized  the  situation 
fully,  I  dare  to  say  that  the  proposed  voluntary  Bible  scheme 

267 


is  dishonorable.  It  has  frequently  been  said  by  those  who 
favor  the  scheme  that  teaching  the  Bible  is  not  the  only  way 
to  present  Christ  to  the  students.  It  can  be  done  in  the 
course  of  the  teaching  of  other  subjects  and  by  personal  work 
in  the  dormitory  or  on  the  campus.  In  other  words,  you 
will  save  your  grant-in-aid  by  promising  not  to  teach  the 
Bible  to  those  who  do  not  wish  it,  but  you  will  accomplish  the 
same  purpose  by  indirect  means.  You  will  hoodwink  the 
Government  and  the  parents."  It  seems  to  be  increasingly 
clear  that  it  is  not  the  Bible  to  which  objection  is  felt.  It 
is  the  Bible  as  a  sign  of  the  purpose  of  our  Mission  schools. 
What  is  objected  to  is  the  converting  or  evangelizing  influence. 
It  is  this  from  which  the  school  must  desist,  in  spirit  as  well 
as  in  form,  if  it  is  to  comply  with  the  conscience  clause  and 
satisfy  the  demands  of  those  who  are  contending,  in  reality, 
not  that  Hindu,  Mohammedan  and  Christian  schools  receiving 
Government  aid  must  be  neutral,  but  that  Christian  schools 
receiving  such  aid  must  be  neutral.  And  if,  as  some  argue, 
such  schools  can  exert  a  more  powerful  Christian  influence 
by  voluntary  religious  instruction  than  by  required  then  a 
fortiori,  it  is  obligatory  to  desist  from  such  influence.  11. 
Least  of  all  ought  a  conscience  clause  to  be  accepted  under  pres- 
sure of  the  loss  of  Government  grants-in-aid.  To  give  up 
required  religious  teaching  for  the  sake  of  government  finan- 
cial help  would  be  to  bring  the  Missions  into  contempt.  If 
religious  teaching  should,  in  principle,  be  voluntary,  it  ought 
to  be  made  so  at  whatever  cost,  but  to  have  accepted  Govern- 
ment grant-in-aid  for  forty  years  with  required  religious 
teaching  and  only  to  discover  now  that  this  is  a  wrong  prin- 
ciple when  it  is  proposed  that  the  conscience  clause  must  be 
accepted  as  the  price  of  continued  grants,  is  to  expose  our 
Missions  in  India  not  to  suspicion  only  but  to  open  charges 
of  the  most  lamentable  character.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons 
that  many  of  the  ablest  Indian  Christian  laymen  with  whom 
we  have  talked  have  urged  against  any  surrender  by  the  Mis- 
sions of  their  historic  position.  These  men  believe  that  the 
present  issue  is  a  test  and  is  intended  to  be  a  test  of  the  in- 
tegrity, the  independence,  and  the  essential  rights  of  the 
Christian  community  in  India.  They  foresee  very  difficult 
times  ahead,  and  they  realize  that  the  only  safe,  as  well  as 
the  only  right,  course  for  the  Indian  Church  is  to  stand  solidly 
on  the  principle  of  religious  liberty  and  the  untrammelled 
freedom  of  Christianity,  and  they  think  that  if  the  Missions 
and  the  Church  wobble  on  the  present  matter  they  will  find 
themselves  driven  into  positions  of  hopeless  weakness  and 

268 


subservience.  12.  Lastly  it  is  urged  that  Christian  Missions 
have  a  conscience  also,  and  that  the  freedom  of  that  conscience 
to  determine  the  processes  and  limits  of  its  action  cannot  be 
surrendered  to  Government  either  for  something  or  for 
nothing. 

I  have  stated  the  case  as  it  appeared  to  our  own  Missions 
and  missionaries.  I  am  glad  to  add  to  this  statement  the 
careful  deliverance  of  the  Educational  Board  of  the  Bombay 
Representative  Council  of  Missions  signed  by  the  chairman 
of  the  Board,  the  Bishop  of  Bombay,  and  by  its  secretary, 
the  Rev.  John  MacLean: 

"Statement  on  the  Pri7iciples  of  Missionary  Educational  Work 

1.  There  are  circumstances  at  the  present  time  which  seem 
to  call  for  a  statement  concerning  the  conceptions  which  mis- 
sionaries entertain  about  educational  work  and  their  reasons 
for  engaging  in  it.  The  following  statement  has  been  pre- 
pared by  the  Educational  Board  of  the  Bombay  Representative 
Council  of  Missions  and  it  is  issued  on  its  responsibility  only. 
That  Board  has  not  had  an  opportunity  to  consult  officially 
the  directing  or  governing  bodies  of  the  missions  either  in 
India  or  in  Great  Britain  and  America,  and  consequently  none 
of  those  bodies  are  officially  committed  to  this  statement. 
However,  the  Educational  Board  has  reason  to  believe  that 
the  opinions  expressed  in  the  following  statement  would  be 
endorsed  by  a  large  number  of  the  Missionaries  and  Missions 
working  in  West  India. 

Retrosvect 

2.  It  is  common  knowledge  that  at  different  periods  in  the 
last  hundred  years  Christian  Missionaries  have  been  pioneers 
in  higher  education,  in  the  education  of  girls,  in  industrial 
education  and  in  the  education  of  the  dwellers  in  villages. 
Many  of  the  educational  institutions  in  India  owe  their  exist- 
ence to  Missionary  Societies:  and  in  these  institutions  mis- 
sionaries have  liberally  spent  time  and  labor.  Since  1854  it 
has  been  the  settled  policy  of  Government  to  regard  these 
efforts  of  missionaries,  and  similar  efforts  of  other  private 
persons  and  societies,  as  valuable  contributions  towards  the 
solution  of  the  stupendous  problem  of  Indian  education,  and 
to  avail  itself  freely  and  gratefully  of  their  assistance.  In 
accordance  with  this  policy  Government  has  given  aid  im- 
partially to  all  institutions  which  maintain  a  satisfactory 
standard  in  general  education,  without  any  reference  to  or 
interference  with  the  religious  education  given  in  those  in- 
stitutions. 

269 


New  Conditions 

3.  The  elected  representatives  of  the  people  under  the  new 
system  of  Government  may  see  fit  to  depart  from  this  policy. 
Though  missionary  societies  have  devoted  many  of  their  best 
workers  and  large  sums  of  money  to  education  under  the  be- 
lief that  Government  is  committed  to  this  policy,  we  desire  to 
make  it  known  that  we  do  not  question  the  right  of  the  elected 
representatives  of  the  people  to  alter  the  conditions  under 
which  grants-in-aid  are  given.  As,  however,  these  conditions 
might  be  altered  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  very  difficult 
for  missionaries  to  continue  their  educational  work,  it  is  im- 
portant that  it  should  be  clearly  understood  why  they  engage 
in  educational  work  at  all. 

Education  Must  he  Religious 

4.  Missionaries  believe  that,  though  the  branches  of  study 
commonly  called  secular  are  necessary  to  the  emancipation  of 
the  people  and  to  the  amelioration  of  their  lot,  yet  education 
is  incomplete  which  is  not  addressed  to  the  whole  man,  and 
must  fail  of  its  purpose  unless  it  touches  the  heart  and  purifies 
the  conscience.  Missionaries  are  thus  firm  believers  in  re- 
ligious education:  that  is  to  say,  education  conducted  by  re- 
ligious persons  for  the  purpose  of  implanting  religious  prin- 
ciple in  the  souls  of  the  pupils,  as  the  one  ruling  principle  of 
all  life  and  of  all  knowledge.  This  being  the  general  ideal, 
neither  our  own  convictions,  nor  our  estimate  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  Christianity  for  the  world,  permits  us  to  give  any 
religious  education  but  one  founded  on  the  Christian  religion. 

5.  Thus,  if  missionaries  engage  in  education  at  all,  it  is 
to  offer  to  all  who  will  receive  it  full  Christian  religious  edu- 
cation. For  such  education,  there  has  been,  and,  we  believe, 
will  continue  to  be,  a  demand  in  this  country.  On  the  one 
hand,  it  is  essential  to  the  growing  community  of  Indian  Chris- 
tians that  they  should  have  such  an  education  available  for 
their  children.  On  the  other  hand,  many  non-Christians  have 
in  the  past  been,  and  many  in  the  present  are,  desirous  that 
their  children  also  should  receive  such  an  education. 

In  regard  to  those  mission  schools  and  colleges  which  edu- 
cate only  these  two  classes  of  pupils.  Christians  and  such  non- 
Christians  as  desire  a  Christian  religious  education,  no  ques- 
tion of  conscience  can  arise  either  for  pupils  or  for  teachers 
or  for  Government.  Grants-in-aid  can  and  will  be  rightly  re- 
ceived and  gladly  paid,  unless  indeed  Government  decides  to 
set  up  a  universal  system  of  secular  education.  But  we  cannot 
believe  that  a  Government  of  Indians  will  ever  set  up  such 
a  system;  and  it  is  plain  that  no  Government  in  this  country 

270 


can  accept  the  responsibility  for  the  religious  education  of  the 
people.  Consequently,  we  anticipate  the  continuance  of  the 
present  system,  under  which  voluntary  religious  agencies  of 
all  creeds  provide  schools  and  colleges  and  Government  recog- 
nizes their  contribution  to  the  national  educational  system 
by  paying  to  them  grants-in-aid  in  respect  of  the  secular  edu- 
cation which  they  give. 

The  Crux  of  the  Situation 

6.  The  difficulties  which  have  lately  been  exercising  men's 
minds,  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  existence  of  missionary 
schools  and  colleges  whose  pupils  are  either  Christians  or 
such  non-Christians  as  desire  the  Christian  education  offered 
to  them.  The  crux  of  the  situation  lies  in  the  emergence  of 
a  third  class  of  pupils,  viz.,  non-Christian  pupils  who  in  vari- 
ous degrees  do  not  desire  to  receive  a  full  Christian  education 
and  yet  desire  admission  to  missionary  schools  and  col- 
leges. Here  it  is  claimed  that  a  question  of  conscience  arises 
for  the  parents  and  pupils;  and,  we  must  add,  another  ques- 
tion of  conscience  arises  for  the  staffs. 

Conscience 

7.  We  have  always  taught  that  consciences  should  be  re- 
spected: and  in  this  matter  we  both  desire  to  respect  the 
consciences  of  others  and  claim  that  our  own  should  be 
respected.  ^     ^j  <^ 

8.  In  regard  to  the  consciences  of  the  pupils  our  position 
is  that  we  do  not  wish  anyone  to  come  to  our  schools  or  col- 
leges whose  conscience  will  be  injured  by  any  instruction 
which  he  or  she  will  be  given  there.  It  is  not  for  such  pupils 
that  we  maintain  our  educational  work.  We  would  rather 
that  they  should  go  to  other  institutions.  If  the  numbers  of 
students  who  find  themselves  today  involved  in  such  consci- 
entious difficulties  should  prove  to  be  large,  we  should  regret 
it,  but  we  should  still  maintain  the  position  which  has  just 
been  stated;  we  do  not  wish  to  admit  them  to  our  schools 
and  colleges. 

9.  In  regard  to  the  consciences  of  educational  missionaries, 
we  have  a  clear  position  which  we  want  to  be  understood.  The 
giving  of  a  Christian  education  is  the  aim  to  which  such  mis- 
sionaries have  dedicated  their  lives.  They  must  be  really 
free  to  give  it  if  they  are  to  fulfill  their  vocation.  Whether 
any  particular  legislative  enactment  would  interfere  with  this 
freedom,  it  will  rest  with  individual  missions  and  missionaries 
to  decide,  and  until  the  terms  of  such  enactments  are  before 
us,  it  is  impossible  to  forecast  what  their  decision  would  be. 
But  this  can  be  said.    If  any  conditions  attached  to  grants-in- 

271 


aid  were  such  as  to  prevent  educational  missionaries  from 
giving  a  full  Christian  education  with  a  clear  conscience, 
they  would  renounce  the  grants  for  institutions  affected  by 
the  conditions.  Again  if  the  general  result  of  the  proposed 
conditions  were  that  the  education  to  be  given  by  missionaries 
would  be  secular  or  neutral  instead  of  religious,  they  could 
not  consent  to  give  such  education,  for  that  is  not  their  busi- 
ness. They  may  and  do  differ  in  regard  to  the  importance 
which  they  attach  to  particular  educational  methods.  But 
they  would  not  be  true  to  the  object  with  which  they  them- 
selves give  their  lives  and  their  supporters  their  money,  if 
they  spent  those  lives  and  that  money  on  any  education  which 
is  not  Christian  in  motive,  in  principle  and  in  atmosphere. 
Single  School  Areas 

10.  Though  educational  missionaries  are  unwilling  to  con- 
vert whole  schools  or  colleges  into  secular  or  neutral  institu- 
tions, they  have  been  and  are  willing  to  give  special 
treatment  to  small  minorities  in  certain  cases.  So  long  ago  as 
1917  the  National  Missionary  Council,  at  its  meeting  in  Coo- 
noor,  considered  the  case  of  Single  School  Areas  and  agreed 
to  make  the  following  recommendation.  Where  local  con- 
ditions warrant  it,  relief  should  be  looked  for  in  the  provision 
of  alternative  schools  for  or  by  those  who  do  not  desire  the 
education  given  in  a  mission  school.  But  if  a  mission  school 
is  the  only  school  in  an  area  where  either  the  total  number 
of  pupils  is  too  small  to  warrant  the  existence  of  two  schools, 
or  the  total  number  of  conscientious  objectors  to  Christian 
teaching  too  small  to  make  up  a  school  by  themselves,  the 
authorities  of  the  Mission  school  should  exempt  from  the 
Scripture  period  the  children  of  such  parents  as  express  in 
writing  their  wish  to  have  their  children  so  exempted.  We 
concur  in  this  recommendation.  We  agree  that  in  the  cases 
contemplated  by  the  National  Council  exemptions  should  be 
given,  and  we  believe  that  where  the  numerical  proportion 
of  the  exemptions  would  be  small,  the  giving  of  exemptions 
would  not  destroy  the  balance  and  emphasis  of  the  curriculum, 
nor  obscure  the  ideal  of  the  education  offered  in  our  schools. 

Again  there  are  missions  whose  educational  work  is  mainly 
devoted  to  the  education  of  Christians.  Some  of  these  are 
willing  to  admit  to  schools  where  the  majority  of  pupils  are 
Christian,  a  certain  proportion  of  non-Christian  pupils  with- 
out demanding  their  attendance  at  the  Scripture  classes. 
Recapitulation 

11.  To  sum  up,  all  educational  missionaries  agree  in  be- 
lieving that  they  have  a  definite  service  to  offer  to  India,  a 

272 


definite  contribution  to  make  to  her  educational  system.  We 
ofTer  an  education  based  on  religion  and  permeated  with  the 
religious  spirit.  Our  contribution  is  the  practical  exemplifi- 
cation of  this  ideal  of  education.  For  us,  as  Chrstians, 
religious  education  can  only  be  Christian  education.  On  those 
who  do  not  want  such  education,  we  have  neither  the  power 
nor  the  wish  to  press  it.  But  neither  should  they  press  us  to 
give  secular  education,  which  is  as  alien  to  the  genius  of  their 
own  people  as  it  is  inconsistent  with  our  own  convictions." 

Signed  on  behalf  of  the  Educational  Board  of  the  Bombay 
Representative  Council  of  Missions. 

How  imminent  is  the  question  of  a  conscience  clause?  In 
the  Punjab  both  the  Lieutenant  Governor  and  the  Minister 
for  Education,  a  Mohammedan,  assured  us  that  the  Govern- 
ment would  most  certainly  not  raise  the  question,  and  there 
was  no  pressure  for  its  consideration  outside  the  Government 
which  threatened  to  bring  it  forward  at  the  present  time  or 
in  the  immediate  future.  In  the  United  Provinces  the  Provin- 
cial Legislative  Council  had  passed  a  resolution  requiring  a 
conscience  clause  as  the  condition  of  Government  grant-in-aid, 
but  it  had  not  yet  been  accepted  by  the  Government.  In  the 
Bombay  Presidency  the  Minister  of  Education  was  known  to 
have  declared  himself  in  favor  of  similar  legislation  prior  to  his 
acceptance  of  office,  but  in  an  interview  with  representatives 
of  the  Educational  Board  of  the  Bombay  Representative  Coun- 
cil of  Missions,  he  made  it  clear  that  he  did  not  desire  that 
anything  should  be  done  at  present,  or  in  the  immediate  future, 
which  might  result,  as  the  imposition  of  a  conscience  clause 
certainly  would,  in  a  falling  off  in  the  educational  work  done 
in  the  Province.  In  his  personal  opinion  any  conscience  clause 
legislation  if  adopted  would  not  be  made  operative  for  a  period 
of,  say,  five  years  after  it  had  been  passed,  and  he  recognized 
that  it  would,  in  any  case,  be  impracticable  to  legislate  so  as 
to  eliminate  missionary  influence  from  education.  The  most 
significant  action  on  the  subject  was  taken  while  we  were  in 
India  by  the  Legislative  Council  of  the  Madras  Presidency,  as 
indicated  in  the  following  report  from  Madras,  dated  Novem- 
ber 16th,  which  appeared  in  both  the  Allahabad  Pioneer  and 
the  Bombay  Times  of  India,  for  November  18,  1921 : 

"Among  the  resolutions  on  matters  of  general  public  interest 
brought  up  for  consideration  before  the  Madras  Legislative 
Council  today  was  one  which  recommended  to  Government 
that  a  new  rule  be  inserted  in  the  educational  grant  in  aid 
Code,  that  no  grants  would  be  paid  to  any  institution  that  com- 

273 


pelled  any  student  to  attend  any  religious  classes  without  the 
consent  of  his  parents  or  guardian. 

"The  resolution  was  moved  by  Mr.  C.  V.  Venkatamana  Iyen- 
gar, member  for  the  Coimbatore  district,  who  made  a  long 
speech  in  support  quoting  the  opinions  of  Christian  divines, 
including  the  Bishop  of  Madras,  that  it  was  quite  legitimate 
on  the  part  of  Indians  who  were  not  Christians  to  ask  for  the 
insertion  of  a  conscience  clause  so  that  they  might  not  be  com- 
pelled to  attend  religious  instruction  which  they  did  not  believe 
and  which  was  not  consonant  with  the  religion  of  their  parents. 

"A  very  large  number  of  the  members  of  the  House,  most  of 
them  Hindus,  strongly  opposed  the  insertion  of  this  clause,  as 
it  was  calculated  to  affect  prejudicially  the  financial  stability 
of  a  large  number  of  missionary  institutions  which  had  done 
so  much  in  the  past  for  the  spread  of  education  in  this  country. 

"Mr.  0.  Thanicachellam  Chetty,  non-Brahman  member  for 
the  city  of  Madras,  put  in  a  strong  protest  against  the  attempt 
to  weaken  missionary  institutions  in  this  country,  to  which 
the  non-Brahman  masses  were  so  much  indebted  for  their  edu- 
cation. If  the  missionary  institutions  to  be  closed  for  want 
of  funds  by  the  grant  in  aid  being  withdrawn  owing  to  their 
compelling  attendance  of  Hindu  students  in  their  religious 
classes,  it  would  be  a  death  blow  to  non-Brahman  education. 
He  quoted  figures  relating  to  national  schools  and  colleges  in 
which  he  contented  that  more  Brahman  students  were  admitted 
than  non-Brahmans,  and  in  the  missionary  institutions  there 
was  a  large  preponderance  of  non-Brahman  candidates. 

"From  this  stage  the  discussion  took  what  several  members 
looked  upon  as  a  party  turn  of  Brahman  versus  non-Brahmans 
many  members  speaking  against  the  insertion  of  a  conscience 
clause  and  paying  glowing  tributes  of  praise  to  missionary 
education.  The  backward  and  depressed  classes  were  im- 
mensely indebted  to  the  missionaries  for  their  elevation. 

"The  Director  of  Public  Instruction  made  a  clear  statement 
of  the  position  in  regard  to  this  conscience  clause.  The  resolu- 
tion, he  said,  was  not  acceptable,  as  it  sought  to  throw  the  onus 
on  the  management  of  the  schools  instead  of  on  the  parents, 
who  should  move  in  the  matter  if  they  were  anxious  to  with- 
draw children  from  the  religious  classes,  secondly,  they  had 
not  yet  explored  all  the  avenues  of  finding  out  a  means  for 
children  to  be  withdrawn  from  religious  instruction.  He  quoted 
from  the  report  of  the  missionary  educational  conference  re- 
cently held  in  England,  and  pointed  out  that  there  were  indi- 
vidual missionaries  who  were  perfectly  willing  to  allow  chil- 
dren  to   be    withdrawn   from    religious    instructions    which 

274 


formed  part  of  their  school  curriculum.  They  would  not,  how- 
ever, allow  this  withdrawal  to  interfere  with  the  general 
ethical  and  moral  principles  of  the  teaching  which  underlay 
all  the  instructions.  The  Director  did  not  wish  that  the  argu- 
ments of  finance  should  be  put  forward  against  the  argument 
of  conscience,  and  pointed  out  that  the  acceptance  of  the  reso- 
lution would  not  of  necessity  compel  preliminary  action  to  be 
taken  in  the  schools  in  single  schools  areas.  As  regards 
schools  in  multiple  schools  areas  the  necessity  for  a  conscience 
clause  did  not  arise.  If  a  school  manager  in  a  single  school 
area  compelled  attendance  at  religious  classes  it  was  the  duty 
of  Government  to  open  another  institution  in  that  area  or 
grant  scholarships  for  students  to  pursue  their  education  else- 
where. 

"The  mover  of  the  resolution,  in  replying  to  the  criticisms, 
said  that  his  object  was  to  provoke  a  discussion  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  he  was  satisfied  that  the  discussion  had  been  fruit- 
ful. He  would  not  press  the  resolution  if  the  House  would 
permit  him  to  do  so. 

"The  House  declining  to  permit  him  to  withdraw  the  resolu- 
tion was  put  to  the  Council  and  rejected  by  a  large  majority, 
13  voting  for,  64  against  and  10  remained  neutral." 

It  was  believed  in  India  that  this  action  would  have  a  wide 
influence,  and  it  was  hoped  that  the  Government  of  the  United 
Provinces  would  not  accept  and  put  into  effect  the  resolution 
of  the  Council.  If  it  should  do  so,  as  it  may,  then  the  North 
India  Mission  and  the  Board  would  have  to  face  the  result, 
and  either  secure  funds  from  home  to  take  the  place  of  the 
government  grant  or  cut  down  the  volume  of  our  educational 
work  or  perhaps,  as  I  hope  would  be  the  case,  modify  the 
character  of  some  of  it,  as  we  should  then  be  free  to  do.  If, 
however,  acceptance  of  the  conscience  clause  should  be  made 
a  condition  of  the  affiliation  of  the  Ewing  Christian  College 
with  the  Allahabad  University,  or  if  schools  without  govern- 
ment grants  are  discriminated  against,  a  new  and  very  difficult 
problem  would  emerge. 

3.      THE  GENERAL  QUESTION  OF  THE  RELATION  OF  MISSIONS  TO 
GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  MATTER  OF  EDUCATION 

The  question  of  a  conscience  clause  as  a  condition  of  Gov- 
ernment grant-in-aid  is  only  one  aspect  of  the  much  larger 
question  of  the  relation  of  missionary  education  to  Govern- 
ment and  to  present-day  tendencies  in  governmental  control 
of  education.  This  problem  in  some  of  its  larger  outlines 
has  been  very  suggestively  discussed  by  Professor  Paul  Monroe 

275 


in  an  article  on  "Missionary  Education  and  National  Policy" 
in  the  Inteniatunial  Revieiv  of  Missions  in  July,  1921,  and 
by  Sir  Michael  Sadler  in  an  article  entitled  "Educaton  for 
Life  and  Duty,"  in  the  October,  1921,  issue  of  the  same  review. 
There  are  those  who  fear  that,  in  the  interest  of  national 
character,  governments  will  exercise  an  increasing  control  of 
education,  tending  to  become  so  absolute  that  private  educa- 
tion will  be  deprived  of  all  its  liberty.  Against  this  view  it 
may  be  argued,  (1)  that  the  prnciple  of  nationalism  is  not 
likely  to  be  given  this  unchecked  development;  that  without 
surrendering  what  is  good  in  that  principle,  the  minds  of  men 
are  much  more  likely  to  require  that  that  principle  should 
be  construed  in  terms  of  larger  freedom  and  in  better  co- 
ordination with  the  total  concept  of  humanity;  (2)  that  even 
if  the  agitation  for  centralized  and  politically  controlled  edu- 
cation should  increase,  it  will  still  meet  with  sufficient  resist- 
ance in  the  ground  of  principle  and,  for  a  long  time  and  until 
the  world  disarms,  will  be  so  hampered  for  funds  that  free 
education  is  not  in  danger  of  any  immediate  extinction  and 
that  the  most  tightly  administered  and  bureaucratic  govern- 
ments, like  Japan,  instead  of  moving  in  the  direction  of  a 
curtailment  of  private  initiative  and  freedom  in  education  are 
providing  a  great  expansion  for  it;  and  (3)  that  even  if  the 
worst  expectations  of  those  who  anticipate  national  educa- 
tional uniformity  are  realized,  the  Christian  Church  will  still 
find  a  way  to  do  its  work  and  will  ultimately  reopen  human 
liberty.  In  any  case,  it  will  not  surrender  any  of  its  freedom 
essential  to  the  discharge  of  its  duty,  in  return  for  financial 
aid  or  any  governmental  privilege.  As  Sir  Michael  Sadler 
says  in  closing  his  article,  "Where  this  (i.  e.,  the  freedom 
of  the  Christian  school  to  teach  the  Christian  way)  is  made 
impossible  by  the  Government,  the  Christian  school  has  no 
choice.  It  must  refuse  to  accept  the  conditions  imposed  by 
the  Government.  .  .  .  Only  those  whose  knowledge  of  educa- 
tional history  is  imperfect  will  expect  such  restrictive  methods 
of  educational  governance  to  succeed  for  long." 

But  suppose  it  is  not  merely  a  question  of  surrender  of  Gov- 
ernment privileges  or  of  submission  to  hampering  but  un- 
avoidable conditions.  So  long  as  the  problem  moves  in  this 
sphere  it  is  simple.  Missions  must  retain  their  full  freedom 
to  give  such  instruction  and  to  exert  such  influence  as  they 
feel  to  be  their  duty.  But  suppose  it  is  a  question  of  life 
and  death,  of  the  bare  existence  of  the  schools,  of  their  pro- 
hibition by  Government  if  they  refuse  to  accept  Governmental 
conditions.    And  it  seemed  likely  for  a  time  in  Korea  that  this 

276 


would  become  the  actual  situation  there,  namely,  that  the 
Church  would  have  to  give  up  its  schools  entirely  and  send  all 
its  children  to  public  schools,  or,  if  not  this,  be  allowed  to 
continue  its  own  schools  only  on  condition  that  all  religious 
worship  and  instruction  should  be  completely  excluded.  Hap- 
pily we  do  not  have  to  face  this  question  in  any  country,  but 
we  ought  to  be  prepared  with  our  judgment  as  to  the  course 
of  action  we  should  take  if  we  were  forced  to  choose  between 
Church  schools  with  religion  excluded,  but  in  which,  never- 
theless. Christian  children  could  be  protected  from  anti- 
Christian  influence,  and  state  schools,  in  which,  though  they 
might  be  called  religiously  neutral.  Christian  children  would 
nevertheless  be  subjected  to  continuous  anti-Christian  pres- 
sure. 

4.      THE  PROBLEM  OF  OUR  MISSION  COLLEGES 

The  Sadler  Commission  recommended  a  radical  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  Indian  Universities  by  which  each  university,  in- 
stead of  being  a  merely  examining  and  degree-conferring 
body,  would  become  a  unitary,  teaching,  residential  institu- 
tion. This  scheme  carried  with  it  the  reorganization  also 
of  the  colleges  which  are  affiliated  with  the  existing  university. 
The  new  type  of  university  would  take  over  the  two  upper 
years  of  the  present  colleges,  would  add  three  years  to  them, 
and  would  provide  in  one  central  organization  for  the  entire 
work  of  a  modern  highly  developed  university.  The  present 
colleges  would  have  the  option  of  two  alternatives.  They 
could  take  over  the  two  upper  years  of  high  school  and  retain 
the  two  lower  years  of  their  present  curriculum  and  become 
intermediate  colleges,  in  reality  preparatory  schools  to  the 
universities.  Or  they  could  become  university  hostels  with 
readers  and  supplementary  courses,  and  perhaps  with  some 
work  recognized  as  internal  to  the  university.  This  new 
scheme  has  already  gone  into  effect  at  Lucknow  and  Dacca. 
The  scheme  has  been  approved  for  Calcutta,  but  the  financial 
resources  necessary  for  the  change  are  not  available.  No 
steps  towards  a  proposed  change  have  yet  been  taken  in  Bom- 
bay and  Madras.  In  Allahabad  the  scheme  met  with  earnest 
resistance  when  it  was  pressed  by  the  Government  represen- 
tatives in  the  University  Senate.  By  no  one  was  it  resisted 
more  vigorously  than  by  Dr.  Janvier.  The  project  has  been 
carried  through,  however,  and  the  Ewing  Christian  College 
is  now  in  process  of  readjustment  to  meet  the  new  conditions. 
It  is  proposed  that  on  the  present  Jumna  compound  the  col- 
lege will  go  on  as  an  intermediate  college  and  that  it  will 
at  the  same  time  in  its  buildings  just  across  the  road  develop, 

277 


as  fully  as  may  be  possible,  a  department  internal  to  the 
University.  It  remains  to  be  seen  how  this  plan  can  be 
worked  out  under  the  new  conditions,  and  whether  the  College 
will  have  the  resources  in  staff  and  money  necessary  to  meet 
its  very  difficult  problems.  As  the  only  Christian  College  in 
Allahabad  and  the  only  center  of  Christian  influence  and 
teaching  in  higher  educational  work,  the  Mission  and  the 
College  directors  feel  that  they  must  do  everything  in  their 
power  to  hold  this  ground  in  the  name  and  interest  of  the 
Christian  Church.  At  Lahore  a  somewhat  similar  change  is 
under  way,  although  there  is  strong  divergence  of  view  in 
the  University  Senate  between  some  of  the  Government  repre- 
sentatives, who  are  pressing  for  the  unitary  University,  and 
a  large  group  led  by  the  Forman  Christian  College,  which  is 
standing  for  the  preservation  of  the  values  of  the  present 
system.  And  the  Forman  College  has  long  possessed  a  position 
of  great  influence  and  power  in  the  University  of  the  Punjab, 
If  the  new  university  organization  is  introduced  into  Lahore, 
the  Forman  Christian  College  will  no  doubt  seek  to  meet  the 
situation  in  very  much  the  same  way  that  the  Ewing  Christian 
College  has  done  in  Allahabad. 

This  reduction  of  Christian  Colleges  of  university  grade 
to  the  status  of  intermediate  colleges  is  defended  by  some  on 
the  ground  that  it  will  enable  Missions  to  concentrate  their 
work  on  students  in  their  most  impressionable  years,  the 
years  during  which,  if  at  all,  they  are  likely  to  be  won  to 
Christian  faith  and  character.  There  are  others  who  are  not 
satisfied  with  this  view  and  who  believe  that  it  will  be  a  great 
loss  to  the  Church  if  all  work  of  university  grade  passes  into 
the  hands  of  the  State.  They  point  to  the  struggle  of  the 
Missions  and  Churches  in  Japan  at  the  present  time  to  de- 
velop institutions  of  university  grade  and  to  the  existence  in 
India  of  great  Hindu  and  Mohammedan  universities  with 
charters  from  the  Government  of  India,  and  they  argue  fur- 
ther from  the  experience  of  the  Missions  in  Japan  that  if 
such  a  Christian  University  is  not  established  now  while 
conditions  are  plastic  and  by  the  Missions  acting  unitedly, 
it  will  be  far  more  difficult  later  to  accomplish  anything 
either  unitedly  or  otherwise.  We  discussed  this  question  both 
in  the  United  Provinces  and  in  the  Punjab  where  alone  at 
the  present  time  there  appears  to  be  any  great  interest  in 
the  matter,  and  while  we  were  in  Lahore  we  attended  a  con- 
ference of  representatives  of  the  Missions  and  Mission  Col- 
leges in  the  Punjab  and  of  the  University  of  the  Punjab  in 
which  the  question  of  a  Christian  University  for  India,  or, 

278 


if  not  for  the  whole  of  India,  for  the  Punjab  alone,  was  dis- 
cussed. The  whole  scheme  deserves,  and  I  hope  may  receive, 
the  most  careful  consideration  upon  the  field.  I  shall  be  glad 
to  submit  to  the  Board,  if  desired,  reports  of  conferences  upon 
the  subject,  especially  of  the  conference  in  Lahore,  and  copies 
of  a  statement  issued  by  Dr.  Dudgeon  of  the  Ewing  Christian 
College  in  behalf  of  the  plan  for  such  a  university  and  of  a 
number  of  letters  received  by  him  from  leaders  of  the  Church 
in  various  parts  of  India  in  reply.  We  suggested  to  the  con- 
ference in  Lahore  that  the  Boards  at  home  would  wish  very 
full  information  on  the  following  points:  1.  Are  all  the  agen- 
cies on  the  field  agreed  and  will  they  unite  in  a  Christian 
University?  2.  What  is  the  scheme  of  the  proposed  Univer- 
sity as  to  its  organization,  relationships,  scope,  character, 
support,  etc.?  3.  Will  it  absorb  or  be  an  addition  to  the 
present  Christian  Colleges?  4.  Is  the  University  now  pro- 
posed in  the  Punjab  to  be  for  the  Punjab  alone  and  the  Uni- 
versity proposed  in  Allahabad  to  be  for  the  United  Provinces 
alone,  or  is  it  to  be  for  all  India?  If  the  former,  how  many 
universities  will  be  called  for  for  the  whole  of  India?  If  the 
latter,  is  it  feasible?  Will  a  single  Christian  University  be 
accepted  by  the  whole  of  India?  If  so,  why  is  Serampore, 
which  already  has  a  university  charter  and  prospectus,  im- 
practicable? 5.  Can  a  satisfactory  Christian  staff  be  secured 
for  one  or  more  universities?  6.  Can  the  full  Christian 
character  of  the  University  be  maintained?  7.  Is  there  an 
adequate  available  Christian  student  body?  8.  A  careful  and 
complete,  conservative  and  yet  adequate,  estimate  of  expense, 
indicating  what  field  resources  are  available,  whether  from 
contributions  in  India  or  from  the  sale  of  existing  college 
properties. 

The  two  Women's  Christian  Colleges  in  which  our  Board 
is  interested  are  going  forward  in  a  happy  and  encouraging 
way.  In  the  Isabella  Thoburn  College  in  Lucknow  the  Wo- 
men's Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  has  welcomed  our  co-operation  most  cordially.  The 
College  is  related  in  a  most  interesting  and  for  the  present 
most  satisfactory  way  to  the  Lucknow  University.  Accord- 
ing to  the  ruling  of  the  Calcutta  University,  which  Lucknow 
has  accepted,  a  woman's  college  is  not  asked  to  separate  its 
B.A.  classes  from  its  intermediate  college,  and  as  Isabella 
Thoburn  College  is  the  only  woman's  college  in  the  University 
and  as  the  University's  committee  on  women's  work  has 
voted  strongly  against  any  plan  of  co-education  in  the  Univer- 
sity, although  it  has  left  the  opportunity  of  attending  Univer- 

279 


sity  classes  open  to  women  students,  the  result  is  that  the 
College  is  practically  the  women's  department  of  the  Univer- 
sity. Miss  Nichols,  the  Principal  of  the  College,  writes: 
"While  the  tuitional  arrangements  of  the  B.A.  classes  are  in 
the  hands  of  the  University,  our  students  live  and  work  as 
last  year.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  our  professors  teaching 
the  B.A.  subjects  are  elected  as  readers  of  the  university. 
Consequently,  our  B.A.  class  work  proceeds  in  its  usual  way 
under  our  American  and  Indian  professors,  with  the  addition, 
however,  of  courses  of  lectures  at  the  University  which  are 
open  to  all. 

"For  the  vague  future,  there  is  talk  of  a  Woman's  Depart- 
ment of  the  University,  and  land  has  been  reserved  across 
the  river  for  such  a  department.  But  the  Hindu  and  Moham- 
medan members  of  the  Committee  declared  that  there  was 
no  need  of  thinking  about  such  a  department,  until  a  demand 
should  come  from  their  communities.  The  struggles  that  our 
seven  Hindu  and  Mohammedan  girls  are  having  to  secure  a 
college  education  indicates  how  backward  is  the  feeling  for 
women's  education  in  the  United  Provinces.  Evidently  we 
can  settle  down  to  many  years  of  teaching  the  B.A.  classes. 
In  our  new  property  investments  we  are  taking  this  into 
consideration." 

We  visited  the  proposed  new  site  of  the  College,  the  site 
we  asked  for  on  our  visit  to  Lucknow  having  been  refused. 
It  is  inconveniently  far  away  from  the  present  site  and  the 
practice  schools,  but  it  provides  ample  room  for  the  certain 
expansion  of  the  future.  The  Government  offers  the  property 
on  a  ninety-nine  years'  lease  at  a  very  reasonable  rental.  We 
advised  that  a  long  term  should  be  secured,  if  possible,  and 
that  any  provision  for  the  revision  of  the  rental  after  a  term 
of  years  should  specify  if  possible  a  limit  to  the  increase 
that  might  be  made. 

In  the  Kinnaird  College,  in  Lahore,  we  are  co-operating 
with  the  Zenana  Bible  and  Medical  Mission,  the  Church  of 
England,  the  United  Presbyterian  Mission,  and  the  Punjab 
Indian  Christian  Conference,  a  conference  of  Christians  of 
all  denominations  in  the  Punjab  which  provides  the  salary 
of  one  teacher.  This  is  the  only  women's  college  among  the 
people  of  the  Punjab.  It  has  only  rented  buildings  at  present, 
and  is  in  urgent  need  of  a  permanent  and  adequate  home. 
The  United  Presbyterian  Mission  joined  in  the  College  too 
late  to  make  it  possible  to  include  the  College  as  a  Union 
Christian  institution  in  the  joint  appeal  which  has  been  made 

280 


in  America  .for  the  Union  Women's  Christian  Colleges  in 
the  Orient. 

The  Punjab  and  North  India  Missions  which  jointly  main- 
tain the  Woodstock  School  and  College,  have  reluctantly  con- 
cluded, on  the  recommendation  of  the  Board  of  directors  of 
Woodstock,  to  give  up  the  college  department.  The  daughters 
of  missionaries  who  go  to  the  Woodstock  School  go  home  to 
America  for  their  college  course.  Indian  girls  take  their 
college  course  at  Kinnaird  or  Isabella  Thoburn.  The  Anglo- 
Indian  or  Eurasian  girls,  for  whom  the  Woodstock  College 
was  intended,  are  not  taking  the  college  course.  They  are 
going  to  commercial  schols  instead,  and  turning  into  clerical 
and  commercial  positions. 

The  problem  of  the  Anglo-Indian  community,  its  status, 
relationships,  and  duty  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  human 
problems  presented  anywhere  in  the  world,  and  I  have  re- 
ferred to  it  in  another  section  of  this  report. 

One  other  question  with  regard  to  the  higher  education 
of  women  is  the  problem  of  the  medical  school.  The  Missions 
in  India  have  founded  two  good  schools  for  this  purpose, 
one  at  Ludhiana  in  the  Punjab  and  the  other  at  Vellore  in 
the  Madras  Presidency.  Our  Board  is  contributing  to  the 
former,  but  having  no  Missions  in  the  Madras  Presidency  and 
being  committed  to  the  most  useful  medical  school  for  men 
in  connection  with  the  Miraj  Hospital,  we  have  not  yet  as- 
sumed any  responsibility  in  Vellore.  It  would  be  a  great 
satisfaction  to  recommend  to  the  Board  that  we  should  con- 
tribute a  doctor  to  Vellore,  but  having  in  mind  all  our  other 
obligations  in  India  which  as  yet  we  are  so  inadequately  meet- 
ing, Dr.  Ewing  and  our  deputation  are  agreed  in  advising 
that  we  defer  for  the  present  the  assumption  of  any  liability 
on  account  of  Vellore.  Some  special  problems  have  arisen 
in  the  organization  of  the  Ludhiana  School  where  we  ought  to 
be  prepared  to  render  any  assistance  necessary,  and  there  are 
beside  at  least  four  places  in  our  India  Missions  where  addi- 
tional women  doctors  are  needed. 

The  only  medical  college  for  women  in  India  which  is  of 
full  university  grade  is  the  Lady  Hardinge  Medical  College  for 
Women  in  Delhi,  to  which  the  Government  of  India  is  con- 
tributing annually  rupees  200,000.  Its  construction  and  equip- 
ment have  already  cost  about  rupees  1,600,000.  The  present 
number  of  medical  students  is  eighty-five  and  of  nurses 
thirty-one.  In  order  to  provide  facilities  for  the  training  of 
one  hundred  students  and  seventy-five  nurses  and  compound- 
ers, the  college  proposes  to  expend  rupees   1,400,000  more, 

281 


of  which  rupees  900,000  are  now  in  hand.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  this  necessary  institution  can  be  fully  equipped  and  sup- 
ported, but  the  large  amount  required  for  this  purpose  gives 
added  impressiveness  to  the  work  done  at  Ludhiana  and  Vel- 
lore  with  such  comparatively  small  resources  but  with  the 
richest  contribution  of  love  and  life. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  status  of  woman  in  ancient 
India  in  the  Vedic  and  epic  periods,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that   in   the   ages   succeeding   Buddhism   adverse   influences 
acted  upon  her  place  in  Indian  society.    Contrary  to  the  glori- 
fication of  Buddhism  so  common  in  the  West,  it  is  interesting 
to  hear  thoughtful  men  in  India  trace  to  it  some  of  the  gross- 
est elements  in  Indian  life.    In  widely  different  parts  of  India 
some  of  the  most  intelligent  Indians  with  whom  we  talked, 
both   Hindus  and   Christians,  laid   upon   Buddhism   a   large 
measure  of  responsibility  for  popular  idolatry,  for  the  in- 
feriority and  subservience  of  women,  and  for  the  pessimism 
and  moral  lassitude  of  Hinduism.    The  Code  of  Manu,  dating 
from  the  Buddhist  period,  while  not  without  honorable  teach- 
ings, contains  the  most  objectionable  passages  with  regard 
to  woman  and  her  subjection  and  dependence.     In  the  later 
Puranic  period  a  tendency  of  disintegration  and  social  de- 
terioration was  carried  still  further  and  was  accentuated  by 
the  shattering  influence  of  Mohammedanism  in  which  great 
glory  has  always  and  inevitably  hidden  deep  shame.     India 
never  lost  all  of  its  ancient  respect  for  woman,  but  it  lost 
enough  to  come  into  the  modern  world  with  its  womanhood 
secluded  and  uneducated.     And  its  greatest  incubus  today  is 
the  ignorance  and  illiteracy  of  its  women.     The  head  priest 
of  one  of  the  leading  Hindu  temples  in  Bombay  came  only  a 
few  months  ago  to  the  Christian  women  in  the  Women's  Uni- 
versity Settlement  to  invite  them  to  come  to  his  own  home 
to  teach  his  wife  and  daughters  and  not  to  hesitate  to  teach 
them  the  New  Testament.     Thousands   of  highly  educated 
Indian  men  feel  the  limitation  of  the  uneducation  of  their 
wives.    Here  as  in  several  other  great  fields  of  human  need  in 
India  Christianity  has  a  work  to  do  and  a  motive  for  its 
doing  which  gives  a  unique  opportunity  and  which  constitutes 
a   call   to   Christian   women   at   home   which    can   never   be 
affected  by  the  political  turmoil  or  the  discussion  of  relation- 
ships between  the  Missions  and  the  Indian  Church. 

5.      HIGH  SCHOOLS 

There  are  fourteen  high  schools  in  our  three  India  Missions 
distributed  as  follows:  Punjab  Mission,  for  boys  at  Lahore, 
JuUundur,  Ludhiana,   (two.  City  School  and  Christian  Boys' 

282 


Boarding  School),  Ambala  and  Dehra  Dun.  For  Girls  at 
Dehra  Dun.  North  India  Mission;  for  boys  at  Allahabad, 
Farrukhabad  and  Mainpuri.  For  girls  at  Allahabad.  West- 
ern India  Mission ;  for  boys  at  Kolhapur  and  Vengurla.  For 
girls  at  Kolhapur. 

General  statements  regarding  these  schools  were  presented 
in  behalf  of  each  Mission  to  the  India  Council  which  I  con- 
dense somewhat. 

Punjab  Mission.  About  ten  years  ago  the  Mission  became 
dissatisfied  with  the  High  Schools  as  they  then  were,  in  spite 
of  the  excellent  work  that  they  had  done  and  began  a  deter- 
mined effort  to  bring  the  schools  into  closer  conformity  with 
missionary  ideals  and  to  introduce  better  methods  and  more 
Christian  teachers.  The  results  of  this  effort  soon  became 
apparent.  Christian  young  men  in  larger  numbers  had  their 
thoughts  turned  towards  teaching  as  a  profession  and  as  a 
field  of  Christian  service.  A  yearly  conference  was  held  at 
Beas  for  the  teachers.  Bible  courses  were  carefully  worked 
out  and  introduced  into  all  the  schools.  Suitable  text-books 
were  selected,  and  in  some  instances  prepared,  to  meet  the 
needs  of  the  schools.  Teachers  were  made  to  feel  in  a  new 
way  that  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  to  non-Christian  lads  called 
for  the  best  teachers  and  their  best  work.  A  new  dignity 
was  given  to  Bible  teaching  and  the  entire  work  of  the  schools. 
Salaries  were  increased,  Provident  Funds  were  made  avail- 
able, and  the  career  of  teaching  was  made  more  attractive. 
Years  of  striking  progress  inevitably  followed  such  measures. 
The  time  is  ripe  now  for  some  new  set  of  advanced  measures 
and  for  a  further  strengthening  and  enrichment  of  the  char- 
acter and  influence  of  the  school.  All  these  schools  carry 
the  lower  classes  as  well  as  the  high  school  years,  and  while 
they  are  better  staffed  with  trained  teachers  than  in  earlier 
years,  yet  owing  to  the  increased  provision  by  Government 
for  primary  education  there  are  neither  so  many  pupils  nor 
teachers  as  there  were  before.  The  recognition  of  the  worth 
of  the  schools  is  to  be  found  in  the  report  of  the  government 
inspectors  who  cannot  be  suspected  of  undue  favoritism.  The 
place  they  have  taken  in  steadying  the  school  boy  world  in 
these  days  of  political  unrest  has  been  officially  recognized 
both  by  the  Mission  and  the  Government.  One  headmaster 
has  received  a  Kaiser-i-Hind  medal  and  another  holds  the 
very  honorable  post  of  member  of  the  Provincial  Council.  The 
work  of  one  principal  in  connection  with  the  Boy  Scouts  has 
been  recognized  by  the  Lieutenant  Governor  of  the  United 
Provinces.     This  year  decisions  have  been  made  regarding 

283 


the  management  of  the  schools  which  are  significant  of  the 
changing  times  and  also  of  the  courageous  and  forward  look- 
ing spirit  of  the  Punjab  Mission.  It  was  long  the  accepted 
ideal  that  a  fully  equipped  high  school  should  have  an  Ameri- 
can principal  and  an  Indian  headmaster.  This  year  in  three 
of  the  schools  Indians  have  been  placed  in  complete  charge 
with  the  title  of  principal,  Mr.  K.  L.  Rallia  Ram  in  Lahore, 
Mr.  Jamal-ud-din  in  Jullundur,  and  Miss  Chatter jee  in  the 
Dehra  Dun  Girls'  School.  Five  years  ago  175  Christian  boys 
were  studying  in  the  High  Schools.  Now  there  are  193.  Of 
the  107  pupils  in  the  Dehra  Girls'  School  there  are  some  Hindu 
and  Mohammedan  day  pupils,  but  of  the  80  boarders  all  are 
Christian  girls  except  two  Hindus  and  three  Mohammedans. 
The  enrollment  in  the  boys'  schools  is  as  follows: 

1921,  Pupils,  total     Pupils,  Christian 

Lahore    720  27 

Jullundur    632  18 

Ludhiana    City    653  14 

Ludhiana  C.  B.  B.  S 119  110 

Ambala 366  5 

Dehra  Dun   418  12 


1906  186 

Five  years  ago  the  Punjab  Mission  High  Schools  were  re- 
ceiving a  total  monthly  grant-in-aid  from  the  Government 
of  rupees  3402.  This  has  now  risen  to  a  monthly  grant  of 
rupees  5297.  This  is  the  amount  that  would  be  given  up  in  the 
event  of  the  enforcement  by  the  Government  of  a  Conscience 
Clause.  It  is  possible  also,  of  course,  that  the  refusal  of  the 
Missions  to  accept  such  a  clause  would  involve  not  only  the 
surrender  of  a  government  grant  but  a  falling  off  of  school 
fees  also,  through  the  withdrawal  of  boys.  The  Mission  schools 
have  no  fear,  however,  on  this  score.  They  believe  that  it 
is  just  because  of  their  uncompromising  religious  character 
and  the  type  of  the  influence  which  they  exert  on  their  pupils 
and  the  superior  quality  of  their  teaching  and  moral  disci- 
pline that  they  are  able  to  hold  their  own  now  against  Mo- 
hammedan and  Hindu  opposition  and  to  draw  their  students 
in  such  large  measure  directly  from  Hindu  and  Mohammedan 
homes. 

North  India  Mission.  The  three  High  Schools  in  Allaha- 
bad, Farrukhabad  and  Mainpuri  this  last  year  lost  90  boys. 
The  two  Middle  Schools  in  Allahabad  and  Jhansi  show  a  de- 
crease of  44  boys.  The  Ewing  Christian  College  reports  a 
falling  off  of  88  students.     There  are  several  reasons  for 

284 


this.  One  reason  is  the  non-cooperation  movement  of  the  past 
few  years.  Another  reason  is  the  increased  competition,  partly 
because  of  the  rebuilding  on  a  larger  scale  and  the  improve- 
ment of  the  Government  Schools  and  partly  because  of  "Na- 
tional Schools"  started  by  the  non-cooperators.  There  also 
have  been  other  aided  schools  opened  in  several  of  our  centers. 
Another  reason  for  a  smaller  attendance  is  the  increased 
price  of  everything  in  comparison  with  the  income  of  those 
mostly  patronizing  such  schools.  There  may  also  be  some 
religious  reasons  for  the  decrease  in  attendance  but  it  is  hard 
to  disassociate  it  from  the  racial  and  political  cause.  Another 
economic  cause  is  the  greatly  increased  opportunities  for 
young  men  in  industrial  pursuits.  There  is  nothing  like  the 
monetary  value  of  manual  labor  to  change  the  attitude  of  the 
people  toward  it.  The  results  in  examinations  do  not  seem 
to  have  much  affected  attendance,  for  though  Mainpuri  and 
Farrukhabad  Schools  have  done  well,  they  have  had  heavier 
losses  than  Allahabad.  In  Farrukhabad  there  is  the  local 
reason  for  a  decreasing  attendance  in  the  new  location  of  the 
school  outside  the  city.  The  reduction  in  attendance  is  not 
confined  to  Mission  Schools.  The  prices  paid  for  teachers  in 
the  Anglo- Vernacular  Schools  is  becoming  a  serious  matter. 
The  Government  has  taken  a  strong  lead  in  the  matter  of 
raising  salaries  and  this  compels  us  either  to  keep  pace  or  to 
lose  our  best  teachers  except  an  individual  Christian  here 
and  there  who  is  willing  to  take  a  lower  salary  for  the  sake 
of  the  greater  religious  influence  he  may  be  able  to  exert  in 
a  Mission  School.  Recently  most  increases  in  grants-in-aid 
from  Government  have  been  ear-marked  for  increased  salaries 
of  teachers.  But  even  so  we  are  still  far  behind  Government 
standards  in  the  matter  of  wages. 

The  new  plans  for  regrading  College  and  Secondary  Educa- 
tion will  doubtless  have  an  effect  on  our  Anglo- Vernacular 
Schools.  Ever  since  the  Government  Middle  School  examina- 
tion and  certificate  was  discontinued  the  Middle  Schools  have 
fallen  off  in  importance.  With  the  discontinuing  of  the  High 
School  examination  and  the  possible  transfer  of  all  High 
School  work  to  the  Intermediate  College  the  High  Schools 
as  now  known  will  either  continue  under  a  severe  handicap 
or  cease  to  be.  Thus  the  forces  that  threaten  the  finances 
of  our  schools  are  various  and  powerful.  The  following  table 
shows  the  make  up  of  the  income  of  our  Anglo-Vernacular 
Boys'  Schools: 


285 


Mission  Govt.  Grant  Fees 

Jumna  2700  10800  11142 

Katra  1671  1725          1100 

Farrukhabad  2740  6752         5600 

Jhansi  2643  2220          1500 

Mainpuri  4570  7200         5400 

Rupees  14324         28710         24742 

These  figures  are  taken  from  the  estimates  for  1922-1923. 
The  Farrukhabad  High  School  is  in  an  especially  difficult 
position.  During  the  past  five  years  the  fee  income  has  fallen 
off  about  Rs.  4000. 

The  one  High  School  for  girls  in  the  North  India 
Mission  is  the  Mary  Wanamaker  Girls'  High  School  in  Alla- 
habad. The  school  experienced  a  heavy  falling  oif  in  attend- 
ance some  years  ago  and  has  not  recovered  fully  what  was 
lost.  A  largely  endowed  free  school  has  been  opened  near  by 
which  has  cut  in  upon  its  attendance,  and  the  school  has  not 
been  able  to  compete  with  other  girls'  schools  in  Allahabad 
in  sending  about  conveyances  to  bring  the  girls  from  their 
homes.  By  a  careful  study  of  its  problems,  however,  and 
provision  for  efficient  and  uninterrupted  administration,  it  is 
hoped  that  the  school  with  its  beautiful  plant  may  develop 
high  school  Christian  education  for  girls  as  it  ought  to  be 
developed  in  such  a  center  and  in  the  one  girls'  high  school 
of  the  Mission. 

Western  India  Mission.  The  Esther  Patton  High  School 
for  girls  in  Kolhapur  enrolls  236  girls  from  the  kindergarten 
through  high  school.  The  school  is  a  model  of  cleanliness 
and  order  and  the  musical  training  of  the  girls  excelled  any- 
thing that  we  saw  in  any  other  school  in  India.  The  school 
is  as  a  light-house  for  all  the  Southern  Maratha  Country. 
In  former  days  in  northwestern  Persia  it  was  customary  to 
divide  the  villages  into  light  villages  and  dark  villages.  A 
light  village  was  one  which  contained  a  graduate  of  Fiske 
Seminary,  and  a  dark  village  was  one  which  held  no  such 
illumination.  The  Esther  Patton  School  is  just  such  a  foun- 
tain of  light  throughout  the  Western  India  Mission.  By  the 
brightness  of  their  faces  and  the  fragrance  of  their  influence 
its  graduates  can  be  picked  out  in  any  of  the  communities 
where  they  have  gone. 

The  two  High  Schools  for  boys  have  their  very  grave  and 
distinct  problems.  At  Kolhapur,  with  a  new  building,  the 
number  of  pupils  is  increasing  and  is  now  about  100,  of  whom 
forty  are  Christians.  The  school  was  started  with  the  patron- 
age of  the  Maharajah  and  with  the  hope  on  his  part  and  on 

286 


the  part  of  the  Mission  that  the  sons  of  his  noblemen's  fami- 
lies would  be  sent  to  it.  There  were  no  specific  stipulations, 
however,  as  to  the  obligations  on  either  side,  and  there  has 
been  some  uncertainty  of  mind  and  plan  in  the  Mission  with 
regard  to  the  enterprise.  Our  own  judgment  is  that  if  the 
school  is  needed  by  the  Mission,  as  we  believe  it  is,  the  Mission 
should  go  forward  to  make  it  the  best  possible  school  that  it 
can,  trusting  to  the  merits  of  the  school  to  draw  such 
patronage  as  is  desirable.  In  both  the  Kolhapur  and  Ven- 
gurla  schools,  as  well  as  in  the  Esther  Patton,  the  great  prob- 
lem is  the  problem  of  teachers.  Six  of  the  fourteen  teachers 
in  the  Esther  Patton  School  are  Brahmans,  as  are  almost  all 
the  teachers  in  the  Boys'  High  Schools  in  Kolhapur  and  Ven- 
gurla.  I  shall  retutn  to  this  general  nuestion  of  the  non- 
Christian  teachers  and  the  Christian  influence  of  all  our 
schools  a  little  later.  I  would  only  say  here  that  the  schools, 
which,  as  it  seemed  to  us,  presented  special  problems  which 
can  be  taken  up  in  correspondence  with  the  Missions  were 
Ambala,  Farrukhabad,  and  the  Boys'  High  Schools  at  Kol- 
hapur and  Vengurla.  It  seemed  to  us  that  it  would  be  a 
great  pity  to  close  any  one  of  these  schools,  and  that  every 
effort  should  be  made  to  provide  what  is  needed  to  do  suc- 
cessfully the  missionary  work  which  only  they  can  do,  whether 
this  need  is  for  equipment  as  in  the  case  of  Vengurla,  or  of 
repairs  and  physical  improvement,  as  in  the  case  of  Ambala, 
or  in  Christian  staff  as  in  all  these  schools,  or  in  other  matters 
of  which  we  spoke  with  the  missionaries  in  charge. 

6.      VILLAGE  SCHOOLS 

The  general  problem  of  village  education  in  India  has  been 
carefully  studied  and  discussed  in  the  report  of  the  commis- 
sion sent  out  by  the  Mission  Boards  of  Great  Britain  and 
America  two  years  ago,  and  Dr.  Fleming's  little  book  on 
"Schools  With  a  Mission  in  India,"  deals  in  a  most  helpful 
way  and,  by  the  use  of  concrete  illustrations,  with  the  problem 
both  of  the  village  boarding  and  the  village  day  schools  and 
the  training  of  teachers  for  such  schools.  Our  three  Missions 
have  all  given  special  study  to  the  subject  and  have  made 
very  great  even  though  unequal  progress  in  dealing  with  it. 
The  minutes  of  their  Mission  meetings  report  the  excellent 
village  school  policies  which  they  have  adopted  and  are  actu- 
ally carrying  out.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  conditions 
are  very  unequal  in  the  three  Missions.  In  the  Punjab  there 
are  large  Christian  communities.  The  total  baptized  commu- 
nity, outside  of  the  cities,  scattered  through  the  villages  and 
the  districts  is  now  34,028.    Many  of  these  are  in  large  groups, 

287 


as  in  the  village  of  Luliani  in  the  Kasur  field,  where  one-fourth 
of  the  population  of  4,000  is  Christian.  Here,  accordingly, 
there  are  many  groups  of  children  adequate  to  supply  local 
schools.  In  the  United  Provinces,  on  the  other  hand,  where 
the  number  of  baptized  Christians  in  the  districts  of  our  Mis- 
sion is  over  30,000,  the  Christians  are  scattered  in  small 
groups.  In  the  Fatehgarh  field  the  7,500  Christians  are 
spread  out  in  750  villages.  In  the  Kasganj  station  the  8,000 
Christians  are  distributed  in  525  villages.  There  are  not 
enough  children  in  the  Christian  community  in  a  single  village 
to  maintain  a  school,  and  as  the  Christians  are  all  from  one 
of  the  lowest  out-castes,  the  children  from  other  castes  can- 
not be  persuaded  to  come  to  the  same  school  with  them,  and 
the  out-caste  children  are  not  admitted  to  the  government 
schools.  In  the  Etah  field  where  there  are  6,607  Christians, 
Mr.  McGaw  estimates  that  there  are  1,455  of  school  age  for 
whom  he  has  twelve  teachers.  Each  teacher  has  on  the  aver- 
age 130  pupils  of  school  age,  but  these  are  scattered  in  21 
villages,  making  on  the  average  six  to  a  village,  and  of  these 
many  cannot  be  spared  from  field  work  or  the  care  of  the 
cattle  or  the  pigs.  In  the  Western  India  Mission  again  the 
conditions  are  different  from  either  of  the  other  Missions. 
The  total  number  of  baptized  Christians  in  the  whole  Mission 
is  4,000,  or  only  half  as  many  as  are  found  in  a  single  station 
in  the  North  such  as  Kasganj,  and  of  these  more  than  three- 
fourths  are  found  in  the  Sangli  and  Kodoli  fields.  In  these 
two  fields  the  conditions  resemble  those  in  the  Punjab,  and 
the  problem  is  one  not  of  finding  pupils  or  getting  teachers 
so  much  as  of  providing  for  the  support  of  the  teachers.  In 
the  other  stations  of  the  Western  India  Mission,  however, 
especially  at  Ratnagiri  and  Vengurla  in  the  Konkan,  the  day 
schools  are  not  schools  for  Christian  children,  as  everywhere? 
else  in  our  Missions  in  the  main,  but  are  distinctly  evangelistic 
agencies,  furnishing  almost  the  only  points  of  contact  am 
certainly  the  only  factors  of  continuing  influence  in  the  com 
munities. 

Each  of  the  three  Missions  is  dealing  with  this  vital  prob- 
lem. In  the  Punjab  the  Village  Education  Board  of  the  Mis- 
sion is  handling  both  the  village  day  schools  and  the  boarding 
schools  for  village  children  as  effectively,  I  believe,  as  any 
Mission  in  India.  The  number  of  village  schools  last  year  was 
65  and  this  year  76,  of  which  55  are  reported  as  being  thor- 
ough and  efficient  schools.  There  are  1,485  village  children 
under  instruction,  466  in  the  boarding  schools,  and  the  re- 
mainder, or  1,019,  in  the  day  schools,  an  increase  of  32  per 

288 


cent,  over  the  year  preceding,  109  of  the  day  pupils  are  non- 
Christian  boys,  and  one-eighth  of  the  total  number  are  girls. 
By  the  use  of  inspectors,  by  the  development  of  school  man- 
agement, by  the  training  of  teachers  in  training  courses  and 
institutes,  by  a  Village  Teachers'  Journal,  by  the  development 
of  community  work,  by  the  following  up  of  literate  Christians 
who  have  left  school,  and  most  of  all  by  the  work  of  the  re- 
markable training  school  for  village  boys  and  village  teachers 
which  Mr,  McKee  has  developed  in  Moga  and  which  I  have 
described  in  the  letter  on  that  station,  the  Punjab  Mission  is 
making  steady  and  encouraging  progress  in  dealing  with  this 
vital  problem  of  the  education  of  the  great  mass  of  low  caste 
village  Christians  who  have  been  brought  into  the  Church  and 
who  must  be  lifted  up  lest  they  drag  the  Church  down.  While 
Moga  is  the  chief  of  the  boarding  schools  for  village  children 
and  is  the  head  of  the  entire  organization,  the  Mission  has  a 
careful  and  comprehensive  plan  covering  the  entire  field  of 
the  Mission  and  co-ordinating  in  one  efficient  system  the 
boarding  schools  at  Ambala  for  girls,  at  Hoshiarpur  for  girls 
and  little  boys,  at  Jagraon  and  Kasur  for  boys  and  girls,  and 
at  Moga,  Khanna,  and  Saharanpur  for  boys.  Much  remains 
to  be  worked  out  both  in  organization  and  in  reorganization, 
but  we  cannot  praise  too  warmly  the  way  in  which  the  Punjab 
Mission  is  dealing  with  this  matter. 

As  has  been  pointed  out,  the  problem  of"  the  village  day 
school  in  the  North  India  Mission  is  peculiar,  but  the  Mission 
is  doing  its  best  to  meet  the  situation  by  its  boarding  schools 
for  village  children  at  Etah,  in  two  schools,  one  for  girls  and 
the  other  for  boys,  at  Mainpuri  in  a  school  for  boys,  and  in  the 
Rakha  School  in  Fatehgarh  for  girls.  By  the  use  of  itinerant 
teachers  and  the  contract  system,  by  which  teachers  were  paid 
in  proportion  to  the  number  whom  they  had  actually  taught 
to  read  satisfactorily,  and  by  constant  visitation  and  super- 
vision on  the  part  of  the  missionary  inspector  of  village  edu- 
cation, the  Mission  has  done  what  it  could  to  meet  its  problems. 
We  rejoice  that  Miss  Lee  has  decided  to  return  to  India,  The 
Mission  owes  much  to  her  energy  and  efficiency  in  dealing 
with  village  education.  The  Mainpuri  training  school  for  evan- 
gelists and  teachers  is  also  contributing  to  the  solution  of 
the  problem.  There  is  a  fine  spirit  in  the  school,  and  the 
change  wrought  in  the  minds  and  characters  of  the  students 
by  even  one  year  of  the  school's  work  was  unmistakable.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  that,  with  this  school  as  a  center,  the  village 
work  of  the  North  India  Mission  may  be  developed,  in  spite 
of  its  greater  difficulties,  as  the  work  in  the  Punjab  has  been. 

289 

10 — India  and  Persia 


In  the  Western  India  Mission  Mr.  Knapp  has  been  set  aside 
as  inspector  of  mission  schools  and  has  been  placed  in  charge 
of  the  normal  training  department  of  the  Sangli  Industrial, 
Agricultural  and  Training  School.  There  are  3,062  boys  and 
girls  enrolled  in  all  the  schools  of  the  Mission,  2,009  boys  and 
752  girls  in  the  primary  schools,  106  boys  and  19  girls  in  the 
high  schools,  and  125  boys  and  51  girls  in  the  upper  primary 
and  middle  schools.  There  are  164  teachers  altogether,  of 
whom  131  are  untrained.  The  distribution  of  the  pupils  by 
caste  is  as  follows:  Christian  1,104,  Mahar  774,  Mang  286, 
Mussulman  84,  Chamar  66,  Brahman  107,  other  castes  641. 
The  schools  of  the  Mission  are  all  open  to  village  boys  and 
girls,  but  the  two  institutions  which  are  dealing  most  directly 
with  this  class  are  the  Agricultural,  Industrial  and  Training 
School  at  Sangli  and  the  school  for  boys  and  girls  at  Kodoli 
which  I  have  described  in  the  letters  regarding  those  stations. 
We  saw  no  school  in  India  that  appealed  to  us  more  than  the 
Kodoli  School  in  its  cleanliness,  its  spirit  of  love,  its  simplicity, 
and  its  effectiveness  as  an  institution  for  teaching  village  chil- 
dren and  sending  them  back  to  their  village  homes  to  live 
as  Christians  there.  It  seemed  to  us  also  that  the  Sangli  School 
was  projected  with  right  aims  and  that  with  its  three  de- 
partments it  ought,  if  carried  forward  with  united  and  con- 
tinued administration,  to  meet  the  needs  of  our  Western  India 
Mission  in  the  training  of  village  Christian  leadership. 

7.     THEOLOGICAL,  AGRICULTURAL  AND  INDUSTRIAL  SCHOOLS 

We  have  and,  at  present,  we  need  only  one  theological 
seminary  in  our  three  India  Missions.  Indeed  one  institution 
can  serve  not  only  our  Missions  but  a  number  of  other  Mis- 
sions also,  and  our  Missions  would  be  glad  if  the  United  Pres- 
byterians, the  Scotch  Presbyterians,  and  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Missions  would  join  them  in  one  adequate  union  theo- 
logical school.  In  the  past  the  seminary  has  aimed  to  provide 
both  the  higher  theological  course  and  the  lower  course  for 
village  evangelists.  This  latter  work  the  North  India  Mission 
is  doing  for  itself  at  Mainpuri  and  the  Western  India  Mission 
is  so  far  away  that  it  must  needs  meet  this  need  on  its  own 
territory  and  is  doing  so  by  its  preachers'  training  school, 
located  heretofore  at  Panhala,  but  moved  for  this  year  to  Kol- 
hapur.  The  Punjab  Mission  has  not  made  any  distinct  pro- 
vision for  the  training  of  evangelists,  and  it  would  seem  that 
Saharanpur  Seminary  could  easily  continue  to  do  that  work 
for  the  Punjab.  The  great  problem  of  the  Seminary  is  the 
supply  of  students.    There  were  sixteen  students  in  the  Semi- 

290 


nary  when  we  visited  it  of  whom  six  were  from  the  Punjab, 
nine  from  the  United  Provinces  from  the  North  India  Mis- 
sion, and  one  from  Ratnagiri  from  the  Western  India  Mission. 
Of  the  nine  from  the  North  India  Mission  eight  were  from 
Etah  and  one  from  Kasganj.  These  facts  were  significant. 
The  men  from  Etah,  representing  one-half  the  seminary,  were 
there  because  of  the  influence  of  Mr.  McGaw.  What  he  had 
done  in  getting  men  to  Saharanpur  a  dozen  or  a  score  of 
other  missionaries  could  have  done  in  greater  or  in  lesser  meas- 
ure also,  if  they  had  been  of  the  same  mind  in  this  matter 
with  Mr.  McGaw.  The  problem  of  the  Seminary  is  not  an 
easy  one.  It  depends  for  its  solution  on  the  demand  and 
opportunity  there  may  be  for  its  graduates,  on  the  attitude 
of  mind  prevailing  in  the  Indian  Church  with  regard  to  the 
Christian  ministry,  on  the  right  settlement  of  the  question 
of  relationships  between  the  Mission  and  the  Church,  on  the 
existence  of  a  living,  evangelistic  momentum  in  the  Indian 
Christian  community,  and  on  the  exercise  by  individual  mis- 
sionaries and  individual  Christian  Indian  leaders  of  their 
personal  influence  in  leading  young  men  to  devote  their  lives 
to  Christian  service  and  in  directing  them  to  the  Seminary 
in  Saharanpur. 

A  great  deal  is  rightly  said  in  India  with  regard  to  the 
economic  problem  of  the  Indian  Church,  and  the  Missions  have 
often  been  admonished  to  do  more  in  preparing  young  men 
for  trades  and  industrial  pursuits  and  to  turn  in  this  direction 
some  of  the  resources  and  energy  which  are  being  devoted  to 
providing  a  literary  education.  Realizing  the  justness  of 
much  that  has  been  said  on  these  points,  our  Missions  have 
been  striving  to  provide  industrial  and  agricultural  training. 
Such  training  has  been  introduced  in  the  schools  at  Moga, 
Saharanpur  and  Khanna  in  the  Punjab.  The  Agricultural 
Institute  has  been  established  at  Naini,  just  across  the  Jumna 
river  from  the  Ewing  Christian  College  at  Allahabad.  An 
industrial  and  trades  school  has  been  opened  under  a  man 
specially  equipped  for  such  work  at  Fatehgarh,  and  industrial 
teachers  have  been  introduced  in  the  Etah  boys'  school  which 
it  is  hoped  also  to  relate  closely  to  Mr.  Slater's  work  for  the 
improvement  of  poultry  and  of  the  economic  condition  of  the 
low  caste  Christians  through  the  poultry  industry.  In  the 
Western  India  Mission  the  Sangli  Industrial  and  Agricultural 
School  is  designated  to  meet  this  very  need.  It  cannot  be 
said  that  there  is  any  rush  of  students  to  these  schools.  The 
low  caste  boys  simply  will  not  come  to  the  trade  school  at 
Fatehgarh.     Their  castes  have   never  been  connected   with 

291 


trades.  The  school  is  very  well  managed  and  unreservedly 
commended  by  the  Government  inspectors,  but  the  only  con- 
dition upon  which  it  could  get  students  would  be  to  aid  them 
financially  as  it  is  unable  to  do.  The  Saharanpur  School  also 
is  finding  it  difficult  to  get  students.  In  the  schools  which 
are  caring  for  village  children  and  which  make  industrial 
training  incidental,  the  matter  has  not  been  so  difficult.  We 
heard  of  several  missions  which  had  attempted  industrial 
schools  and  had  been  constrained  to  give  them  up.  We  trust 
that  our  Missions  will  not  have  to  give  up  the  experiments 
which  they  are  making  in  this  field. 

The  Agricultural  Institute  at  Naini  is  an  institution  by 
itself.  We  have  discussed  its  problems  at  length  with  Mr. 
Higginbottom  and  have  written  specifically  with  regard  to 
them  to  the  Board.  As  a  result  of  Mr.  Higginbottom's  last 
visit  to  America  and  his  untiring  work  there,  a  number  of 
new  men  have  been  added  to  the  staff,  a  large  tract  of  new  land 
has  been  acquired,  and  adequate  resources  have  been  secured. 
It  seemed  to  us  that  what  is  needed  now  is  Mr.  Higginbottom's 
continued  presence  in  the  Institute  and  the  careful  working 
out  in  detailed  and  effective  organization  of  the  large  useful 
plans  which  have  been  conceived.  After  visiting  Allahabad 
we  saw  several  of  the  government  agricultural  schools  and 
experimental  farms,  and  we  realized  even  more  clearly  than 
we  did  in  visiting  the  Institute  the  greatness  and  the  difficulty 
of  the  task  which  has  been  undertaken,  and  the  need  of  the 
application  to  it  of  steady,  unremitting,  and  efficient  organiz- 
ing skill. 

8.      THE  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCE  OF  OUR  EDUCATIONAL  WORK 

There  have  been  decades  of  debate  over  the  subject  of  mis- 
sionary education  with  opinions  ranging  all  the  way  from 
those  who  advocate  education  even  without  religious  instruc- 
tion or  direct  evangelistic  aim  to  those  who  deny  the  legiti- 
macy of  any  form  of  educational  effort  at  all  and  hold  that 
missionary  work  should  be  restricted  absolutely  to  the  simple 
oral  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  After  having  been  quiescent 
for  some  years  this  discussion  has  now  become  very  much 
alive  once  more.  It  is  not  necessary  to  spend  any  time  upon 
it  here,  however.  The  policy  of  our  Board  and  of  the  General 
Assembly  with  regard  to  missionary  education,  whether  low 
or  high,  for  Christian  or  for  non-Christian,  has  been  clearly 
defined  and  established,  and  in  numerous  reports  and  published 
statements  Dr.  Lowrie,  Dr.  Ellinwood,  Dr.  Brown  and  I  have 
set  forth  the  grounds  for  this  policy.    We  believe  in  the  use 


of  education  as  a  missionary  agency,  but  we  believe  that 
use  is  subject  to  very  clear  and  definite  aims,  and  we 
believe  that  foremost  among  these  is  the  aim  to  win  students 
to  the  acceptance  and  confession  of  Christ  as  their  Lord  and 
Saviour  and  to  the  dedication  of  their  lives  to  the  work  of 
bringing  in  His  Kingdom.  It  does  not  trouble  us  in  the  least 
to  have  this  aim  denounced  as  proselytism.  If  by  proselytizing 
is  meant  the  effort  to  persuade  Hindus,  Mohammedans,  Budd- 
hists and  Confucianists  and  all  men  to  accept  Jesus  Christ 
as  their  Lord  and  Saviour  and  openly  to  confess  and  follow 
and  serve  Him,  then  the  work  of  proselyting  is  exactly  the 
work  in  which  we  are  engaged,  and  to  forward  that  work 
is  the  main  reason  for  our  establishing  and  maintaining  Chris- 
tian schools  of  whatsoever  grade. 

Are  our  schools  in  India  forwarding  this  aim?  I  believe 
that  they  are,  and  that  this  is  our  warrant  for  their  continu- 
ance. They  are  not,  indeed,  accomplishing  all  that  could  be 
wished.  Neither  is  our  evangelistic  work,  whether  in  our 
churches  or  in  our  chapels  or  in  bazar  preaching  or  in  house 
visitation.  Neither  is  our  medical  work  nor  the  circulation  of 
the  Bible  nor  Christian  literature,  but  all  these  things  are 
making  their  contribution,  and  the  contribution  of  the  schools 
is  not  the  least.  The  Rev.  E.  M.  Wilson  of  the  Western  India 
Mission  told  me  that  he  had  asked  the  teachers'  training  class 
under  his  charge  what  missionary  agencies  had  contributed 
most  both  in  direct  results  and  in  building  up  the  church, 
and  that  in  their  answer  they  were  unanimous  in  putting 
the  village  and  boarding  schools  first.  Professor  Ismail  of 
the  Forman  Christian  College,  said  that  he  could  not  think 
of  a  man  engaged  in  Christian  work  who  had  not  been  in  a 
missionary  or  Christian  school.  For  nearly  three  months 
we  travelled  over  India  with  Dr.  Ewing  who  had  been  for 
thirty  years  Principal  of  the  Forman  Christian  College.  Wher- 
ever we  went,  especially  in  northern  India,  men  would  come 
to  see  him,  to  greet  him  when  he  arrived  and  to  bid  him  fare- 
well when  he  left,  to  place  themselves  and  all  that  they  had 
at  his  service,  to  help  him  and  us,  as  his  companions,  in  any 
way  in  their  power,  because  they  had  been  his  students.  Again 
'  and  again  such  men  as  these  who  have  not  had  courage  to 
confess  Christ,  but  who  believe  on  Him  in  their  hearts,  have 
used  their  influences  to  advance  the  Christian  cause.  And  most 
of  those  who  have  confessed  Christ  and  who  are  the  leaders 
of  the  Church  in  India  today  are  men  who  were  trained  and 
many  of  them  won  to  Christ  in  missionary  school  and  college. 

The  school  is  our  most  direct  and  effective  approach  to 

293 


the  higher  classes  in  India.  Indeed  the  school  and  the  zenana 
are  our  only  approach.  Our  preaching  reaches  the  Christian 
communities  and  the  poorer  and  lower  classes.  These  classes 
and  the  middle  element  in  society  furnish  the  great  body  of 
patients  in  our  hospitals.  If  we  give  up  our  schools,  we  sur- 
render the  most  powerful  influence  which  Christianity  has 
exerted  upon  the  men  of  India.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  un- 
-easiness  of  mind  in  the  Indian  Church  and  in  the  Missions  to- 
day over  the  diminution  of  our  access  to  the  higher  castes. 
Many  new  interests  have  arisen  to  divert  attention  from  them 
and  to  lessen  the  influence  exerted  upon  them  by  missionaries. 
If  our  schools  and  colleges  are  surrendered  or  reduced  we 
shall  find  this  contact  with  the  main  forces  of  India  still  more 
curtailed.  This  is  not  theory  but  fact.  We  closed  some  years 
ago  our  boys'  high  school  in  Saharanpur,  and  we  know  the 
result.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  we  shrink  from  the  thought 
of  our  being  obliged  to  give  up  the  high  schools  in  Ambala 
or  Vengurla.  We  ought  to  keep  all  that  we  have  and  find  the 
men  and  money  for  new  work  by  the  increase  of  our  contri- 
butions at  home.  We  ought  not  only  to  keep  what  we  have, 
but  we  ought  to  make  it  more  intensively  and  more  in- 
tensely Christian  and  evangelizing,  and  we  have  not  the  least 
hesitation  in  saying,  more  intensely  proselytizing  than  it  has 
ever  been. 

Indian  Christians  have  no  question  in  their  minds  as  to  the 
efficiency  and  necessity  of  education  as  a  missionary  agency. 
Of  the  mas.j  of  evidence  which  is  available  on  this  point  it 
will  suffice  to  select  two  of  many  statements  placed  in  our 
hands  in  India.  The  first  is  a  letter  which  we  received  from 
the  Dekkan  Christian  Educational  Society,  and  the  second  is 
an  address  from  the  Christian  teachers  of  the  Mission  High 
School  in  Mainpuri.  Never  shall  we  forget  the  evening  at 
Mainpuri  in  the  headmaster's  home  when  he  and  his  wife 
and  his  fellow  Christian  teachers  welcomed  us  with  a  social 
simplicity  and  charm  and  a  warmth  and  delicacy  of  Christian 
feeling  which  could  not  be  surpassed. 

"Sir:— 

"It  is  unnecessary  to  say  anything  as  regards  the  present 
Indian  movements  but  at  the  same  time  it  is  not  unwise  to 
give  a  general  survey  of  the  present  Indian  politics  and  the 
relations  we  Christians  bear  towards  them. 

"India  is  a  religious  country  and  to  turn  the  minds  of  such 
men  towards  Christianity  is  not  an  easy  job.  Religion  and 
the  ultimate  salvation  of  mankind  is  deeply  rooted  in  the 
minds  of  the  uneducated  classes.    As  for  the  highly  educated 

294 


classes,  they  do  not  believe  even  in  their  own  theories  and  doc- 
trines, given  to  them  by  their  greatest  law-giver,  Manu.  The 
educated  classes,  as  such,  have  thoroughly  understood  the 
pure  motive  of  Christianity — that  of  leading  men  towards 
Christ.  But  they  do  not  like  to  see  their  own  kith  and  kin 
converted  to  Christianity,  and  as  a  supplement  to  this  motive, 
they  have  started  different  sects  among  themselves.  The  main 
business  of  these  sects  is  to  maintain  the  fundamental  Chris- 
tian principles  as  their  own  and  thus  put  a  full  stop  to  or  lay 
a  hindrance  in  the  way  of  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ.  Theosophy,  Brahmo  Samaj,  Arya  Samaj,  Satya-Shod- 
hak  Samaj  and  many  other  such  sects  have  borrowed  our 
Christian  doctrines  as  their  foundation  and  have  been  trying 
to  compete  with  Christianity.  The  leaders  of  these  sects  are 
highly  educated  people  and,  of  course,  we  need  men  of  their 
calibre  to  convince  them  of  the  truths  of  Christianity.  At 
such  a  critical  time,  when  our  Christian  community  has  to 
face  so  many  political,  religious  and  social  difficulties,  we 
need  highly  educated  Christians  to  convince  the  judgment  of 
those  who  try  to  contradict  Christianity.  By  preaching  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  in  a  better  way,  we  should  be  able  to  tell 
them  that  Christianity  alone  supersedes  all  the  religions  in 
the  world. 

"When  we  look  to  our  Kolhapur  Mission  with  this  view, 
all  our  future  happiness  and  hopes  are  frustrated.  Will  not 
the  Mission  look  to  this  matter  and  foster  education  in  this 
part  ? 

"As  for  the  state  of  the  Christians  in  this  part  of  the  coun- 
try, the  majority  of  them  lead  a  hand-to-mouth  life  and  it  is 
simply  impossible  for  them  to  educate  their  children  easily 
without  at  least  some  help.  Our  hopes  are  that  the  young  men, 
on  whose  shoulders  the  future  of  the  community  depends, 
should  be  well-fitted  for  their  work.  But  if  they  are  left 
without  good  education,  not  only  our  hopes  will  be  marred 
but  also  our  community  will  be  in  danger.  So  it  is  for  the 
sake  of  the  welfare  of  our  Indian  Christian  community  that 
we  need  good  Christians,  advanced  in  their  modern  views, 
ready  to  face  the  dangerous  problems  that  are  before  us, 
anxious  to  propagate  the  Gospel  of  Christ  in  a  better  way, 
able  to  answer  the  questions  put  to  them  by  the  Hindus,  and 
prompt  and  quick  to  differentiate  Christianity  from  these 
supposed  good  sects.  If  we  do  not  penetrate  into  these  mat- 
ters, how  would  Christianity  prosper  in  India? 

"Keeping  this  view  in  mind,  we  have  started  a  Society, 
called  'the  Dekkan  Christian  Educational  Society,'  to  educate 

295 


young  Christians.  The  main  object  of  this  Society,  by  edu- 
cating our  young  men,  is  to  elevate  the  fatal  low  condition 
of  the  Christian  community  of  Western  India.  It  is  not  our 
desire  to  start  new  High  Schools  or  Colleges  but  the  Society 
wants  to  give  scholarships  to  young  boys  and  girls  to  prose- 
cute their  higher  studies.  We  have  started  the  work  but  as 
you  know  very  well,  such  societies  require  a  solid  sum  of 
money,  which  the  Christian  community  at  large  is,  unfortu- 
nately, not  in  possession  of. 

"In  India  every  community  has  done  something  for  the  edu- 
cation of  its  students.  The  men  in  general  feel  the  responsi- 
bility and  do  their  utmost  to  make  their  societies  successful. 
The  Dekkan  Educational  Society  has  produced  thousands  of 
graduates,  the  Maratha  Association  has  brought  forth  a  thou- 
sand young  men  with  excellent  education.  Other  societies 
have  gone  a  step  further,  they  have  been  sending  their  stu- 
dents to  America,  England,  Germany  and  Japan  to  prosecute 
higher  studies.  Contrasting  this  with  our  Christian  commu- 
nity in  Western  India,  we  see  only  two  graduates.  What  a 
tremendous  progress.  This  is  all  that  our  Mission  has  achieved 
in  fifty  years'  time.  Of  course,  we  cannot  but  extol  the  work 
done  in  the  Miraj  Medical  School.  It  has  done  a  great  service 
to  the  Mission  by  producing  a  big  number  of  doctors.  What 
is  required  at  the  present  time  is  college  education,  theological 
training,  engineering,  etc.  We  have  to  face  the  educational 
classes  of  other  communities  and  if  we,  in  this  twentieth  cen- 
tury, go  to  challenge  them  with  our  illiterate  men,  if  we  go 
to  spread  the  Gospel  of  Christ  without  theological  or  compara- 
tive religious  training,  then  the  goal  of  the  success  of  our 
society  will  be  in  grave  danger. 

"Our  Society  has  its  own  happy  prospects  in  the  future. 
The  Society  begs  you.  Sir,  kindly  to  bear  our  message  to 
America.  The  message  is  the  yearning  of  our  young  men  and 
women  after  academical  pursuits  and  higher  education.  We 
crave  your  help,  Sir,  to  spread  the  news  all  over  America.  We 
strongly  hope  that  the  Mission  as  well  as  our  generous  sym- 
pathizers in  America  will  try  their  best  to  make  our  Society 
a  real  success  by  raising  a  good  amount,  or  otherwise,  for  the 
education  of  the  young  generation  of  Western  India. 

"The  true  translation  of  our  'Appeal  to  the  Public'  with  a 
vernacular  copy  is  enclosed  herewith. 

"We  invite  you  and  your  friends'  generosity  in  this  matter 
to  give  a  chance  to  our  young  men  and  women. 
"I  remain.  Sirs,  yours  respectfully, 

"G.  K.  Khabade, 

"Hon'y  Sec'y  The  Dekkan  Christian  Educational  Society." 

296 


"Sir:— 

"We  the  Christian  teachers  of  the  Mission  High  School, 
Mainpuri,  accord  you  a  most  hearty  welcome  and  take  this 
opportunity  of  expressing  our  sense  of  gratification  at  having 
the  rare  honor  and  pleasure  of  having  you  in  our  midst. 

"Your  visit  to  our  school  and  your  presence  today  in  our 
midst  will  be  looked  upon  by  us  as  a  notable  event  in  our  life 
here. 

"We  have  looked  forward  with  great  pleasure  to  our  meet- 
ing the  chief  representative  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  America  and  we  thank  you, 
Sir,  for  your  kind  presence  here  among  us.  We  are  grateful 
to  the  Board  in  America  for  sending  you  out  to  this  country 
to  see  for  yourself  the  Christian  activities  of  her  Missions. 

"The  institution  in  which  we  have  the  privilege  to  serve 
is,  as  is  well  known  to  you,  the  outcome  of  the  earliest  efforts 
of  your  missionary  undertaking  in  this  Province.  It  has  been 
the  pioneer  of  English  education  in  this  district  and  has  ex- 
erted and  is  still  exerting  a  far  reaching  influence  through 
the  Christian  ideals  it  is  endeavoring  to  set  up  before  its  stu- 
dents in  all  the  departments  of  its  activities. 

"Through  this  institution  we  are  enabled  to  create  points 
of  contact  with  the  communal  life  of  the  city  here  for  the 
spreading  of  Christian  influences.  The*  task  before  us  is 
fraught  with  tremendous  difficulties  as  we  are  only  a  drop 
in  the  ocean,  a  handful  in  the  midst  of  a  large  non-Christian 
community.  Occasions  often  arise  when  we  have  to  struggle 
against  forces  which  run  counter  to  our  cause  and  give  rise 
to  feelings  of  discouragement.  But,  Sir,  the  faith  that  is 
in  us  of  the  ultimate  victory  of  the  ideals  we  are  out  here  to 
set  forth  buoys  us  up  with  hope  and  enables  us  to  carry  on 
our  work  with  patience  and  fortitude. 

"We  beg  to  be  pardoned.  Sir,  if  we  take  the  liberty  of 
expressing  in  a  few  words  our  judgment,  so  far  as  we  have 
been  able  to  form  it,  from  personal  experience  and  considera- 
tion, with  regard  to  the  educational  work  of  the  Mission  as 
an  agency  for  the  evangelization  of  this  land  of  ours. 

"Our  country,  as  you  are  well  aware,  Sir,  is  now  in  the 
throes  of  a  great  political,  social  and,  if  we  may  say  so, 
religious  upheaval,  and  as  education  is  the  foundation  of  all 
activities  in  a  state,  we  feel  that  as  Christian  teachers  we 
have  an  important  part  to  play  in  equipping  the  younger 
generation  for  the  right  kind  of  citizenship. 

"The  Mission  is  at  present  faced  with  a  tremendous  prob- 
lem with  regard  to  her  policy  in  her  educational  work.     We 

297 


as  the  children  of  the  soil  and  with  all  our  love  and  loyalty 
to  our  motherland,  and  above  all  as  followers  of  Him  whose 
name  we  bear,  feel  that  the  cause  of  education  has  never  been 
more  urgent  than  now.  The  contribution  towards  the  cause 
of  education  in  this  country  by  missionary  enterprise  has 
been  great.  Its  philanthropic  and  benevolent  character  alone 
is  a  glowing  testimony  to  the  Name  of  Him  who  went  about 
doing  good.  It  has  set  many  a  thinking  mind  to  face  the  issue 
and  ask  the  vital  question,  'What  think  ye  of  Christ?'  though 
they  have  not  as  yet  acknowledged  Him  as  their  Lord  and 
Saviour.  The  very  national  reawakening  so  visible  in  these 
days  has  been  to  a  very  large  measure  the  by-product  of  the 
silent  and  invisible  forces  of  good  which  have  operated  through 
institutions  like  this. 

''Much  of  the  apparent  anti-Christian  antagonism  is  noth- 
ing but  a  sullen  and  tacit  admission  of  the  death  blows  which 
the  power  of  Christ,  operating  through  institutions  like  this, 
has  dealt  to  the  superstitious  and  caste  ridden  social  struc- 
ture of  Hinduism.  We  have  arrived  at  a  critical  juncture 
when  in  determining  the  future  policy  of  the  Mission  in  her 
educational  work  in  this  country  the  wisest  Christian  states- 
manship is  needed.  .   .   . 

"The  tremendous  influence  for  good  which  eminent  mis- 
sionary educationalists  have  exerted  and  are  still  exerting  has 
been  made  possible  only  through  institutions  which  mission- 
aries have  set  up  for  the  education  of  the  children  of  our 
countrymen  among  whom  the  percentage  of  literacy,  we  feel 
ashamed  and  humiliated  to  say,  still  amounts  to  the  appallingly 
small  figure  of  6.  It  will  be  another  decade  before  the  country 
can  provide  adequately  for  all  the  education  of  her  children. 
We  shall  be  losing  golden  opportunities  if  at  this  critical 
stage  we  take  our  hands  off  such  noble  work  because  of  any 
change  in  the  attitude  of  the  Government  towards  Mission 
institutions.  Our  hearts  go  out,  Sir,  in  deep  gratitude  to  that 
noble  band  of  pioneer  missionaries  who  have  gone  before  and 
to  those  with  whom  it  is  our  privilege  at  present  to  be  asso- 
ciated in  Christian  service  for  what  they  have  accomplished 
and  are  accomplishing  for  the  uplift  of  our  motherland. 

"And  if  we  be  permitted  to  dream  dreams  and  see  visions 
we  have  now  before  our  mind's  eye  the  picture  of  a  rising 
Indian  Christian  community  with  its  self-governing  and  self- 
supporting  churches  scattered  through  the  length  and  breadth 
of  this  country — its  members  occupying  positions  of  trust  and 
responsibility  in  the  public  life  of  the  country  and  having 
their  influence  felt  in  all  the  spheres  of  its  activities.     Our 

298 


community,  Sir,  is  struggling  to  rise,  and  though  there  are 
desperate  odds  against  us,  we  feel  confident  that  a  time  will 
come  when  many  of  our  cherished  dreams  will  be  realized  by 
our  children  if  not  by  us. 

"We  thank  you,  Sir,  and  those  who  are  here  with  you  today 
as  our  guests  and  desire  you  to  convey  to  the  Board  our  fer- 
vent wishes  for  the  further  growth  and  success  of  her  work 
and  our  heartfelt  thanks  for  providing  us  with  opportunities 
for  Christian  service." 

9.      NON-CHRISTIAN  TEACHERS 

I  think  it  will  be  deemed  allowable  to  quote  several  para- 
graphs from  a  confidential  statement  prepared  for  the  Boards 
at  home  "On  the  Educational  Position  in  India,"  by  the  Edu- 
cational Board  of  the  Bombay  Representative  Council  of  Mis- 
sions: "All  supporters  of  missionary  work  must  be  asking 
themselves  how  it  will  be  affected  by  the  great  changes  which 
have  come  over  India  and  by  the  yet  greater  changes  which 
seem  to  be  coming.  No  department  of  missionary  work  is 
likely  to  be  more  affected  than  that  of  the  educational  mis- 
sionaries. .  .  .  The  changes  which  have  come  about  gradu- 
ally, and  produced  great  results  which  have  not  as  yet  been 
adequately  considered,  are  the  following: 

(a)  A  great  increase  in  the  number  of  pupils  and  stu- 
dents attending  missionary  institutions, 

(b)  A  great  decrease  in  the  proportion  which  the  number 
of  pupils  and  students  attending  our  institutions 
bears  to  the  number  attending  other  institutions, 

(c)  A  great  increase  in  the  number  of  Christians  to 
educate. 

We  offer  a  few  remarks  on  each  of  these  points : 

"(a)  Mission  Schools  and  Colleges  were  among  the  earliest 
to  be  founded,  and  the  numbers  attending  them  being  small, 
a  strong  Christian  influence  was  felt  throughout  them,  and 
the  Bible  was  taught  by  men  who  .were  well  able  to  teach 
it.  While,  no  doubt,  there  were  numerous  exceptions,  this 
was  the  general  character  of  missionary  education  in  those 
days.  Now,  however,  it  is  a  common  thing  to  find  large 
schools  with  very  few  Christian  teachers,  the  majority  of 
the  staff  being  non-Christian,  and  the  Bible  teaching  is  often 
done  by  people  who  would  not  be  entrusted  with  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  same  classes  in  secular  subjects,  and  who  have  not 
even  any  training  in  Bible  teaching. 

"(b)  The  number  of  pupils  and  students  in  India  has 
increased  with  great  rapidity,  especially  that  of  those  attend- 

299 


ing  High  Schools  and  Colleges.  The  percentage  of  the  popu- 
lation in  India  which  receives  secondary  education  is  almost 
as  high  as  in  England.  (Cf.  'International  Review  of  Mis- 
sions,' Jan.,  1921,  p.  19).  Therefore  while  the  missions  are 
educating  far  more  persons  than  formerly,  they  are  educat- 
ing a  much  smaller  proportion  of  the  total  number  of  those 
who  are  receiving  education  in  India. 

"Both  the  change  noted  under  (a)  and  that  noted  under 
(b)  seem  to  call  for  a  change  in  the  direction  of  missionary 
policy,  and  it  is  the  same  change  which  is  suggested  by  both. 
The  attempt  to  diffuse  influence  among  great  numbers  by 
means  of  institutions  with  preponderatingly  non-Christian 
staffs  should  be  abandoned  in  favor  of  an  attempt  to  exer- 
cise more  definite  and  intense  influence  through  institutions 
which  are  thoroughly  permeated  with  the  Christian  spirit." 

Even  in  the  absence  of  these  changes,  however,  the  obliga- 
tion upon  Missions  to  staff  their  institutions  with  men  and 
women  of  Christian  character.  Christian  efficiency,  and  Chris- 
tian influence  is  clear.  The  common  arguments  for  the  employ- 
ment of  non-Christian  teachers  such  as  that  their  employ- 
ment is  necessary  to  reassure  the  minds  of  Hindu  and  Moham- 
medan parents,  that  Christian  teachers  demand  more  pay 
than  equally  efficient  or  more  efficient  non-Christian  teachers, 
that  Christian  teachers  are  often  incapable  and  dishonest  in 
their  work  and  that  they  will  not  go  to  difficult  or  remote 
places,  where,  nevertheless,  non-Christian  teachers  can  be 
secured,  etc.,  are  arguments  which  either  temporize  somewhat 
with  the  definite  evangelizing  aim  of  Mission  schools  or  which 
recognize  the  need  of  developing  the  Christian  community 
and  of  developing,  in  the  Christian  community,  a  higher  grade 
and  more  adequate  number  of  teachers.  So  far  as  the  village 
schools  are  concerned,  the  Missions  are  dealing  with  the 
situation  very  successfully.  It  remains  for  them  to  deal  with 
it  in  the  matter  of  teachers  in  colleges  and  high  schools,  and 
here  probably  no  wholesale  methods  will  avail.  What  will 
be  needed  is  the  unceasing  effort  on  the  part  of  missionaries 
to  find  and  carry  forward  good  teaching  material  and  to  work 
it  into  efficiency  and  availability. 

The  Western  India  Mission  discussed  at  great  length  the 
question  of  the  employment  of  Brahman  teachers.  In  its  ver- 
nacular village  schools  it  is  employing  seventeen  such  teachers 
out  of  a  total  teaching  force  of  139.  In  its  middle  schools  of  ten 
teachers  eight  are  non-Christian  and  in  its  high  schools  out  of 
fifteen  native  teachers  only  one  is  a  Christian.    It  is  obvious 

300 


that  a  rule  immediately  excluding  all  non-Christian  teachers 
from  the  middle  and  high  schools  would  extinguish  these  six 
schools.  Such  a  rule  applied  to  the  village  schools  would  leave 
most  of  the  ninety-one  schools  intact.  It  would,  however, 
wipe  out  many  of  the  village  schools  in  the  Konkan  where 
the  number  of  Christians  is  small  and  where  Christian  teach- 
ers from  the  Dekkan  are  loath  to  go.  The  India  Council  care- 
fully considered  the  Mission's  action  which  was  in  favor  of 
the  closing  of  all  the  village  schools  which  are  not  employing 
Christian  teachers  exclusively,  by  March  31st,  1923,  and  the 
Council  felt  that  this  action  was  too  radical  and  that  the 
schools  should  not  be  wiped  out  until  further  effort  had  been 
made  to  replace  the  non-Christian  teachers  with  Christians. 
Certainly  one  is  slow  to  give  up  any  point  of  approach  what- 
ever in  the  most  difficult  field  of  the  Konkan.  Nowhere  in 
India  did  we  find  Hinduism  more  solid  and  difficult  than  in 
the  Vengurla  field.  I  have  spoken  of  this  in  the  letter  regard- 
ing that  station.  So  long  as  the  missionaries  and  any  Chris- 
tian school  inspectors  can  use  the  schools  which  the  station 
has  established  as  centers  of  genuine  missionary  influence,  one 
is  loath  to  surrender  them,  insistent  as  our  efforts  should 
be  to  staff  them  as  soon  as  possible  with  Christian  men.  The 
high  and  middle  schools  present  an  even  greater  problem,  and 
the  Western  India  Mission  should  bend  every  effort  to  replace 
Hindu  teachers  in  these  schools,  and  if  there  is  any  help  which 
the  two  northern  Missions  can  give  or  that  the  Western  India 
Mission  can  obtain  from  the  American  Marathi  Mission  of 
the  Congregationalists  or  from  the  Scotch  United  Free  Church 
Mission  it  should  seek  and  secure  it. 

This  problem  certainly  cannot  be  solved  by  money.  That 
method  has  been  tried  in  part  with  the  result  of  setting  Mis- 
sion schools  to  bidding  one  against  the  other  and  of  aggra- 
vating the  evil.  Ceaseless  personal  effort  and  the  wise  use 
of  existing  agencies  of  training  provided  by  the  Government 
for  teachers  of  high  school  grade  will  alone  avail. 

The  present  situation  as  to  the  number  of  Christian  and 
non-Christian  teachers  in  our  Missions  is  set  forth  in  the 
following  table. 

Total  Number  of  Teachers  in  Our  Missions 

Christian  non-Christian 

Punjab    200  134 

North  India    147  74 

Western  India   125  39 

(Total  719)    472  247 

301 


The  above  teachers  are  distributed  as  follows: 
Anglo- Vernacular  Middle  and  High  Schools  Vernacular  Schools 

Christian       non-Christian      Christian  non-Christian 

Punjab    76  104  124  30 

North  India  57  30  90  44 

Western  India   ....       3  22  122  17 


(Total  719)    ..    136  156  336  91 

We  believe  that  our  Missions  should  study  to  increase  in 
every  way  the  direct  evangelizing  power  of  all  our  schools. 
We  trust  that  in  the  test  to  which  the  three  Indian  Christians, 
who  have  been  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Rang  Mahal  and 
Jullundur  High  Schools  for  boys  and  the  Dehra  Dun  High 
School  for  girls,  will  be  put  in  this  matter,  they  will  gloriously 
succeed.  In  all  our  High  Schools  and  in  both  Forman  and 
Ewing  Colleges  there  should  not  be,  as  I  believe  there  is  not, 
any  concealment  of  our  definite  Christian  purpose  and  desire, 
and  ways  should  be  found  to  multiply  many  fold  all  the  legiti- 
mate influences  of  persuasion  and  conviction  that  can  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  each  student  body  and  upon  every  stu- 
dent one  by  one. 

It  is  a  question  whether  the  efficiency  of  our  missionary  edu- 
cation, both  as  education  and  as  missionary,  might  not  be 
increased  by  a  very  much  larger  use  of  women,  both  Ameri- 
can and  Indian,  in  the  teaching  of  younger  boys.  The  Mis- 
sions have  found  it  easier  to  develop  an  adequate  supply  of 
Christian  women  teachers  than  of  Christian  men,  and  the 
use  of  such  teachers  with  younger  boys  in  the  boys'  schools 
both  primary,  middle  and  high  might  call  a  still  larger  num- 
ber of  young  women  into  the  work  of  Christian  teaching  and 
might  very  greatly  improve  the  work  of  our  schools.  What 
Miss  Morris  is  doing  in  the  primary  department  of  the  boys' 
school  in  Ludhiana  and  what  the  Indian  women  are  doing 
in  the  lower  classes  in  Mr.  Jamal-ud-din's  school  in  Jullundur 
are  illustrations  of  what  might  be  accomplished.  We  were 
impressed  by  an  action  of  the  Council  of  the  missionaries  of 
the  Methodist  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  in  India, 
at  its  meeting  in  October,  to  the  effect  "that  the  educational 
and  hostel  life  of  all  boys  up  to  about  ten  years  of  age  be  in 
the  hands  of  women.  It  is  to  be  decided  by  the  needs  of  the 
situation  whether  this  education  be  in  separate  hostel  arrange- 
ments." 

10.     SCHOOLS  FOR  MISSIONARIES'  CHILDREN 

The  needs  of  the  Western  India  Mission  are  satisfactorily 
met  by  the  school  at  Kodaikanal  in  the  Madura  District  in 

302 


South  India,  on  top  of  the  Puhii  Hills,  6,800  feet  above  sea 
level,  although  it  is  a  long  distance  from  the  Western  India 
territory.  Mahableshwar,  the  regular  sanitarium  of  the  Mis- 
sion, in  the  ghats  in  the  Bombay  Presidency,  is  much  nearer, 
but  this  place  would  not  serve  nearly  so  large  a  missionary 
constituency,  and  it  cannot  compare  as  a  hill  station  with 
Kodaikanal.  There  are  now  seventy-six  children  in  the  school, 
of  whom  fifty-nine  are  Americans,  eight  Canadians,  six 
British,  and  three  Swedish,  distributed  over  eight  school 
grades,  namely  through  the  first  two  years  of  the  American 
high  school  course.  More  than  a  hundred  children,  all  but  six 
missionary,  were  expected  the  following  year.  The  present 
plant  represents  an  equipment  and  land  area  of  nine  acres 
valued  at  rupees  109,709.  Its  annual  budget  is  approximately 
rupees  30,0uo,  and  it  is  used  by  sixteen  missions  and  supported 
by  six  missionary  bodies,  to  which  it  is  hoped  the  American 
Baptist  Missionary  Society  and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  may  be  added. 
The  plant  thus  far  has  been  provided  by  three  bodies,  the 
A.  B.  C.  F.  M.,  the  Dutch  Reformed  Board,  and  our  own  Board. 
It  is  hoped  that  the  other  boards  will  join  in  contributing 
approximately  rupees  30,000  needed  to  complete  the  equip- 
ment and  rs.  100,000  for  endowment. 

The  Woodstock  School  at  Landour  has  been  relied  upon  to 
meet  the  needs  of  the  Punjab  and  North  India  Missions  so  far 
as  these  have  not  been  met  by  local  arrangements  in  the  differ- 
ent stations.  Some  have  felt,  however,  that  Woodstock  did 
not  provide  an  education  as  distinctly  American  as  was  desir- 
able for  children  who  were  to  be  sent  home  to  the  United 
States  for  their  college  training  and,  perhaps,  for  the  last  two 
years  of  high  school.  The  Missions  are  now  considering  with 
the  United  Presbyterian  Mission  the  development  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Woodstock  School  of  hostels  distinctively  for 
American  children,  the  provision  of  an  adequate  stafit  of 
British  and  American  teachers  in  which  the  missionary  ele- 
ment shall  predominate,  and  of  special  instruction  for  Ameri- 
can children  to  enable  them  to  enter  the  regular  classes  in 
the  schools  at  home.  Conversations  with  missionaries  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  led  us  to  think  that  it  would  be 
wise  if  our  Missions  would  consult  with  the  Methodist  Mis- 
sions as  to  the  possibility  of  their  joining  in  such  an  arrange- 
ment, 

S.  S.  Varsova, 

Arabian  Sea,  Dec.  30,  1921. 


803 


7.    SOME  GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS  REGARDING  OUR 
INDIA  MISSIONS 

1.  The  India  Council  and  Secretary.  We  had  the  oppor- 
tunity at  Shanghai  in  September  and  Jhansi  in  December  of 
meeting  with  the  China  and  India  Councils  in  their  annual 
meetings  and  of  seeing  them  at  work.  Probably  these  two 
Councils  were  organized  as  early  as  was  possible  in  the 
unforced  development  of  our  Mission  work  in  China  and  India. 
But  certainly  they  were  not  organized  one  day  too  soon.  We 
found  them  both  firmly  settled  in  the  confidence  of  the  Mis- 
sions. There  were  some  missionaries  at  the  first,  and  there 
are  some  still,  who  are  shy  of  the  Councils  and  of  their  exer- 
cise of  authority,  but  I  think  there  are  not  many  of  our  mis- 
sionary family  who  do  not  see  the  necessity  and  the  advantage 
of  the  Councils  and  of  their  officers  as  agencies  of  coordination 
and  equalization  between  the  Missions,  and  of  forethought  and 
of  comprehension  with  regard  to  the  work  as  a  whole,  its 
necessities  and  problems  and  tendencies.  The  Councils  have 
acted  with  wisdom  and  with  restraint  and  have  grown  in  the 
respect  and  confidence  of  the  Missions.  They  have  been  for- 
tunate from  the  outset  in  their  choice  of  executives,  Dr. 
Lowrie,  Dr.  Garritt,  and  Mr.  Patton  in  China  and  Dr.  Gris- 
wold  and  Dr.  Ewing  in  India.  There  is  danger  all  over  the 
world  in  our  mission  work  and  in  all  the  work  of  the  Church 
of  overloading  with  overhead  committees  and  agencies.  I 
shall  refer  to  this  in  the  closing  chapter  of  this  report,  but 
in  these  Councils  and  their  executives  we  are  not  overload- 
ing. We  are  supplying  an  essential  link  in  the  chain  between 
the  individual  missionary  and  the  Church  at  home.  The 
supreme  unit  in  the  whole  enterprise  is  the  individual  mis- 
sionary and  his  efficiency,  but  he  needs  as  a  safeguard  against 
his  isolation,  as  a  support  to  his  judgment,  and  as  a  reinforce- 
ment to  his  appeals  the  help  which  the  Council  and  its  officers 
provide  him.  The  Board  is  doing  wisely  in  trusting  the  Coun- 
cils with  increasing  funds  for  use  at  their  discretion,  and  both 
the  Board  and  the  Missions  should  encourage  the  Councils  to 
enter  into  the  discharge  of  even  larger  responsibilities  with 
regard  to  the  efficiency  of  the  Mission  personnel,  the  initia- 
tion and  the  discontinuance  of  activities,  the  expenditures  of 
funds,  the  determination  of  policies,  the  encouragement  of 
wise  tendencies  both  within  and  without  our  Missions  and 
resolute  resistance  to  the  tendencies  which,  now  and  again, 

304 


arise  and  which  deflect  the  pathway  and  dissipate  the  strength 
of  the  missionary  enterprise. 

2.  Mission  Property.  There  are  many  obvious  and  urgent 
needs  for  property  equipment  in  the  India  Missions.  The  Mis- 
sions and  the  Council  are  both  subjecting  all  calls  for  new 
property  to  an  increasingly  rigid  scrutiny,  and  even  of  the 
clearly  needed  objects  they  have  resolved  to  present  each 
year  a  reduced  number  for  the  consideration  of  the  Board  and 
the  Church.  We  shall  do  all  that  we  can  to  aid  the  Missions 
in  securing  these  additional  properties.  At  the  same  time  we 
cannot  dismiss  the  feeling  of  anxiety  as  to  the  effect  upon 
mission  work,  in  the  Missions  of  all  denominations,  of  the 
enormous  burden  of  equipment  in  lands  and  buildings  which 
they  are  carrying.  Again  and  again  we  have  seen  mission 
policy  given  a  shape  by  reason  of  the  existence  of  property 
investments  which  it  never  would  have  been  given  if  the 
Mission  had  been  free  to  do  what  was  best,  independent  of 
property  holdings.  Missionaries  have  been  assigned  to  sta- 
tions to  which  they  would  not  have  been  assigned  but  for 
the  fact  that  a  house  was  available  there,  or  if  they  have 
been  sent  elsewhere  where  they  ought  to  be  sent,  it  has  been 
with  a  twinge  of  conscience  on  the  part  of  the  Mission  because 
sometimes  the  unused  property  represented  an  injudicious 
expenditure.  There  are  large  church  buildings  wholly,  or 
almost  wholly,  unused  that  were  never  really  needed.  It  would 
have  been  better  if  simple  inexpensive  buildings  had  been  sup- 
plied or  if  the  people  had  been  left  to  worship  under  a  tree 
or  in  a  verandah  or  wherever  they  could  until  they  were  able 
to  provide  an  appropriate  place  of  worship  of  their  own.  The 
character  of  the  modern  missionary  enterprise  requires  an 
adequate  property  equipment.  Let  us  pray  that  this  equip- 
ment may  be  servant  and  not  master.  It  represents  also  untold 
wealth  in  the  eyes  of  weak  and  poor  native  churches.  Let  us 
pray  that  it  may  not  be  an  incubus  upon  their  development  in 
self-sacrifice  and  in  self-respecting  independence. 

The  same  question  with  regard  to  the  ultimate  ownership 
and  disposition  of  these  Mission  properties  which  arose  many 
years  ago  in  Mexico  has  arisen  today  in  India.  One  of  the 
communications  which  we  received  in  India  argued  for  the 
immediate  free  transfer  to  the  Indian  Church  of  certain  of 
the  large  compounds  belonging  to  the  Mission.  Some  Indians 
who  thought  such  a  transfer  at  the  present  time  was  unwise 
still  maintained  that  the  Missions  should  regard  themselves  as 
simply  holding  these  properties  in  trust  for  the  Indian  Church 
to  take  over  in  the  future.     It  was  even  urged  that  in  the 

305 


event  of  political  changes  in  India  that  would  overthrow  the 
Government  and  that  might  draw  lines  of  social  and  economic 
exclusion  against  the  Christians  the  mission  properties,  espe- 
cially the  large  compounds,  should  be  turned  over  to  them 
as  their  homes  and  means  of  subsistence.  Recently  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  in  order  to  meet  the  deficit  of  112,000 
pounds  with  which  it  closed  the  year  1919-20  and  to  provide 
against  a  recurrent  deficit  "decided,"  as  a  letter  of  the  Society's 
representatives  published  while  we  were  in  India  declared,  "to 
ask  its  supporters  in  England  to  make  special  efforts  to  meet 
the  increasing  current  expenditure  and  to  look  to  the  sale  of  its 
properties  in  various  missions  to  provide  for  the  wiping  out  of 
the  debt."  Its  action  in  effecting  some  such  sales  of  unneces- 
sary property  in  India  was  severely  criticized  by  some  of  the 
Indian  Christians  on  the  ground  that  it  was  alienating  money 
which  really  belonged  to  the  Indian  Church.  It  was  to  explain 
and  justify  its  course  that  the  letter  referred  to  was  published. 
The  letter  proceeded,  "The  Society  holds  certain  properties  in 
trust  for  the  building  up  of  the  Christian  congregations  but 
no  suggestion  has  ever  Ijeen  made  that  these  should  be  sold. 
It  also  has  other  properties  which  it  has  bought  for  the  exten- 
sion of  its  work,  and  from  among  these  selections  for  sale  are 
being  made. 

"Frequently,  properties  greatly  increase  in  value,  when  held 
for  a  long  period;  and  in  some  cases  the  sale  has  enabled  the 
Society  to  maintain  the  work  and  still  secure  considerable  help 
for  its  needs.  In  other  cases,  conditions  have  changed  and 
the  property  is  no  longer  needed  for  its  original  purpose.  In 
some  cases,  some  work  must  be  closed  in  order  to  make  the 
necessary  sale ;  but  whether  retrenchment  in  work  is  effected, 
or  not,  the  money  needed  to  pay  for  the  work  done  must  be 
provided  .   .   . 

"Financial  conditions  in  England  make  it  more  and  more 
difficult  to  provide  for  large  expenditure,  and  with  the  growth 
of  Christian  Missions,  the  Missions  must  themselves  provide 
more  of  the  money  needed,  and  rely  less  and  less  on  gifts  of 
friends  of  Missions  in  England." 

Our  own  Board  dealt  with  this  issue  definitely  long  ago  in 
connection  with  the  sale  of  the  Zacatecas  property  in  Mexico. 
It  declared  that  where  property  had  been  bought  by  the  native 
Church  in  whole  or  in  part  and  was  held  by  the  Board  the 
Board  would  regard  such  property  or  the  Native  Church's 
equity  therein  as  a  trust,  and  would  recognize  that  such  prop- 
erty or  equity  should  be  turned  over  to  the  Church,  or,  if 
disposed  of,  that  the  proceeds  should  be  used  in  the  Christian 

306 


cause  ill  the  country.  Where,  however,  the  property  had  been 
purchased  by  contributions  from  America,  the  Board  must 
regard  it  as  held  in  trust  not  for  the  Church  in  the  particular 
country  in  which  the  money  was  first  spent,  but  for  the  whole 
enterprise  which  the  Board  was  incorporated  to  carry  on,  and 
the  Board  would  have  to  determine  in  each  particular  case,  in 
the  light  of  all  the  facts,  whether  the  property  or  its  proceeds 
should  be  turned  over  to  the  Church  in  that  field  or  reinvested 
in  the  work  there,  or  should  be  transferred  to  some  other  field 
where  the  Board's  responsibility  under  its  charter  was  still 
unfulfilled.  I  think  we  should  take  the  same  view  in  India 
and  that  the  Indian  Church  should  be  educated  steadily  in  this 
view  and  not  be  allowed  to  grow  up  with  the  assumption  that 
all  the  money  which  our  American  Church  has  invested  in 
India  is  the  property  of  the  Indian  Church,  which  the  Board, 
for  the  time  being,  is  merely  holding  in  trust  for  it.  Such 
an  assumption  would  work  injury  to  the  character  of  the 
Indian  Church.  It  needs,  on  the  contrary,  every  incentive 
with  which  it  can  supply  itself,  or  others  can  supply  it,  to 
develop  a  character  of  robust  financial  self-dependence. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  to  be  kept  in  mind  that  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  mission  property  in  India  which  was  provided 
neither  by  the  Indian  nor  by  the  American  Church,  but  by  the 
Government.  Much  of  this  is  held  under  titles  which  involve 
its  recession  to  government  if  not  longer  used  for  missionary 
purposes.  Other  properties  have  been  secured  by  the  earnings 
of  the  schools  or  hospitals  under  skillful  missionary  manage- 
ment or  by  the  generous  gifts  of  British  civilians  or  non-Chris- 
tian Indians.  On  many  such  properties  the  presumption  would 
seem  to  be  that  an  Indian  trust  is  impressed  and  the  time  will 
come  when  it  will  have  to  be  decided  in  the  case  of  each  of 
these  properties  how  this  trust  can  best  be  fulfilled,  whether 
by  the  continuance  of  missionary  administration,  by  transfer 
to  the  Indian  Church,  or  in  other  and  more  appropriate  forms. 

3.  Santokh  Majra.  In  the  station  letter  from  Ambala  I 
spoke  of  our  visit  to  the  Mission  agricultural  settlement  at 
Santokh  Majra  about  sixty  or  seventy  miles  south  of  Ambala. 
As  stated  there  Santokh  Majra  is  a  tract  of  two  thousand 
acres  leased  from  the  Government  until  1930  and  sub-let  to 
some  fifty  or  sixty  families  of  Christian  farmers.  The  Mission 
pays  an  annual  rental  of  Rs.  2,000  which  is  covered  by  the 
rentals  paid  by  the  tenants.  The  Mission  could  now  buy  the 
property  from  the  Government  for  Rs.  8,000  cash.  We  visited 
the  estate  with  the  Mission's  committee.  One  proposition  before 
us  was  to  recommend  the  establishment  of  a  full  Mission  sta- 

307 


tion  at  Santokh.  This  we  could  not  do.  There  are  far  more 
advantageous  and  fruitful  centers.  It  seemed  to  us,  moreover, 
that  the  fact  that  this  little  Christian  community  was  not 
cared  for  by  a  mission  station  was  an  advantage  and  that  the 
Mission  should  leave  it  as  an  indigenous  center,  to  be  visited 
and  helped,  of  course,  but  to  undertake  of  itself  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  surrounding  villages.  The  second  proposition  was 
to  buy  the  property  and  conduct  it  under  the  Mission  as  per- 
manent landlord.  It  seemed  to  us  that  it  would  be  better  not 
to  follow  this  course,  either,  but  to  encourage  the  tenants 
before  the  expiration  of  the  Mission's  lease  to  prepare  to  buy 
their  holdings  from  the  Government  or,  if  they  are  unable 
to  do  this,  here  is  a  good  piece  of  work  for  the  Indian  Church 
itself  to  take  over  and  conduct.  In  any  case  it  did  not  seem 
to  us  a  wise  plan  that  the  Mission  should  continue  indefinitely 
as  landlord  to  an  agricultural  colony.  It  is  most  desirable  that 
Indian  Christians  should  be  helped  to  acquire  agricultural 
property  on  terms  that  free  them  from  oppression  and  depend- 
ence, and  it  is  certainly  legitimate  for  the  Mission  to  do  every- 
thing in  its  power  to  facilitate  such  results,  but  its  undertak- 
ing in  connection  with  each  particular  enterprise  should 
involve  it  in  a  diminishing  and  not  an  increasing  measure 
of  responsiblity. 

4.  Medical  Work.  Save  in  the  Western  India  Mission  our 
medical  work  in  India  represents  a  far  smaller  proportion 
of  the  total  of  the  work  of  the  Missions  than  is  the  case  in 
Persia.  In  the  Punjab  Mission  we  have  only  the  two  women's 
hospitals  at  Ambala  and  Ferozepur  and  the  two  general  dis- 
pensaries at  Ambala  and  Lahore  and  our  participating  interest 
in  the  Medical  School  for  Women  at  Ludhiana.  In  the  North 
India  Mission  we  have  the  general  hospital  at  Farrukhabad 
and  the  medical  work  without  hospital  equipment  of  Dr. 
Douglas  Forman  in  Allahabad  and  of  Dr.  Pittman  at  Jhansi. 
In  the  Western  India  Mission  we  have  the  outstanding  medical 
work  of  the  Miraj  Hospital  and  Medical  School,  the  general 
hospital  at  Vengurla  which  influences  the  whole  of  the  Konkan 
from  Goa  to  Bombay,  the  dispensary  carried  on  in  connection 
with  the  closed  hospital  buildings  in  Kolhapur,  and  the  itiner- 
ating medical  work  of  Dr.  Ellis  from  Islampur. 

It  seemed  to  us  that  the  Punjab  Mission  was  conducting  its 
two  admirable  hospitals  for  women  with  too  narrow  a  margin 
in  the  matter  of  staff.  The  Mission  ought  to  have  one  if  not 
two  additional  women  doctors. 

There  was  much  discussion  in  the  North  India  Mission  as 
to  whether  the  hospital  at  Farrukhabad  should  be  continued  as 

308 


a  general  hospital  or  made  distinctively  a  hospital  for  women. 
The  poor  village  Christians  have  not  come  into  the  hospital 
as  it  was  supposed  they  would,  and  Dr.  Pittman's  transfer  to 
Jhansi  left  Dr.  Adelaide  Woodard  alone.  She  could  not  leave 
the  hospital  for  district  work,  and  though  a  woman  she  had 
the  charge  of  a  general  hospital  for  men  and  women  both. 
Whatever  mortal  can  accomplish.  Dr.  Woodard  can  be  counted 
on  to  do.  And  the  first  medical  need  on  the  India  Council's 
preferred  list  of  new  missionaries  is  a  man  doctor  to  be  asso- 
ciated with  her.  With  such  an  addition  and  with  Dr.  Marian 
Lockwood,  who  has  been  already  assigned  by  the  Board,  this 
hospital  with  its  large  new  plant  will  be  in  a  good  position  to 
carry  forward  the  work  which  Dr.  Woodard  has  inaugurated. 
The  Medical  work  at  Miraj  is  perhaps  the  best  known  medi- 
cal mission  work  in  India.  It  is  a  wonderful  achievement  of 
two  remarkable  men.  Dr.  Wanless  and  Dr.  Vail,  who  with 
their  rich  gifts  have  worked  together  for  twenty-three  years 
in  the  most  beautiful  fellowship  and  cooperation.  Their  work 
together  is  a  proof  of  the  possibility  of  the  happy  and  trust- 
ful association  of  men  of  the  highest  ability  in  a  common  ser- 
vice absolutely  free  of  all  jealousy  and  petty  friction.  It  is  an 
uplifting  experience  to  visit  this  great  institution  and  to 
realize  that  it  has  been  built  up  from  the  beginning  during 
Dr.  Wanless's  service  of  thirty  years.  The  Bryn  Mawr  church 
which  has  supported  Dr.  Wanless  from  the  beginning  has  rea- 
son to  rejoice  at  the  work  which  it  has  made  possible.  No 
mission  work  anywhere  was  dearer  to  Mr.  John  H.  Converse 
than  the  work  at  Miraj,  and  his  strong  and  benignant  face 
looks  down  from  the  oil  painting  on  the  wall  on  all  who  come 
into  the  building  which  bears  his  name.  Last  year  the  out- 
door patients  in  the  hospital  and  its  out-station  dispensaries 
numbered  (excluding  duplicate  treatments)  22,247,  and  the 
number  of  in-patients  2,709.  5,189  surgical  operations  were 
performed.  Since  the  establishment  of  the  hospital  in  1892. 
the  total  attendance  of  out  patients  has  been  901,067  and  of 
in-patients  34.804.  The  entire  expense  of  the  hospital  with 
all  its  work  and  out-station  dispensaries,  amounting  to  nearly 
rimees  100.000  this  past  year,  is  met  by  the  hospital's  receipts, 
with  a  balance  left  over  to  be  applied  to  new  buildings  and 
eouipment.  The  patients,  both  Indian  and  foreign,  come  from 
all  over  India,  attracted  by  the  fame  of  the  surgical  work  done 
in  the  hospital.  Associated  with  the  hospital  is  a  Medical 
School  which  had  forty-eight  students  at  the  time  of  our  visit, 
of  whom  forty-four  were  Christiaus.  The  teaching  force  is 
too  small  to  conduct  four  classes  simultaneously,  so  a  new  class 
is  admitted  only  every  second  year.    Of  the  in-patients  about 

309 


one-twentieth  are  Parsis,  slightly  under  one-tenth  are  Moham- 
medans, slightly  over  one-tenth  Christians,  and  the  remainder 
are  Hindus.  The  medical  school  is  not  of  university  grade, 
but  it  ranks  next  to  the  few  university  institutions.  The  doc- 
tor on  the  ship  which  took  us  up  the  Persian  Gulf  had  taken 
some  work  with  Dr.  Wanless  at  Miraj,  and  his  admiration 
for  him  and  the  whole  Miraj  enterprise  was  unbounded.  So 
long  as  Dr.  Wanless  and  Dr.  Vail  go  on  with  their  work  the 
success  of  the  Miraj  Hospital  and  medical  work  is  sure.  We 
need  to  pray  that  the  younger  men  who  will  succeed  them  will 
be  men  of  like  ability  and  spirit. 

The  Miraj  work  is  pervaded  with  a  deep  and  loving  evan- 
gelistic purpose,  and  the  pastor  of  the  Miraj  Church  is  active 
in  work  in  the  hospital,  and  Christ  is  first  both  with  the  doc- 
tors and  with  the  nurses,  who  use  their  unequalled  influence 
to  make  Christ  known  to  all  those  who  come  suffering  and 
needy  to  the  hospital  doors.  But  in  Miraj  as  everywhere  the 
supreme  problem  is  how  to  make  the  work  more  effectively 
fruitful  in  leading  men  and  women  to  the  open  acceptance  of 
Christ.  That  is  the  problem  of  our  evangelistic  and  educa- 
tional work  too.  Our  best  hope  of  solving  it  is  by  the  method 
of  intensive  individual  work.  No  doubt  great  forces  are  gath- 
ering which  will  some  day  move  as  resistless  social  tides  across 
the  life  of  India,  and  no  doubt  all  that  we  are  doing  in  our 
general  preaching  and  in  our  quantitative  educational  and 
medical  work  is  contributing  to  swell  these  forces,  but  our 
best  method  and  the  most  pressing  need  in  every  field  and 
in  every  department  of  the  work  is  more  intensive  influence 
persistently  and  lovingly  exercised  by  individuals  upon  indi- 
viduals. 

5.  The  Punjab  and  North  India  Missions  are  near  neigh- 
bors geographically  and  their  missionaries  meet  each  summer 
at  common  hill  stations  and  in  occasional  educational  and  mis- 
sionary conferences.  The  Western  India  Mission  is  far  away, 
and  its  members  and  those  of  the  two  other  Missions  seldom 
meet.  It  would  be  well  to  encourage  all  possible  inter-visita- 
tion between  the  three  Missions,  and  in  spite  of  the  large 
expense  we  think  it  would  be  well  if  the  India  Council  would 
some  time  meet  within  the  Western  India  Mission  and  allow 
its  members  opportunity,  before  or  after  the  meeting,  to  visit 
at  least  the  Dekkan  stations.  And  the  conditions  in  the  two 
Konkan  stations  are  so  different  and  the  intrenchments  of 
Brahmanism  in  the  Konkan  are  so  strong  that  it  would  be 
very  desirable  to  have  the  members  of  the  Council  visit  and 
study  those  stations  also. 

310 


We  would  suggest  to  the  Missions  that  they  consider  the 
expediency  of  holding  sometime  within  the  next  five  years  a 
representative  conference  of  the  three  Missions.  The  General 
Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  India  provides  an 
opportunity  for  helpful  conference  of  ordained  men,  both 
Indians  and  Americans,  who  are  in  attendance  from  the  five 
Presbyteries  which  include  the  field  of  our  three  Missions. 
No  women  commissioners  attend  the  General  Assembly,  how- 
ever. The  conference  which  we  have  in  mind,  accordingly, 
might  best  serve  its  ends  if  it  aims  simply  to  bring  the  men 
and  women  of  the  three  Missions  into  closer  acquaintance. 

It  is  not  only  our  Missions  in  India  that  would  be  helped  by 
closer  acquaintance  and  a  better  understanding  of  one  anoth- 
er's problems  and  policies.  It  seemed  to  us  that  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  India  would  be  greatly  helped  by  closer 
acquaintance  with  the  Churches  in  Japan,  Korea,  and  China, 
and  with  the  measures  which  those  Churches  have  taken,  in 
cooperation  with  the  Missions,  to  achieve  independence  and 
efficiency.  If  the  India  Council  thinks  that  it  would  be  a 
wise  thing  to  do,  I  believe  that  the  funds  could  be  specially 
provided  for  sending  a  deputation  of  the  most  wise  and  influ- 
ential leaders  of  the  Church  to  visit  the  Churches  in  Japan, 
Korea,  and  China  or  for  bringing  to  India  a  deputation  from 
the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  and  from  the  churches  in  Korea 
and  China,  with  two  or  three  of  the  most  experienced  of  our 
missionaries  in  these  fields.  Such  an  undertaking  would  only 
be  worth  while  in  case  the  right  men  could  be  found  to  go 
and  would  give  time  enough  to  their  mission  to  assure  its 
usefulness. 

6.  We  have  many  schools  and  colleges  and  the  volume  of 
educational  work  they  are  carrying  on  is  very  great.  But 
there  is  one  form  of  educational  work  which  may  or  may  not 
be  done  in  schools  and  colleges  and  which  may  be  done  alto- 
gether without  them.  It  is  the  use  of  life  to  reproduce  and 
multiply  itself  in  the  training  of  others  to  do  of  their  own 
will  and  through  their  own  opportunities,  with  the  pliability 
and  power  and  genuineness  of  true  life,  the  thing  that  they 
have  been  taught.  Tested  in  this  way  our  Mission  work  in 
India  has  some  glorious  results  to  show.  There  are  Indian 
men  and  women  who  are  not  imitators  or  dependents,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  who,  on  the  other,  do  not  strike  off  on  inde- 
pendent roads  in  the  willful  way  which  shows  that  their  inde- 
pendence is  a  spurious  thing,  a  striving  to  be  what  they 
actually  are  not.  They  are  men  and  women  with  a  true  life 
of  their  own,  knowing  the  meaning  of  prayer  and  of  divine 

311 


guidance,  glad  of  human  friendship  and  help,  but  dependent 
only  upon  God  and  seeking  to  do  His  will  as  life's  whole  duty. 
It  is  the  strength  of  our  mission  work  that  it  has  produced 
so  many  of  these  men  and  women.  It  is  its  weakness  that  it 
has  not  produced  more.  And  both  the  Missions  and  individual 
missionaries  need  to  study  the  ways  in  which  they  can  find 
and  develop  free  character  and  spontaneous  service  in  others. 
First  of  all  it  is  a  matter  of  individual  action,  but  also  we  need 
a  great  deal  more  careful  attention  to  the  training  processes 
which  will  fashion  the  Christian  Communities  and  which  will 
make  the  Presbyteries  really  strong  and  efficient.  Both  the 
individual  members  and  the  various  organizations  of  the 
Church  in  India  should  be  laid  and  held  under  living  spiritual 
responsibility  that  the  lives  of  Christians  and  the  life  of  the 
Church  may  not  be  perfunctory  and  dependent,  spent  on  ques- 
tions of  privilege  or  authority,  of  money  or  relationships,  but 
real  and  living  and  free. 

S.  S.  Constantinople, 

Mediterranean  Sea,  May  8,  1922. 


312 


V.    PERSIA 


PAGE 

1.  History  of  Our  Persia  Missions 315 

2.  Letters  from  the  Stations   327-356 

(1)  Basra  and  Bagdad   327 

(2)  The  Call  from  Nineveh    331 

(3)  A  Door  of  Access  to  the  Kurds   334 

(4)  By  the  Tomb  of   Mordecai    337 

(5)  The  Center  of  Persia's  Life  and  Death   340 

(G)  The  Great  Shrine  of  Persia   344 

(7)  The  Station  on  the  Caspian    347 

(8)  Tabriz    350 

(9)  The  Station  we  Could  not  Visit   353 

3.  The  Need  and  Destitution  of  Persia    357-371 

4.  The  Growth  of  Tolerance  and  Religious  Liberty  in  Persia .  .  372-387 

5.  Approaches  to  Persian  Mohammedanism    388-402 

6.  Talks  with  Mohammedan  Converts  in  Persia 403-425    ^- 

7.  From  Shah  Abdul  Azim  to  the  Shrine  of  Iman  Reza.  ..  .426-450 

8.  Problems  of  the  Work  for  Moslems  451-460    u^' 

9.  The  Reoccupation   of  Urumia   and   our   Relations   to   the 

Assyrian  People  and  Church   461-484 

10.  The  Educational  Work   485-503 

11.  The  Medical  Work  504-508 

12.  The  Occupation  of  the  Field    509-531 

13.  The  Call  of  Mesopotamia  532-544 

14.  The  Relief  Work 545-564 

15.  Some  Miscellaneous  Points 565-576 

313 


V.  PERSIA 

1.  HISTORY  OF  OUR  MISSIONS  IN  PERSIA 
Modern  missionary  work  was  begun  in  Persia  by  the  Roman 
Catholic  monks  in  the  sixteenth  century,  among  the  Armen- 
ians. The  earliest  Protestant  work  was  done  by  the  Mora- 
vians, who  came  in  1747  to  evangelize  the  fire  worshippers, 
of  whom  there  are  now  about  5,000  left  in  Persia,  though  fire 
worshipping  was  once  the  established  religion  of  the  land.  In 
1811  Henry  Martyn  passed  through  Persia  and  spent  eleven 
months  in  Shiraz,  where  he  preached  Christ  boldly.  Though 
in  Persia  so  short  a  time,  and  already  enfeebled  by  disease, 
Martyn  completed  his  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
he  stamped  his  influence  indelibly  on  some  hearts.  "Just  as 
I  was  leaving  Persia,"  said  Ur.  Perkins,  sixty  years  ago,  "I 
fell  in  with  a  Chaldean  bishop  about  seventy  years  old,  in 
the  district  of  Salmas,  with  whom  Martyn  had  stopped  as  a 
guest  for  a  week,  forty-seven  years  before.  This  aged  man 
is  the  only  Persian  I  have  met  who  personally  recollected 
Martyn.  He  was  charmed  with  the  missionary,  pronouncing 
him  the  finest  Englishman  he  ever  saw ;  and  his  remembrance 
of  him  was  very  vivid  so  long  afterwards.  He  spoke  of  him 
as  social,  active  and  inquisitive,  writing  from  morning  until 
night,  yet  always  ready  to  engage  in  conversation  with  all 
who  called — as  very  temperate,  eating  (as  the  bishop  figura- 
tively said)  an  egg  for  breakfast,  and  dining  on  a  chicken 
wing.  When  riding  out  to  visit  antiquities  in  the  region,  he 
was  accustomed  to  propose  a  topic  for  discussion ;  for  instance, 
when  they  mounted  their  horses  one  day,  Martyn  said  to  the 
Bishop,  'Let  us  discuss  the  question.  Was  darkness  created? 
you  take  one  side,  alid  I  will  take  the  other,  and  see  what  we 
make  of  it;'  showing  Martyn's  taste  for  metaphysics,  and  his 
knowledge  of  the  Persian  taste  and  mind.  The  bishop  repre- 
sented him  as  small  in  stature  and  frail  in  appearance.  There 
must  have  been  wonderful  power,  as  well  as  singular  fascina- 
tion, in  Martyn  to  have  left  so  enduring  and  grateful  an 
impression  on  that  Persian." 

Dr.  Perkins  himself  was  the  first  American  missionary  to 
settle  in  Persia.  In  1829  the  American  Board  had  sent  Messrs. 
Smith  and  Dwight  of  the  Mission  in  Turkey  to  explore  north- 
western Persia.  Their  welcome  in  Moslem  villages  was  very 
different  from  the  welcome  missionaries  receive  now  that  the 

315 


people  know  and  respect  them,  and  have  been  made  grateful 
for  the  medical  help  and  treatment  which  have  done  more  than 
anything  else  to  break  down  Mohammedan  prejudice.    "It  was 
a  Moslem  village,"  writes  Mr.  Smith,  of  one  of  the  last  stop- 
ping places  as  they  neared  Tabriz,  ''at  the  entrance  of  a  pass 
in  the  mountains,  which  conducts  to  the  Lake  of  Urumia.    A 
corner  of  a  miserable  stable  was  the  first  lodging  place  that 
offered,  and  the  best  that  the  villagers  could  be  persuaded 
to  give  us.    Dirty  as  it  was,  I  was  never  so  glad  to  reach  the 
best  American  inn;  nor  did  ever  a  fire  seem  more  cheerful 
than  the  burning  cow-dung  which  was  blazing  here  when 
we  entered.     I  remember  no  more,  for  a  stupor,  which  had 
been  gradually  increasing  during  the  morning's  ride,  now  com- 
pletely overcame  me.    I  sank  upon  the  ground,  and  remained 
unconscious  of  what  passed  for  two  days.     My  companion 
could  not  obtain  from  me  an  answer  to  the  simplest  questions, 
nor  had  I  the  strength  to  turn  in  bed,  if  that  name  may  be 
given  to  what  was  under  me.     It  was  a  cloak  and  a  carpet 
laid  upon  the  ground,  and  made,  at  length,  somewhat  softer  by 
the  addition  of  some  coarse  weeds,  procured  with  difficulty 
from  our  Moslem  host.    The  stench  of  the  cattle,  which  filled 
our  stable  at  night,  polluted  the  air,  and  the  lowing  of  the 
calves  disturbed  us.     No  motives  my  companion  could  use 
were  sufficient  to  procure  another  room,  or  even  to  cause 
the  cattle  to  be  removed  from  this.    And  such  was  the  dread 
of  ceremonial  pollution  from  Christian  contact,  that  the  slight- 
est conveniences  or  attentions  were  denied  us,  or  given  with 
the  greatest  reluctance.     Our  food  even  had  to  be  cooked  in 
our  own  dishes,  by  our  own  servant."    Among  the  Nestorians 
their  reception  was  quite  different.     "Hardly  had  we   dis- 
mounted," wrote  Mr.  Smith  of  their  reception  at  Ada,  which 
was   repeated   elsewhere,   "before   nearly   the  whole   village 
crowded  around  us.    They  followed  us  to  our  room,  and  filled 
it  almost  to  suffocation.     Pleased  as  we  were  to  see  such  an 
interest  excited  by  our  arrival,  we  feared  it  would  seem  to 
their  rulers  like  a  tumultuous  rising,  and  would  gladly  have 
persuaded  many  of  them  to  retire.     But  our  remonstrances 
were  in  vain,  and  the  bishop,  when  urged  to  exert  his  author- 
ity, assured  us  that  the  whole  was  but  the  overflowing  of  pure 
love  to  us,  and  we  must  bear  with  them.    They  listened  to  our 
conversation  until  late  at  night,  and  were  finally  persuaded 
to  retire  only  by  our  declaring  that  we  were  going  to  bed." 
When  Messrs.  Smith  and  Dwight  had  examined  the  situation, 
they  reported  advising  the  establishment  of  a  mission  to  the 
Nestorians.     Mr.  Smith  said,  "For  myself,  I  felt  a  stronger 

316 


desire  to  settle  among  them  at  once  as  a  missionary,  than 
among  any  people  I  have  seen,"  and  though  he  pointed  out 
that  it  would  be  a  lonely  position  with  no  Europeans  near,  and 
Constantinople  eleven  hundred  miles  away  by  land,  and  Trebi- 
zond,  on  the  Black  sea,  five  hundred,  and  very  dangerous,  yet 
he  added.  "We  must  not  calculate  too  closely  the  chances  of 
life,"  and  he  was  sure  that  the  missionary  who  should  come 
here  would  "feel  the  advantage  of  his  position ;  that  he  has 
found  a  prop  upon  which  to  rest  the  lever  that  will  overturn 
the  whole  system  of  Mohammedan  delusion,  in  the  center  of 
which  he  has  fixed  himself;  that  he  is  lighting  a  fire  which 
will  shine  out  upon  the  corruptions  of  the  Persian  on  the 
one  side,  and  upon  the  barbarities  of  the  Kurd  on  the  other, 
until  all  shall  come  to  be  enlightened  by  its  brightness;  and 
the  triumph  of  faith  will  crown  his  labor  of  love." 

On  the  basis  of  this  report  the  RfiY-  Justin  Perkins,  a  tutor 
in  Amherst  College,  with  his  wife,  was  sent  out  in  1833,  and 
in  1835  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Grant  joined  them  in  Tabriz,  and  the 
party  removed  to  Urumia  to  reside  among  the  Nestorians. 
"Our  arrival  to  reside  among  them,"  says  Dr.  Perkins,  "was 
welcomed  with  the  strongest  demonstrations  of  joy  by  all 
classes  of  that  people,  and  with  at  least  a  high  degree  of 
satisfaction  by  the  Mohammedan  population.  The  Nestorians, 
in  some  villages,  marched  out  in  masses  to  meet  us,  with  their 
rude  trumpets  and  drums,  to  express  their  gladness  on  the 
occasion,  and  would  not  be  dissuaded  from  doing  so  by  our 
earnest  remonstrances." 

The  missionaries  were  instructed  to  have  as  their  object 
in  establishing  this  Mission:  "(1)  To  convince  the  people 
that  they  came  among  them  with  no  design  to  take  away 
their  religious  privileges  nor  to  subject  them  to  any  foreign 
ecclesiastical  power:  (2)  To  enable  the  Nestorian  Church, 
through  the  grace  of  God,  to  exert  a  commanding  influence  in 
the  spiritual  regeneration  of  Asia." 

The  Nestorians  claim  a  traditional  lineage,  running  back  to 
St.  Thomas.  After  the  death  of  Christ,  it  is  said  Thomas  went 
east  to  India.  He  stopped  by  the  Lake  of  Urumia  and  con- 
verted the  people  there  and  then  walked  across  the  lake, 
certain  islands  being  pointed  out  now  as  his  stepping-stones. 
The  way  was  prepared  for  him  by  the  Three  Wise  Men,  who 
when  they  returned  to  Persia,  supposed  to  have  been  their 
own  land,  of  course  spoke  of  Christ.  Other  traditions  credit 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  to  Thaddeus,  one  of  the  sev- 
enty, and  St.  Mari,  his  disciple.  As  Christianity  gradually 
spread  eastward  from  Antioch.  the  Christians  on  the  borders 

317 


of  Persia  began  to  be  known  as  the  "Church  of  the  East." 
Their  national  name  is  "Syrians,"  After  the  Council  of 
Ephesus  in  431,  when  Nestorius,  the  Patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople, was  deposed  and  excommunicated  for  his  heretical 
opinion  regarding  the  nature  of  Christ,  (namely  that  He 
had  two  distinct  personalities)  the  Church  of  the  East  held 
another  meeting  where  Nestorius  was  pronounced  orthodox. 
Since  then,  these  Christians  have  been  cut  off  from  western 
Christianity.  They  still  flourished  however,  sending  mission- 
aries far  into  China.  The  Church  reached  the  height  of  its 
prosperity  in  the  eleventh  century.  When  Tartar  sovereigns 
succeeded  the  Caliphs  of  Bagdad  as  rulers  of  Persia,  perse- 
cution soon  laid  waste  the  Church  and  Tamerlane  in  the  four- 
teenth century  completed  the  ruin.  In  the  sixteenth  century, 
these  eastern  Christians  were  divided  by  a  controversy  over 
the  Patriarchate.  The  section  in  the  plain  of  Mosul  in  Turkev 
went  over  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  The  rest,  about 
two-thirds  in  Turkish  Kurdistan  and  one-third  in  the  Persian 
Province  of  Azerbaijan  remained  independent,  subject  to  the 
Patriarch  who  resided  at  Kochannes  in  the  mountains  of 
Turkish  Kurdistan. 

"The  theology  of  the  ancient  Church  of  the  East,"  wrote 
Dr.  W.  A.  Shedd,  some  years  ago  when  conditions  differed  a 
great  deal  from  later  years,  "is  of  course,  Nicene,  with  the 
addition  of  the  Nestorian  definition  of  the  relation  between 
the  human  and  Divine  natures  in  the  incarnate  Son  of  God. 
Definite  and  logical  development  has  not  gone  much  farther, 
due  partly  to  the  character  of  the  Syriac  mind,  impulsive  in 
initiative  and  often  vigorous  in  execution,  but  not  construc- 
tive of  either  theological  or  ecclesiastical  system.  Another 
reason  perhaps  the  principal  one,  is  that  the  vital  conflict  of 
this  church  has  not  been  with  heresy  or  variations  of  Christian 
doctrine,  but  with  heathenism  and  Islam.  On  most  theo- 
logical questions,  except  the  person  of  Christ,  the  Trinity, 
and  the  authority  of  apostolic  and  Old  Testament  Scriptures, 
a  diversity  of  opinion  is  found  in  their  literature.  For 
example,  transubstantiation  is  both  affirmed  and  denied. 
There  is,  however,  a  practical  tendency  to  replace  simple  faith 
in  the  crucified  and  risen  Saviour  with  some  sort  of  sacerdotal 
mediatorship.  Still  stronger  is  the  tendency  to  trust  to  legal 
works  instead  of  living  faith.  The  fast  is  the  greatest  Chris- 
tian institution,  votal  offerings  and  pilgrimages  to  shrines 
are  most  important  auxiliaries.  The  priesthood  of  the  clergv 
in  succession  to  the  levitical  priesthood  is  recognized,  but  he  is 
called    'elder'    (Kasha    or    Kn^hisha),    the    New    Testament 

318 


presbyter.  The  sacrament  holds  a  high  place  in  popular 
regard,  and  yet  the  fact  that  there  is  no  confessional  deprives 
the  priest  of  inquisitorial  power.  Vows  to  famous  saints  are 
trusted  means  of  curing  disease  and  procuring  blessings. 
Religion  is  largely  divorced  from  morals,  and  has  little  power 
of  moral  restraint.  The  clergy  are  no  better  than  the  common 
people  in  general  morality,  are  more  given  to  idleness,  and 
possibly  more  generally  demoralized  by  begging  in  Russia. 
The  higher  clergy  (there  being  at  present  the  patriarch,  one 
metropolitan,  and  eight  diocesan  bishops)  are,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  shamelessly  venal,  and  in  some  instances  of  notori- 
ously evil  life.    Two  favorable  points  may  be  emphasized. 

"The  authority  of  the  Scriptures  has  never  been  impugned, 
and  is  a  holy  tradition  of  universal  acceptance,  nor  is  there 
any  objection  raised  to  the  Scriptures  in  the  vernacular.  The 
old  dispute  of  Cyril  and  Nestorius  has  been  fought  over  again 
by  every  educated  Nestorian  for  fourteen  centuries;  and  the 
appeal  is  always  to  Scriptures  as  against  conciliar  authority. 
The  possession  of  a  pure  and  ancient  version  is  an  additional 
advantage. 

"The  true  catholicity  of  the  Nestorians  is  the  second  point — 
that  is,  if  catholicity  consists  in  the  recognition  of  other  Chris- 
tians as  members  in  the  visible  body  of  Christ.  How  far  this 
has  been  true  in  the  past  is  a  subject  for  historical  research, 
but  certainly  Protestant  missionaries  have  been  recognized 
as  true  ministers  administering  valid  ordinances."  ("Mis- 
sionary Review  of  the  World,"  October,  1895,  Article:  "Rela- 
tion of  the  Protestant  Missionary  Effort  to  the  Nestorian 
Church,"  p.  741f). 

Dr.  Grant  maintained  that  the  Nestorians  were  the  descend- 
ants of  the  "lost  Ten  Tribes,"  basing  his  argument  on  tradi- 
tions, physiological  affinities,  customs  and  institutions.  His 
argument  was  not  conclusive  but  probably  nowhere  in  the 
world  is  there  such  a  preservation  of  the  atmosphere  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  of  the  institutions  and  customs  of  Bible 
life  as  among  this  small  people  whose  Christianity  runs  back 
to  the  dawn  of  the  Christian  era  and  who,  with  the  Armenians, 
for  twelve  centuries  have  held  their  faith  against  Moslem 
tyranny  and  persecution. 

The  missionaries  began  their  work  quietly  and  tactfully. 
They  established  village  schools  and  seminaries  for  training 
young  men  and  women  as  preachers  and  teachers;  but  they 
"had  not  expected  to  enter  their  churches  as  clergymen  and 
formally  preach  the  gospel,"  said  Dr.  Perkins,  "for  we  appre- 

319 


hended  that  the  native  ecclesiastics,  much  as  they  rejoiced 
in  our  more  general  labors,  would  be  likely  to  regard  them- 
selves in  danger  of  being  undervalued  by  their  people  in  their 
clerical  capacity,  by  a  comparison  with  the  missionaries,  and 
so  take  offense  at  the  measure  were  we  to  assume  the  atti- 
tude of  regular  preachers  in  their  churches."  But  in  1840 
they  began  to  be  urged  by  the  most  influential  ecclesiastics  to 
go  into  the  churches  every  Sunday  and  preach.  "The  scene 
was  more  interesting,"  said  Dr.  Perkins,  "than  can  possibly 
be  conceived,  as  we  took  our  places  in  those  venerable 
churches,  a  Nestorian  Bishop  standing  usually  on  one  hand 
and  a  priest  on  the  other,  and  a  congregation  of  both  sexes 
and  all  ages  seated  on  their  mats,  on  the  simple  earth  floor, 
crowded  shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  listening  to  the  words  of 
life  as  they  fell  from  the  speaker's  lips,  with  an  eagerness 
of  countenance  that  would  almost  loose  the  tongues  of  those 
of  our  number  who  had  not  yet  learned  the  language,  and 
inspire  them  with  the  power  of  utterance.  It  is  always  an 
unspeakable  privilege  to  preach  the  gospel  of  salvation,  but 
especially  under  such  circumstances." 

In  these  years,  1840-1850,  came  the  first  great  revivals 
among  the  Nestorians,  revivals  of  which  Dr.  Perkins  could 
say,  "They  have  reminded  me  more  of  the  revivals  associated 
with  the  labors  of  Nettleton.  in  the  days  of  my  youth,  than 
any  others  I  have  witnessed."  It  was  in  one  of  these  revivals 
that  Deacon  Gewergis,  the  mountain  evangelist,  was  converted. 
He  was  a  noted  thief  and  robber,  of  notorious  reputation  for 
roil  rage  and  crime.  He  had  brought  his  two  daughters  down 
to  Miss  Fiske's  Seminary,  and  came  over  to  visit  them  during 
a  revival.  He  and  his  companions  bristled  with  deadly  weap- 
ons, and  at  first  he  was  angry  at  the  sight  of  the  deep  convic- 
tion of  the  pupils ;  but  some  words  from  Miss  Fiske  went  like 
an  arrow  to  his  heart,  and  a  conversion  like  Paul's  wrought 
a  like  transformation  in  his  character,  and  he  spent  his  life 
going  UD  and  down  the  Assvrian  Mountains,  with  which  the 
name  of  Samuel  A.  Rhea  will  always  be  connected,  suffering 
reviling,  abuse,  and  beating,  dying  at  last  in  a  delirium,  crying, 
"Free  grace !  free  grace !  free  grace !"  Of  one  of  these  revivals 
in  the  young  men's  seminary,  Deacon  Gewergis  wrote  to  a 
friend:  "Glory  to  God,  there  has  been  such  an  awakening 
among  the  boys  as  I  have  never  seen — a  lamentation,  a  mourn- 
ing for  sins,  that  is  wonderful.  Many  of  the  boys  prostrated 
themselves  on  the  floor  to  pray;  others  left  the  room;  and 
there  rose  such  a  sound  of  weeping  in  the  yard,  prayer  closets, 

320 


and  elsewhere,  as  to  melt  our  hearts;  and  this  continued  until 
midnight." 

As  years  went  on,  and  the  spirit  of  a  warm  evangelical 
Christianity  spread  through  the  Nestorian  Church,  it  became 
increasingly  difficult  to  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  Old 
Church.  The  missionaries  had  hoped  to  reform  the  spirit 
of  the  Church  without  interfering  with  its  organization ;  but 
at  length  a  separation  came,  and  the  evangelical  element  broke 
off  from  the  Old  Church,  and  formed  an  evangelical  knooshya 
or  synod,  with  five  presbyteries,  three  in  Persia  and  two  in 
Turkey.  The  separation  was  felt  to  be  unavoidable.  The 
Patriarch  became  hostile,  and  tried  to  destroy  the  evangelical 
work  in  the  Church.  In  1844  his  brothers  issued  this  order 
against  the  girls  of  Miss  Fiske's  seminary:  "Be  it  known  to 
you  all,  ye  readers  at  Seir,  that  if  ye  do  not  come  to  us  tomor- 
row, we  will  excommunicate  you  from  our  most  holy  Church ; 
your  finger  nails  shall  be  torn  out;  we  will  hunt  vou  from 
villJige  to  village,  and  kill  you  if  we  can."  The  converts  became 
restless  under  the  abuses  and  unscriptural  practices  of  the 
Church  which  they  could  not  reform.  They  demanded  also 
better  pastoral  care  and  instruction  than  the  dead  language 
in  use  in  the  churches  and  the  old  rituals  allowed.  So  the 
disruntion  came  quietly  and  naturally,  through  the  converts 
and  the  missionaries  uniting  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  In  time 
those  interested  in  the  reform  met,  and,  in  1862,  held  the 
first  conference  or  knooshya.  Though  a  large  section  of  the 
Church  broke  off  in  this  way,  it  was  not  the  occasion  of  the 
cessation  of  the  reform  within  the  Old  Church.  That  has  con- 
^"inued  to  this  dav.  and  the  missionaries  still  preach  and  work 
in  and  for  the  Old  Church  as  well. 

There  are  some  who  disapprove  of  our  American  missions 
to  the  oriental  Christian  churches  because  they  have  in  this 
way  established  separate  reformed  organizations.  But  they® 
never  did  this  until  forced  to  it,  and  until  in  some  cases  the 
evangelical  element  was  practically  excommunicated.  It  may 
be  suggested,  however,  that  there  is  adequate  reason  for  the 
organization  of  these  new  churches,  in  the  fact  that  only  thus 
can  we  hope  to  commend  Christianity  to  the  Mohammedans, 
who  have  despised  the  unreformed  churches  for  their  impo- 
tence, their  superstitions,  their  idolatrous  ritualism  and  prac- 
tices. As'Sir  William  Muir  says :  "It  is  no  wonder  that  Chris- 
tianity in  the  East  has  made  little  way,  but  has  remained,  all 
these  twelve  centuries,  passive  and  helpless  under  its  oppres- 
sive yoke.     And  so  it  will  remain  under  any  effort  of  the 

II — IinMa  and  Persia 


Churches  themselves,  and  not  less  of  those  who  would  work 
in  conjunction  with  them.  In  establishing  an  Eastern  propa- 
ganda, for  which  the  path  is  now  being  thrown  so  marvelously 
open,  it  would  be  a  fatal  mistake  to  attempt  the  work  hand  in 
hand  with  the  unreformed  Churches.  The  contempt  of  cen- 
turies would  attach  to  it.  The  attempt,  so  far  as  concerns  its 
influence  on  the  Moslem  world,  is  doomed  to  failure.  Far 
otherwise  is  it  with  such  eiforts  as  are  now  being  made  by 
the  Churches  which  distinctively  call  themselves  'evangelical,' 
planted  in  Syria  and  adjoining  lands,  and  rapidly  extending 
there  in  numbers  and  in  influence.  They  come  into  the  field 
as  a  young  and  vigorous  force,  which  at  once  socially,  politi- 
cally, and  spiritually,  command  from  the  Mohammedan  races 
surrounding  them,  inquiry  and  respect." 

Besides  the  direct  preaching  of  the  gospel  and  the  medical 
work,  the  school  and  the  press  cooperated  to  secure  the  great 
results  which  had  been  accomplished  among  the  Nestorians. 
The  College  sent  out  scores  of  young  men  to  lift  up  their 
nation;  and  Fiske  Seminary,  named  after  Fidelia  Fiske,  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  missionaries  ever  sent  out  from 
America,  was  a  fountain  of  light  to  Persia  and  Turkev,  send- 
ing out  women  who  have  renovated  their  villages  and  churches 
and  homes.  The  press  was  established  in  1840.  Among  the 
first  publications  was  a  part  of  the  Bible.  "Some  of  the 
Ablest  of  the  Nestorian  clergy  had  aided  in  the  translation,  and 
the  contents  of  their  rare  ancient  manuscripts  were  now  given 
back  to  them  in  a  language  which  all  could  understand.  They 
stood  in  mute  astonishment  and  rapture  to  see  their  language 
in  print;  and  as  soon  as  they  could  speak,  the  exclamation  was, 
*It  is  time  to  give  glory  to  God.  since  printing  is  begun  among 
our  people.'  "  In  thousands  of  homes  there  have  been  light 
and  truth  because  of  these  schools  and  this  press. 

When  the  missionary  first  went  to  the  Nestorians.  the  people, 
as  Dr.  Perkins  said,  "were  in  a  night  of  deep  darkness. 
Ground  down  to  the  dust  by  their  Mohammedan  rulers  and 
masters,  toward  whom,  in  that  relation,  they  naturallv  cher- 
ished a  bitter  hostility,  as  sore  oppressors,  luxuriating  in  idle- 
ness and  voluptuousness  on  the  fruits  of  their  own  severe  and 
ill-requited  service  of  those  hated  oppressors.  Falsehood, 
among  those  nominal  Christians,  also,  was  nearly  universal. 
The  Sabbath  was  a  day  of  business,  trade,  and  recreation,  and 
almost  every  command  of  the  Decalogue  was  habitually  vio- 
lated with  little  compunction  or  even  shame.  Indeed,  in  their 
morals,  the  Nestorians  were  nearly  on  a  level  with  the  corrupt 

322 


Mohammedans  around  them  .  .  .  The  Nestorians  were  very 
ignorant,  as  well  as  immoral,  their  ignorance  doubtless  being 
a  fruitful  cause  of  their  immorality.  Not  a  female  among 
them  could  read,  except  the  sister  of  the  patriarch,  who  being 
regarded  as  belonging  to  a  higher  order  it  was  deemed  befit- 
ting that  she  should  possess  that  peerless  accomplishment. 
And  but  very  few  of  the  men  could  read, — hardly  any  except 
their  ecclesiastics, — and  most  of  them  being  merely  able  to 
chant  their  devotions  in  an  ancient  and  unknown  tongue — the 
Syriac.  They  had  no  printed  books,  and  but  very  few  in 
manuscript."  In  the  ninety  years  which  passed  until  the 
World  War,  a  complete  change  came  over  the  people.  Thou- 
sands were  converted  to  a  living  faith.  Educated  priests  took 
the  place  of  ignorant  priests.  Native  doctors  were  trained 
in  modern  medical  science.  Hundreds  of  village  schools  taught 
by  the  graduates  of  the  College  and  Fiske  Seminary  spread 
enlightenment  through  the  whole  nation.  Every  home  was 
supplied  with  books  and  the  Bible  in  modern  Syriac.  The 
people  had  a  secure  position  before  the  Moslems,  and  all  the 
Nestorians,  whether  Evangelical,  Old  Church  or  Romanist, 
perceived  and  acknowledged  their  unmeasured  obligation  to 
the  "Mission  to  the  Nestorians." 

From  the  beginning,  the  relation  of  the  Missions  to  the 
Mohammedans  and  other  peoples  of  Persia  had  been  kept  in 
view,  and  in  1869  its  name  was  changed  to  "The  Mission  to 
Persia."  In  1871,  at  the  time  of  the  Reunion  of  the  Old  and  New 
Schools,  the  Persia  Mission  was  transferred  by  the  American 
Board  to  the  Presbyterian  Church,  with  the  Syria  Mission, 
and  at  once  plans  for  enlargement  were  made.  It  was  felt 
to  be  a  duty  to  embrace  within  their  work  the  Armenians  and 
Moslems  of  Central  Persia.  Accordingly  Rev.  James  Bassett, 
who  had  reached  Urumia  in  1871,  made  an  extended  tour  the 
followincr  year,  visiting  Tabriz,  Hamadan,  and  Teheran,  the 
result  of  which  was  warmly  welcomed  by  both  Mussulmans 
and  Armenians.  Here  was  a  population  of  200,000,  most  of 
whom  were  Moslems;  but  there  were  1,000  Armenians,  5,000 
Jews  and  several  hundred  Europeans.  "We  occupy."  wrote 
Mr.  Bassett.  "the  only  tenable  ground  for  labor  designed  to 
reach  either  Eastern  Persia  or  the  Tartar  tribes  of  Turkestan. 
The  Turkish  language  spoken  here  enables  a  person  to  pass 
ouite  through  Turkestan  to  the  birthplace  of  Tamerlane  and 
Genghis  Khan,  into  Chinese  Tartary  and  far  to  the  northward, 
while  the  Persian  makes  accessible  all  central  and  southern 
Persia,  through  Khorassan,  to  Afghanistan,  and  even  large 

323 


populations  of  India.  Central  Asia  has  in  nearly  all  the  past 
been  neglected  by  the  Church  of  Christ;  the  result  has  been 
that  it  is  the  great  source  whence  have  proceeded  the  scourges 
of  mankind;  and  the  Tartar  and  Iranian  hordes  have,  age 
after  age,  as  in  great  tidal  waves,  quite  overflowed  Christen- 
dom, overthrowing  its  civilization  and  nearly  extinguishing 
its  light." 

The  Rev.  J.  L.  Potter,  D.D.,  soon  joined  Mr.  Bassett,  and  in 
1876  the  Evangelical  Church  of  Teheran  was  organized,  of 
eleven  Armenians  and  one  converted  Moslem,  In  1879  and 
1880  great  interest  was  manifested  by  Mohammedans.  "So 
numerous  and  prolonged  were  the  calls  upon  the  missionary," 
says  Dr.  Potter,  "that  it  was  sometimes  difficult  for  him  to 
find  time  for  his  meals."  The  Persian  Government  was 
alarmed  and  notified  the  missionaries  through  the  British 
minister  that  they  would  not  be  allowed  to  remain  if  they 
continued  such  work.  In  consequence,  the  Mission  discon- 
tinued meetings  for  Moslems,  but  they  soon  began  to  come  to 
the  public  services  of  the  Mission,  so  that  these  services  in 
the  Mission  chapel  had  to  be  discontinued  until  1882,  when 
the  Shah  so  far  relented  as  to  consent  practically  to  the  attend- 
ance of  Moslems  at  the  chapel,  while  he  warned  them  acrainst 
apostasy.  At  the  Friday  meetings  groups  of  white-turbaned 
Mohammedan  priests  were  often  seen,  and  they  came  to  the 
missionaries  for  personal  conversation.  Teheran  is  so  large  a 
city  that  men  are  under  less  surveillance  than  in  the  villages, 
and  are  less  cautious  about  manifesting  interest  in  Chris- 
tianity. The  Government  has  grown  much  more  friendly  as 
years  have  passed.  At  times  the  majority  of  boys  in  the 
Teheran  Boys'  School  are  Moslems,  many  of  them  sons  of 
officials;  and  in  1890,  the  Shah  himself  visited  the  Mission 
premises,  .and  so  gave  a  sort  of  imperial  sanction  to  the  work. 
Dr.  Potter  describes  this  event :  "One  morning  word  reached 
us  of  the  intention  of  His  Imperial  Majesty.  Immediately  all 
was  excitement,  and  we  began  to  put  the  place  in  readiness 
for  so  great  an  honor.  His  Majesty  was  met  at  the  outer 
gate  by  the  male  missionaries.  The  pupils  of  the  boys'  school 
were  drawn  up  in  line  on  either  side  of  the  avenue  leading  in 
from  the  gate,  and  as  the  august  visitor  advanced  they  strewed 
flowers  in  his  pathway.  He  first  proceeded  to  the  residence 
nearest  the  gate,  where  refreshments  were  served,  and  a  little 
experimental  telephone,  which  had  been  set  up  between  two 
residences,  was  shown  him,  one  of  the  missionaries  running 
over  to  the  other  house  to  speak  with  him  over  the  wire.    Next 

324 


he  advanced  to  the  court  of  the  boys'  school,  where  the  boys 
were  again  drawn  up  in  Hne.  Here  an  address  of  welcome 
prepared  by  the  Persian  teacher  in  flowing  language  was  read 
by  one  of  the  boys.  His  Majesty,  however,  did  not  enter  this 
building,  but  went  over  to  the  girls'  school,  and  with  a  num- 
ber of  his  ministers  he  entered  the  beautiful  schoolroom. 
After  saluting  his  picture  hanging  on  the  wall,  he  sat  down. 
He  desired  one  of  the  girls  to  write  on  the  blackboard,  but 
she  being  very  much  embarrassed,  the  Shah  himself  proceeded 
to  the  board,  and  taking  the  chalk  in  hand  wrote,  both  in 
Persian  and  in  French,  *Hakeem-al-Mamalek,' — The  Physician 
of  the  Kingdom.  This  has  since  been  framed  with  glass  over 
it,  and  there  the  'blessed  handwriting'  remains  until  this  day. 
A  hymn  in  Persian  was  sung  by  the  school,  and  his  Majesty 
proceeded  through  the  hallway  to  the  dining  room,  where  he 
seemed  greatly  impressed  with  the  scrupulous  neatness  of 
the  place,  for  he  exclaimed:  'Tameez,  tameez,'  Clean,  clean. 
Next  he  proceeded  to  the  corner  of  the  property  where  the 
work  of  drilling  the  artesian  well  was  in  operation,  and  the 
various  processes  were  explained  to  him.  He  was  here  served 
with  coffee  in  his  own  golden  cups,  and  then  took  his  leave 
without  entering  the  Mission  chapel,  which  stands  conspicu- 
ously in  the  center  of  the  grounds,  and  around  which  he  had 
made  a  complete  circuit." 

The  third  station  to  be  established  in  Persia  was  Tabriz, 
about  140  miles  from  Urumia,  and  northeast  of  Urumia  Lake. 
The  city  had  been  often  visited  by  missionaries,  but  the  first 
to  take  up  permanent  residence  were  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Easton 
and  Miss  Jewett,  in  1873.  The  foundations  of  the  work,  as 
in  Teheran,  were  laid  among  the  Armenians.  Perhaps  for 
this  purpose  these  little  bodies  of  Christians  had  been  preserved 
in  this  Moslem  land,  where  without  them  for  a  base  of  work 
Christian  missions  would  have  found  their  position  almost 
impossible.  The  Armenians  in  Persia  numbered  less  than  sev- 
enty thousand.  Their  race  is  one  of  the  oldest  in  Western 
Asia,  and  was  one  of  the  first  to  embrace  Christianity.  The 
people  are  quiet,  with  bright  minds,  skillful  in  trades,  and  they 
are  the  shrewdest  merchants  in  the  country.  They  have 
progressed  greatly  during  the  century,  having  favored  educa- 
tion, and  spent  their  money  very  generously  on  schools.  The 
Patriarch  of  the  Gregorian  Church  lives  at  Echmiadzen  in  the 
Caucasus.  The  Church  holds  to  the  seven  sacraments  of  the 
Roman  Church,  and  believes  in  the  mediation  of  saints,  the 
adoration  of  images,  and  trans-substantiation. 

325 


The  fourth  station  in  Persia  was  established  in  HamM&n 
in  1881,  by  the  removal  thither  of  the  Rev.  James  W.  Hawkes. 
Hamadan  is  identified  as  Ecbatana  (Ezra  4:2),  the  place 
where  Darius  found  the  roll  with  the  decree  of  Cyrus  for  re- 
building the  temple.  Resht  was  occupied  in  1906,  Kermanshah 
in  1910  and  Meshed  in  1911. 

Our  Church  has  undertaken  one  of  the  most  difficult  tasks 
ever  set  for  men  in  these  missions  in  Persia.  But  some  day 
the  people  will  be  free  to  turn  to  Him  whose  truth  has  been 
so  long  denied  and  His  name  so  long  obscured  by  Mohammed. 
That  day  seems  now  to  be  very  near.  That  it  may  be  hastened 
in  Persia,  all  who  wish  to  see  Christ  in  His  rightful  place  in 
Moslem  lands  must  pray,  as  the  missionaries  in  Teheran  used 
to  pray  each  Sunday  afternoon  in  the  little  service  held  for 
English  Christians: 

"Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  we  are  taught  by  thy 
holy  Word  that  the  hearts  of  kings  are  in  thy  rule  and  govern- 
ance, and  that  thou  dost  dispose  and  turn  them  as  it  seemeth 
best  to  thy  godly  wisdom.  We  beseech  thee  to  bless  thy  serv- 
ant, the  Shah  of  Persia,  and  all  who  hold  authority  under 
him,  and  especially  those  upon  whom  new  responsibilities 
may  come,  and  so  overrule  and  direct  their  actions  that  thy 
name  may  be  glorified  and  thy  kingdom  advanced.  We  be- 
seech thee  to  open  a  great  and  effectual  door  for  thy  truth, 
and  to  establish  religious  liberty  in  this  land  and  throughout 
all  the  earth.  Grant  this,  0  most  merciful  Father,  for  thy 
dear  Son's  sake,  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord.    Amen." 


826 


2.  LETTERS  FROM  THE  STATIONS 

(1)     BASRA  AND  BAGDAD 

Hamadan,  Persia,  January  18,  1922. 

After  a  strange  but  happy  Christmas  in  Bombay  we  sailed 
on  December  28th  by  a  direct  boat  across  the  Arabian  Sea 
and  the  Persian  Gulf  to  Basra.  It  was  a  strange  Christmas 
because  the  day  was  as  warm  as  midsummer  at  home,  and 
there  was  nothing  in  the  atmosphere  of  a  great  Hindu  city 
in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  Christmas  Sunday.  But  it  was 
a  happy  day  through  the  cordiality  of  the  Scotch  friends  with 
whom  we  worshipped  in  the  early  morning,  reading  the  old 
familiar  Christmas  story  and  singing  the  old  and  endeared 
Christmas  hymns,  and  through  the  warm-hearted  kindness 
of  the  Congregational  missionaries  in  their  Christmas  services 
at  Byculla  and  in  their  homes.  One  cannot  but  reflect,  in  the 
experience  of  such  a  Christmas  day,  on  how  much  of  the 
significance  and  dearness  of  our  best  days  depends  upon  the 
affectionate  tenderness  of  the  memories  and  associations  in- 
woven with  them. 

The  direct  boat  passed  by  the  interesting  mission  stations 
of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America  at  Muscat  and  Bahrein 
and  Koweit  and  the  needy  unoccupied  cities,  across  from 
Arabia,  on  the  Persian  shore.  It  was  night  when  we  entered 
the  Shat-el-Arab,  the  broad  stream  formed  by  the  confluence 
of  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates  rivers,  and  in  the  dark  of  the 
early  morning  before  the  sun  was  risen  it  was  weird  and 
suggestive  of  many  thoughts  to  see  at  Abadan,  where  tw9r>*^j-- 
five  years  ago  when  I  was  here  before  there  wan  nothing  but 
an  uninhabited  plain,  the  smokestacks  an^  glaring  lights  and 
long  line  of  tankers  which  have  come  as  a  result  of  the  open- 
ing of  the  oil  fields  of  southwestern  Persia. 

Basra  itself,  however,  which  is  the  head  of  ocean-going 
navigation,  shows  even  more  vividly  and  with  deeper  shadows 
than  those  of  the  f^arkness  around  the  night  lights  of  Abadan, 
the  enormous  cha.^ges  of  the  last  few  years.  Hardly  in  north- 
ern France  can  (^^e  find  more  fearful  witness  of  the  appalling 
waste  and  wreck^^ge  of  war.  Hundreds  of  useless  river  boats, 
acres  of  aba^^/^oned  military  equipment,  square  miles  of  the 
huge  army  camp,  now  a  desolation,  remain  as  the  memorial 
of  the  ene'^gies  of  war.  If  what  was  of  necessity  spent  in 
the  havoc  Qf  ^^^  last  eight  years  could  have  been  spent  in 
the  recla-^ation  and  improvement  of  Mesopotamia,  the  pros- 

327 


perity  of  the  ancient  times  might  almost  have  been  brought 
back  again. 

Basra  has  been  for  thirty  years  a  mission  station  of  the 
Arabian  Mission,  at  first  a  semi-independent  mission  but  now 
for  many  years  one  of  the  regular  missions  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  America.  In  the  beginning  by  a  hospital  and  direct 
preaching  and  now  by  direct  preaching  and  schools  for  boys 
and  girls  which  aim  immediately  at  reaching  the  Mohamme- 
dan people,  the  Mission  has  been  carrying  forward  its  work 
in  accordance  with  its  fundamental  principle  of  making  the 
evangelization  of  Mohammedans  its  primary  and  direct  under- 
taking. The  conditions  surrounding  direct  work  for  Moham- 
medans, however,  in  the  Arabian  Mission  are  not  less  difficult, 
and  in  some  parts  of  its  field  are  far  more  difficult,  than  in 
most  other  sections  of  the  Mohammedan  world. 

From  Basra  the  Mesopotamian  Railway  to  Bagdad  instead 
of  running  north  along  the  Tigris,  on  which  Bagdad  is  located 
and  which  is  the  natural  waterway,  runs  northwestward 
along  the  Euphrates,  crossing  over  not  far  from  Babylon  to 
the  other  river  and  to  the  palm  trees  and  the  minarets  of 
Bagdad.  Our  train  stopped  for  breakfast  at  Ur  of  the  Chal- 
dees  whence  Abraham  went  out  not  knowing  whither  he  went, 
save  that  he  had  God  for  his  guide  and  his  friend.  It  is  a 
dreary  enough  place  now  and  to  all  the  motives  which  led 
Abraham  to  depart  in  that  ancient  time  the  modern  condition 
of  Ur  would  add  others.  It  is  a  dreary  collection  of  tents 
and  sundried  mud  buildings  with  the  shops  and  sidings  of  a 
railway  division  point.  An  Indian  restaurant  keeper  served 
breakfast  in  an  old  army  tent  on  a  mud  floor  from  enamel 
ware.  Little  life  was  visible  on  the  wide  plains  where  Haran 
and  Abraiiai'r2  fed  their  flocks.  Here  and  there  a  lone  wolf 
watched  the  railway,  and  far  off  in  the  distance  a  camel  train 
would  go  by. 

The  ancient  orientalism  of  Bagdad  which  twenty-five  years 
ago  was  as  unbroken  as  it  hiid  been  for  centuries  is  only  a 
little  less  shattered  than  the  oriental] ism  of  Basra.  A  wide 
street  has  been  cut  through  the  city  parallel  with  the  river. 
Railroads  run  out  of  the  city  south  to  Basra  and  north  to 
Shorgat  and  northeast  to  the  Persian  frontier.  On  our  for- 
mer visit  there  was  not  a  native  born  American  in  Bagdad 
and  the  only  mission  work  was  that  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  of  England.  Now  because  of  financial  limitations 
the  C.  M.  S.  is  withdrawing  entirely  from  Mesopotamia,  and 
the  work  in  Bagdad  must  be  abandoned  or  provided  for  by 
American  missionary  agencies.     The  Reformed  Church  Mis- 

328 


sion  has  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Cantine  here  who  are  admirably  quali- 
fied to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  wise  and  efficient  work  for 
Mohammedans.  Our  own  Board  is  represented  at  present  by 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  McDowell  and  Miss  Lamme,  who  are  here,  how- 
ever, primarily  not  for  the  Mohammedan  work  but  because 
of  the  Syrian  refugees  from  Urumia  left  from  the  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  thousand  Assyrians  who  were  cared  for  by  the 
British  military  authorities,  first  in  the  great  camp  at  Bakuba 
near  Bagdad,  and  later  in  the  great  camp  at  Mindan  near 
Mosul  whither  the  people  had  been  moved  in  the  hope  of  their 
return  over  the  mountains  to  their  old  homes.  When  this 
effort  failed,  the  people  scattered,  as  many  as  possible  going 
to  America  and  the  mountain  people  settling  in  the  regions 
north  of  Mosul  some  of  them  in  their  old  mountain  valleys, 
but  most  of  the  nation  making  their  way  back  to  Persia  where 
they  are  scattered  in  Kermanshah,  Hamadan  and  Tabriz  wait- 
ing the  oportunity  to  go  back  to  the  vineyards  and  villages  of 
Urumia  from  which  they  were  driven  away.  More  than  a 
thousand  of  these  refugees  are  still  in  Bagdad.  They  are 
receiving  no  relief  money  but  are  manfully  making  their  own 
way.  Many  of  them  are  chauffeurs,  carpenters  or  masons. 
The  best  restaurant,  the  best  bakery,  the  best  laundry,  the 
best  optician's  shop  are  conducted  by  Assyrians.  Several 
hundred  of  the  women  and  fatherless  children  are  still  shel- 
tered by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  McDowell  in  the  unfinished  hospital 
building  of  the  C.  M.  S.  We  attended  the  Sunday  morning 
service  of  this  Syrian  refugee  colony  in  the  big  unfinished 
hallway  of  the  hospital  which  is  regularly  occupied  as  a  home 
by  a  score  or  more  of  these  poor  women,  each  spreading  out 
her  household  on  an  allotted  portion  of  the  earth  floor.  The 
place  was  packed  in  every  corner  and  doorway  and  two  hun- 
dred children  sat  on  the  stairs.  Never  have  I  been  in  a  gath- 
ering where  it  was  more  difficult  to  control  one's  emotions. 
These  were  modern  exiles  by  the  waters  of  Babylon  singing 
the  Lord's  songs  in  a  strange  land.  As  Dr.  Packard,  to  whom 
many  of  them  owed  their  lives,  and  I  spoke  to  them  of  the  old 
Urumia  home  and  of  the  meaning  of  the  unequaled  discipline 
of  suffering  through  which  they  and  their  nation  had  passed, 
it  was  hard  both  for  us  and  for  them.  It  is  one  thing  at  home 
in  America  to  think  of  the  sufferings  of  these  people.  It  is 
another  thing  to  stand  in  the  midst  of  it  and  to  see  the  women 
who  saw  their  men  killed  before  their  eyes  and  to  hear  the 
little  children  who  were  carried  as  babies  or  who  trudged 
along,  tiny  ones  though  they  were,  in  the  great  flight  from 
Urumia  in  August,  1918,  as  they  sang,  while  the  crowded 

829 


congregation  was  making  its  way  out,  their  children's  hymns, 
"Jesus,  Tender  Shepherd,  Lead  Us,"  and  "When  He  Cometh, 
When  He  Cometh  to  Make  Up  His  Jewels."  We  asked  them 
what  their  hope  was  and  all  with  one  accord  spoke  of  Urumia 
and  the  longing  to  return,  as  those  Jewish  exiles  of  old  in 
the  land  of  their  exile  longed  for  the  hills  and  the  valleys 
of  Palestine. 

We  shall  be  studying  of  course  in  Persia  this  perplexing 
problem  of  the  future  of  the  Assyrian  Christians,  but  here 
we  meet  it  before  ever  reaching  Persia  in  the  case  of  this 
appealing  colony  in  Bagdad.  In  justice  and  truth  these  people 
ought  to  be  allowed  and  enabled  to  return  to  the  homes  which 
they  and  their  fathers  have  occupied  for  more  than  a  thousand 
years.  They  are  working  hard  for  themselves,  but  it  is  with 
no  thought  of  remaining  permanently  in  their  present  work 
unless  compelled  to  do  so.  They  will  do  all  that  they  can  to 
equip  themselves  for  the  re-establishment  of  their  old  homes, 
and  they  deserve  whatever  help  may  be  necessary. 

During  the  British  administration  of  Mesopotamia  as  man- 
dated territory  there  was  a  large  number  of  British  and 
Indian  residents  throughout  Irak,  as  Mesopotamia  is  officially 
called,  and  in  Bagdad  as  the  capital  there  was  a  large  com- 
munity of  English-speaking  people.  Part  of  this  community, 
though  only  a  small  part,  remains  and  offers  a  field  of  real 
need  and  Christian  opportunity.  Anglican  services  are  main- 
tained by  chaplains  still  remaining.  The  only  other  service 
for  the  good  number  who  want  such  a  service  and  the  very 
much  larger  number  who  need  it  is  carried  on  in  the  building 
formerly  used  by  the  now  discontinued  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association.  I  spoke  here  on  a  Sunday  evening  to  such  a 
company  as  only  one  of  the  far  off  border  cities  of  the  world 
can  provide.  It  was  gathered  by  the  energy  and  devotion  of 
Padre  Brown,  a  Wesleyan  army  chaplain,  who  was  expecting 
soon  to  go  home  leaving  no  successor.  Of  the  four-score  or 
more  who  gathered  some  were  British  army  officers,  more 
were  tommies,  and  perhaps  as  large  a  number  were  Indian 
Christians  of  different  denominations  who  did  not  wish  any 
separate  denominational  organization  but  who  desired  to  join 
with  their  fellow  Christians  of  other  races  and  of  other  de- 
nominations in  seeking  to  maintain  their  common  faith  and 
to  fulfill  their  common  Christian  duty  in  a  lonely  place.  The 
meeting  hall  was  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris.  One  looked  out 
over  the  heads  of  the  congregation  to  the  tawny  waters  swirl- 
ing past  in  the  dusk.  In  the  wide  new  street  nearby  and 
through  the  narrow  ways  of  the  old  arched  bazaars  were 

330 


flowing  the  strange  and  mingled  tides  of  human  life.  It  would 
be  hard  to  find  anywhere  in  the  world  a  place  where  the  need 
of  men  for  Christ  so  far  exceeds  the  effort  to  bring  Christ 
to  men.  Upon  no  one  more  than  upon  our  Presbyterian  and 
Reformed  Churches  does  the  responsibility  rest  to  make  the 
effort  more  proportionate  to  the  need.  I  shall  write  of  the 
way  in  which  it  is  proposed  that  this  should  be  done  in  the 
next  letter  which  will  deal  with  our  visit  to  Mosul  by  the 
ruins  of  Nineveh. 

(2)     THE  CALL  FROM  NINEVEH 

Meshed,  Persia,  February  8,  1922. 
Of  all  the  rich  experiences  of  this  trip  none  has  been  of 
deeper  interest  or  has  made  to  us  a  stronger  appeal  than  our 
visit  to  Mosul  just  across  the  Tigris  river  from  the  ruins  of 
Nineveh.  We  left  Bagdad  at  half  past  nine  o'clock  on  the 
evening  of  January  8th  on  the  line  of  the  Mesopotamian  Rail- 
ways running  north  across  the  great  plains  between  the  Tigris 
and  Euphrates  rivers.  Only  a  few  widely  separated  villages 
lay  on  the  line  of  the  railways.  The  water  tanks  and  little 
bridges  built  on  sand-bag  abutments  over  the  gullies  in  the 
plain  were  guarded  by  Arab  soldiers  and  barbed-wire  en- 
tanglements. For  miles  and  miles,  however,  no  life  was  visi- 
ble, neither  man  nor  beast,  until  toward  noon  of  the  following 
day  we  drew  near  the  end  of  the  railway  at  Shorgat  nearby 
the  huge  mounds  which  mark  the  ruins  of  the  old  city  of  Ashur. 
Here  where  the  railway  stops  amid  a  cluster  of  mud  houses 
and  canvass  tents  great  herds  of  camels  were  waiting  for  the 
merchandise  which  they  were  to  carry  out  north  and  west- 
ward to  the  cities  and  villages  which  were  old  thousands  of 
years  ago.  At  Shorgat  we  found  Armenian  drivers  with 
old  Ford  cars  who  were  ready  to  take  us  the  eighty-six  miles 
northward  across  the  plains  and  through  the  water  gullies 
to  Mosul.  Even  here  in  this  hidden  corner  of  the  world  the 
marks  of  the  great  war  lay  around  us,  the  abandoned  wreck 
of  a  German  armored  truck,  shells  lying  here  and  there,  and 
trench  holes  along  the  top  of  the  ridges  where  the  armies 
had  fought  to  and  fro.  An  airplane  sailed  north  above  us 
bound  like  ourselves  from  Bagdad  to  Mosul.  The  evening 
light  was  just  fading  as  we  came  to  the  top  of  the  low  hills 
and  looked  down  upon  the  winding  yellow  course  of  the  Tigris 
and  the  far-off  lights  of  Mosul  against  the  dark  mounds  of 
Nineveh. 

It  is  in  part  the  greatness  of  the  memories  of  the  past  which 
makes  such  an  experience  as  this  memorable  forever.     We 

331 


had  come  by  ancient  Ashur,  and  not  far  away  lay  the  ruins 
of  Nimrood.  The  next  morning  we  walked  about  on  the  mounds 
beneath  which  the  glory  of  Nineveh  is  buried  and  where  the 
shepherds  were  pasturing  their  flocks.  Just  north  at  Elkush 
is  the  grave  of  Nahum,  and  a  few  miles  to  the  east  is  the  vil- 
lage of  Erbil,  the  ancient  Arbela,  where  Darius  was  over- 
thrown by  Alexander.  And  at  Nebi  Yonas,  the  village  of 
Jonah,  within  the  walls  of  Nineveh  in  an  old  mosque  which 
no  doubt  had  been  one  of  the  old  synagogues  or  Christian 
Churches  we  were  shown  the  very  tomb  of  Jonah  and  hanging 
on  the  wall  beside  it  bones  of  the  fish  which  had  swallowed 
him.  We  were  amazed  to  discover  that  it  had  been  a  sword 
fish,  but  no  such  childishness  of  the  present  day  can  detract 
from  the  impressiveness  of  these  scenes  so  inwrought  with 
our  greatest  history. 

But  it  is  the  call  of  present  life  which  makes  Mosul  even 
more  appealing.  This  is  the  frontier  city  between  Arab, 
Turk  and  Kurd,  and  one-seventh  of  its  population  is  made 
up  of  non-Moslem  elements,  Chaldeans,  Syro-Catholics, 
Jacobites,  Nestorians,  Sabeans,  and  Jews.  At  present  also 
strange  tides  of  political  movement  interlace,  assisting  and 
resisting  one  another,  the  new  Arab  Government  of  Irak  seek- 
ing to  establish  itself,  the  British  Government  seeking  to  with- 
draw but  finding  it  difficult  to  transfer  authority  and  re- 
sponsibility, the  Turkish  traditions  lingering  persistently 
and  the  possibility  of  new  Turkish  influence  feared  by  some 
and  by  others  much  desired,  French  purposes  not  altogether 
clear,  and  new  life  astir  in  the  breasts  of  many  who  have 
learned  of  liberty  what  their  fathers  never  knew. 

As  we  talked  with  group  after  group  representing  many 
of  these  elements  of  life  so  mingled  and  varied,  we  seemed 
to  hear  a  voice  speaking  to  the  missionary  conscience  of  the 
home  Church  as  clearly  as  that  voice  spoke  to  Jonah  hundreds 
of  years  ago,  "Arise  and  go  to  Nineveh,  that  great  city."  We 
talked  with  the  British  oflficials,  with  the  father  and  mother 
of  the  present  Nestorian  patriarch,  with  representatives  of 
the  evangelical  Assyrian  Church,  with  the  leaders  of  the  Prot- 
estant community  in  Mosul,  with  the  younger  men  of  the 
Jacobite  body  who  are  eager  for  the  coming  of  new  and  living 
forces,  and  with  individuals  who  helped  to  fill  up  the  measure 
of  such  understanding  as  we  sought  to  acquire  of  the  mis- 
sionary need  and  opportunity  in  this  old  city.  This  is  the 
lower  edge  of  the  country  of  the  mountain  Nestorians  who 
have  always  been  a  part  of  the  field  of  the  Urumia  station, 
and  here  we  found  the  remnants  of  this  section  of  the  As- 

332 


Syrian  Christians  trying  to  make  their  way  back  again  into 
their  mountain  homes.  A  few  of  them  had  got  back  into  the 
lower  valleys,  but  most  of  them  were  still  waiting  in  villages 
just  north  of  Mosul  depressed  by  poverty  and  debilitated  by 
disease.  Only  slowly  will  they  be  able  to  get  back  to  their 
old  homes.  The  timbers  of  their  houses  have  been  destroyed. 
The  terraced  fields  which  they  had  built  up  have  been  torn 
down.  All  their  cattle  and  their  sheep  are  gone.  But  against 
every  difficulty  they  long  for  their  old  homes  and  will  not  be 
content  until  they  are  back  again.  They  brought  their  appeal 
for  sympathy  and  help.  The  Protestant  community  holding 
its  own  against  immeasurable  odds  recalled  to  us  the  names 
of  the  missionaries  from  whom  the  Gospel  had  come  to  them, 
showed  us  their  beautiful  old  church  and  school,  and  asked 
for  the  help  which  surely  they  have  a  right  to  expect  from  us 
in  their  struggle  to  keep  their  light  aglow.  And  the  young 
Jacobite  laymen,  graduates  of  the  college  at  Beirut  and  full 
of  sympathy  with  the  spirit  and  the  ideals  and  the  principles 
of  life  which  they  had  met  there,  were  eager  to  lend  their 
support  to  any  effort  to  meet  the  needs  of  men's  minds  and 
souls  as  well  as  of  their  bodies. 

Years  ago  Mosul  was  one  of  the  stations  of  the  American 
Board  in  Turkey.  Then  it  was  transferred  to  our  own  Board 
with  the  expectation  that  we  would  make  it  a  base  of  our 
work  among  the  mountain  Assyrians.  When  this  seemed  to 
be  impracticable  our  Board  withdrew,  transferring  the  work 
to  the  Church  Missionary  of  England.  Now  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society  is  giving  up  all  its  work  in  Mesopotamia  and 
is  withdrawing  from  Mosul  and  Bagdad.  Our  own  Board  has 
taken  over  the  work  of  Aleppo  and  Mardin  in  recognition  of 
its  distinctive  responsibilities  in  connection  with  the  Syria 
Mission  in  this  distinctly  Arabic  field.  Surely  we  must  now 
return  to  Mosul.  It  is  an  integral  part  of  our  missionary  re- 
sponsibility, and  the  opportunity  and  need  make  the  call  not 
one  whit  less  clear  or  imperative  than  God's  call  to  the  prophet 
in  behalf  of  Nineveh.  In  the  evening  we  went  up  on  the  house- 
top of  the  residence  of  Miss  Martin,  the  last  of  the  C.  M.  S. 
missionaries,  who  is  expecting  to  leave  this  spring,  and  as 
we  looked  in  the  moonlight  over  the  city  with  its  minarets 
and  its  forty  mosques  and  far  off  to  the  old  Jacobite  church 
where  Dr.  Grant  was  supposed  to  be  buried,  it  seemed  to  us 
impossible  that  the  Church  should  not  hear  God's  call. 

The  plan  which  has  seemed  to  us  all,  to  Dr.  McDowell  and 
to  Mr.  Wright  of  our  own  Mission  and  to  Dr.  Cantine  and 
Dr.  Van  Ess  and  Mr.  Barney  of  the  Reformed  Church  Mission 

333 


with  all  of  whom  we  went  over  the  matter  carefully  and 
which  has  already  met  the  approval  of  our  own  and  the  Re- 
formed Church  Boards,  to  be  the  best  possible  plan  is  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  joint  mission  of  the  two  Boards,  to  care  for 
the  whole  Mesopotamian  field,  leaving  Basra  for  the  present 
in  the  Arabian  Mission  of  the  Reformed  Church,  but  embrac- 
ing all  the  rest  of  Irak.  Such  a  Mission  should  have  at  once 
strong  stations  in  Bagdad  and  Mosul  and  should  look  forward 
to  developing  the  adequate  occupation  of  cities  like  Hillah 
near  Babylon,  Kerbela,  the  great  shrine  of  the  Shiah  Moham- 
medans, Nusairyeh  which  is  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  and  other 
centers  both  south  and  north  of  Bagdad.  For  many  reasons 
medical  work  and  schools  should  be  used  strongly  in  these 
stations  as  in  Persia  and  elsewhere  in  the  Mohammedan  world, 
but  the  door  to  a  straight  and  courageous,  while  at  the  same 
time  a  wise  and  careful,  direct  presentation  of  Jesus  Christ 
to  Mohammedans  is  wide  ajar.  "And  the  word  of  God  came 
unto  Jonah  the  second  time  saying,  'Arise,  go  unto  Nineveh, 
that  great  city,  and  preach  unto  it  the  preaching  that  I  bid 
thee.' " 

(3)  KERMANSHAH  I    A  DOOR  OF  ACCESS  TO  THE  KURDS 

Nishapur,  Persia,  February  15,  1922. 
Twenty-five  years  ago  in  mid-winter  Mrs.  Speer  and  I  made 
the  long  journey  from  Kermanshah  to  Bagdad  which  we  have 
now  made  at  the  same  season  though  in  the  opposite  direction. 
It  is  the  same  country  through  which  we  journeyed  then,  but 
how  great  are  the  differences.  Then  it  was  a  long  horseback 
journey,  all  the  way  over  mere  caravan  trails.  Now  we  left 
Bagdad  at  half  past  nine  in  the  evening  and  by  noon  the  next 
day  were  at  Tairuk,  the  rail  head  only  a  few  miles  from  the 
Persian  frontier.  Twenty-five  years  ago  there  was  nothing 
here  but  empty  hills  and  prairies.  On  January  13th  this  year 
as  we  stepped  off  the  train  into  a  sea  of  mud,  around  the  flimsy 
station  build;ings  and  the  barbed  wire  customs  inclosure 
were  a  strange  assortment  of  mud  huts  and  canvass  tents, 
horses  and  wagons  and  camels  and  a  mixed  throng  of  Kurds, 
Arabs,  Persians,  Indians,  Armenians  and  Assyrians.  A  crude 
springless  wagon  carried  us  and  our  luggage  out  of  the  mud 
to  the  fine  military  road  which  the  British  had  built  from  the 
old  rail-head  immediately  on  the  Persian  border  at  Quraitu 
through  Kermanshah  and  Hamadan  to  Kasvin  where  it  joined 
the  good  road  already  existing  between  Resht  and  Teheran. 
A  few  miles  beyond  Quraitu  two  decrepit  Ford  cars  were 
waiting  at  Shah  Gedar,  the  Persian  customs  house,  having 

334 


no  license  to  cross  the  border  into  Irak,  and  our  new  trans- 
portation through  the  same  old  Persia  began. 

The  fine  road  which  the  British  had  built  and  left  to  the 
Persians  in  perfect  condition  was  already  showing  the  effects 
of  mis-use  and  neglect.  Retaining  walls  needed  to  protect  the 
road  on  precipitous  hillsides  were  being  tumbled  into  the 
road  and  broken  up  to  repair  holes  which  were  too  bad  to 
ignore,  while  the  whole  upper  hillside  above  the  road  was 
of  rock  which  might  just  as  well  have  supplied  all  necessary- 
repair  material.  It  was  the  same  old  Persia  also  of  highway 
insecurity,  although  this  bit  of  road  from  Mesopotamia  to 
Teheran  is  probably  the  safest  and  best  policed  road  in  Persia. 
Gendarmes  and  gendarme  stations  lined  it  at  frequent  inter- 
vals. Before  we  left  the  customs  house  a  little  flurry  of 
fright  of  robbery  gave  spice  to  our  setting  out.  Shots  were 
heard  in  the  distance  and  a  number  of  horsemen  suddenly 
emerged  from  an  opening  in  the  hills  to  be  followed  by  others 
who  scattered  out  across  the  plain  and  came  riding  down  upon 
Shah  Gedar.  The  guards  and  customs  officials  all  ran  for 
their  guns  and  bade  us  give  up  all  thought  of  starting  out 
on  our  journey.  It  turned  out  to  be  only  a  Kurdish  hunting 
party  displaying  a  little  horsemanship  and  bravado,  but  none 
the  less  two  gendarmes  rode  with  us  with  their  weapons  in 
their  laps. 

The  first  night  out  we  spent  in  an  old  caravanserai  near 
the  ancient  ruins  of  Sarpul,  and  the  next  night  in  a  little  mud 
room  in  the  gendarmerie  station  at  Khosroabad,  where  the 
bitter  cold  froze  up  the  cars  so  that  it  took  until  noon  of  the 
following  day  to  get  them  started.  Even  so,  however,  we 
reached  Kermanshah  the  next  evening,  four  days'  journey 
from  Bagdad.  Twenty-five  years  ago  the  same  journey  took 
between  two  and  three  weeks. 

When  we  were  here  last  Kermanshah  had  not  been  occupied 
yet  as  a  mission  station.  It  was  then  an  outstation  of  Rama- 
dan under  the  care  of  Kasha  Mooshe  Dooman  and  his  mother, 
Syrian  Christians  from  Urumia,  who  endeared  themselves  to 
every  one,  Mohammedan,  Kurd,  Jew  or  Christian,  and  who 
bore  a  witness  to  Christ  and  the  Gospel  which  is  remembered 
in  Kermanshah  to  this  day.  The  home  which  they  then  occu- 
pied is  now  the  church.  We  climbed  to  the  roof  to  look  over 
the  city,  and  I  remembered  our  standing  there  with  Kasha 
Mooshe's  dear  old  mother  as  she  pointed  away  off  northward 
beyond  the  hills  of  Kurdistan  toward  the  fields  and  pleasant 
vineyards  which  she  loved  and  where  she  longed  to  return. 
The  opportunity  of  Kermanshah  as  a  center  of  itinerating 

335 


work  among  the  Kurdish  tribes  of  Western  Persia  was  so 
great  that  shortly  after  Kasha  Mooshe's  return  to  Urumia, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stead  came  to  Kermanshah  to  live  or  rather  to 
make  it  a  point  of  departure  for  their  long  itinerating  trips 
among  the  Lurs  and  Bakhtiaris.  Mrs.  Stead's  medical  service 
opened  the  homes  and  hearts  of  the  women  through  all  the 
villages  of  these  wild  people,  and  the  great  famine  of  three 
years  ago  and  the  relief  work  provided  by  the  British  and 
placed  under  Mr.  Stead's  care  brought  with  it  new  influence 
and  new  burdens.  The  Kurdish  orphanage  in  Kermanshah 
is  one  fruitage  of  the  work  of  these  years.  The  forty-nine 
boys  and  girls  who  are  now  in  the  school  are  living  a  very 
simple,  crude  life  in  comparison  with  our  life  at  home  in 
America,  but  it  is  a  life  of  heavenly  comfort  and  plenty  to 
these  poor  waifs.  Fed  on  the  ample  supplies  left  behind  by 
the  British  troops  when  they  withdrew,  and  clothed  and  shod 
with  all  sorts  of  remnants  of  cloth  and  leather  of  military 
memory,  and  sleeping  in  the  open  air  but  with  a  roof  to 
shelter  them  and  blankets  to  keep  them  warm,  any  one  who 
has  seen  the  shivering,  hungry,  barely  clad  children  of  the 
Kurdish  villages  does  not  wonder  at  the  peaceful  contentment 
of  these  once  wild  youngsters  now  learnings  things  of  which 
they  had  never  dreamed  in  the  ignorance  and  darkness  of 
their  mountain  homes.  Children  though  they  are,  they  do 
all  the  work  of  their  household  life,  and  already  some  have 
gone  out  from  the  school  as  evangelists  to  their  own  people. 
Many  of  the  orphans  had  no  memory  of  the  villages  from 
which  they  had  come.  Others  could  vividly  recall  the  old 
life  with  its  poverty  and  hardship. 

Now  that  this  Kurdish  orphanage  is  meeting  the  needs  of 
the  children  who  can  come  from  Kurdish  village  homes,  there 
remain  some  other  very  clear  and  outstanding  needs.  One  is 
for  a  school  for  Kermanshah  itself.  What  government  schools 
there  are  here  and  in  other  cities  of  Persia  are  so  woefully 
weak  and  inefficient  as  to  leave  the  Missions  almost  unlimited 
opportunities  of  approach  and  influence  to  those  homes  in  the 
community  which  ordinarily  it  would  be  most  difficult  to  enter 
with  the  Gospel.  Secondly,  there  is  need  of  such  a  strengthen- 
ing of  the  evangelistic  force  of  the  station  as  will  enable  it  to 
carry  on  an  adequate,  persistent,  comprehensive  and  continu- 
ous itineration  throughout  the  wide  field  of  western  Persia 
accessible  to  it.  Third,  the  city  of  Kermanshah  itself  has  barely 
been  touched  as  yet.  There  are  not  a  few  among  the  Moham- 
medan people  who  understand  and  sympathize,  but  who  have 
not  as  yet  found  courage  to  confess.    Some  of  the  best  young 

336 


women  teachers  of  the  station  are  Mohammedan 
however,  and  there  are  men  who  have  said  frankb 
missionary  friends,  "Christianity  is  undoubtedly  the 
hgion,  but  you  do  not  reahze  that  a  man  cannot  confes. 
here  in  Kermanshah."    Elsewhere  in  Persia  a  wise  and 
and  believing  effort  to  reach  the  Mohammedans  direct 
met  and  is  meeting  with  rich  results.    There  is  no  reasoi    ,*ny 
the  same  results  should  not  be  achieved  in  Kermanshah.   And 
fourth,  there  is  need  of  the  adequate  development  of  the  medi- 
cal work  which  has  always  been  and  is  still  one  of  the  most 
powerful  forms  of  missionary  influence  in  Mohammedan  lands. 
What  has  already  been  done  has  opened  the  door  for  a  much 
larger  service,  and  already  materials  and  supplies  purchased 
from  the  British  military  hospital  upon  its  withdrawal  have 
provided  the  beginning  of  what  ought  to  be  made  an  efficient 
Christian  hospital  for  Kermanshah  and  for  the  whole  region 
westward  from  Hamadan  to  the  border  of  Persia. 

In  the  great  and  far  off  years  the  tides  of  the  world's  most 
significant  history  passed  up  and  down  through  Kermanshah. 
Nearby  on  the  great  cliff  at  Beseitun  are  the  inscriptions  re- 
citing the  triumphs  of  Darius.  Cyrus  and  Alexander  and 
Xerxes  and  the  armies  of  Rome  moved  across  these  plains. 
During  the  Great  War  the  armies  of  Russia  and  Turkey  and 
Great  Britain  passed  over  the  same  great  highway.  Measured 
against  the  tread  of  these  armies  of  the  past,  how  few  have 
been  the  feet  of  those  who  have  preached  glad  tidings  and 
published  peace!    Why  are  they  so  slow  in  coming  now? 

(4)  hamadan:    by  the  tomb  of  mordecai 

Hissar,  Persia,  March  1,  1922. 
We  are  snow-bound  in  this  caravanserai  of  Hissar  on  the 
road  between  Teheran  and  Kasvin.  We  have  visited  now  all 
the  stations  of  the  East  Persia  Mission  except  Resht  and  are 
on  our  way  thither.  We  left  Teheran  yesterday  morning  at 
nine  o'clock  after  several  days  of  snow  and  rain.  All  day 
the  snow  gusts  came  and  went,  but  we  were  not  halted  until 
just  as  a  gray  fog  of  night  fell,  confusing  in  one  dim  blur 
the  white  snow  on  the  ground  and  the  gray  mist  in  the  air, 
we  found  ourselves  blocked  within  twelve  miles  of  Kasvin 
by  the  deeper  snow  and  the  drifts  which  had  been  piled  up 
by  the  winds  that  blow  unhindered  across  these  wide  spaces 
between  the  hills.  How  long  we  shall  be  kept  here  we  do 
not  know.  Nothing  has  come  through  yet  from  Kasvin,  and 
whatever  has  come  from  Teheran  has  been  halted  here  or 
stalled  in  the  deeper  snow  beyond.     It  is  the  sort  of  thing 

337 


that  any  one  traveling  in  Persia  in  the  winter  time  must  be 
prepared  to  meet  without  chafing  or  impatience. 

But  how  different  all  the  surroundings  are  from  the  scenes 
which  I  have  been  recalling  all  day  from  Whittier's  "Snow- 
Bound."  Here  is  no  New  England  home,  but  just  a  set  of 
crude  rooms  with  mud  walls  and  mud  floors  and  mud  roof 
built  around  several  snow  filled  courts  and  joining  the  mud 
stables  which  shelter  the  animals  of  the  caravans  and  the 
carts  which  have  sought  refuge  here  with  us.  The  largest 
room  is  a  mud  tea  room  with  a  samovar  boiling  at  one  side, 
and  little  groups  of  chavadars,  muleteers,  and  other  travelers 
huddled  around  braziers  on  the  raised  mud  platforms  around 
the  walls.  A  little  beggar  lad  with  his  bare  skin  showing  be- 
tween his  cotton  rags  and  without  shoes  is  standing  wistfully 
in  a  doorway.  An  old  man  equally  ragged  and  with  one  foot 
showing  through  his  torn  sandal  is  leaning  over  the  little  fire 
with  a  prayer  to  Allah.  Some  Persian  officers  are  anxious 
to  get  on  to  join  the  troops  which  are  operating  against  the 
Kurdish  chief,  Simko,  who  holds  Urumia.  There  are  Russians 
from  Resht,  a  Goanese  chauffeur  from  India,  Persians,  Arme- 
nians, and  we  three  Americans.  And  outside  the  tea  room 
are  three  Mohammedan  women  and  a  little  girl  half  conceal- 
ing and  half  disclosing  faces  which  certainly  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  veil.  Whatever  there  is  either  of  poetry  or  of  sodden- 
ness  in  Persian  life  is  here  in  this  snow-bound  group  in  the 
caravanserai  of  Hissar. 

We  came  over  this  same  road  some  weeks  ago  after  our 
visit  in  Hamadan  whose  memories  abide  richly  with  us.  There 
under  the  very  shadow  of  the  tomb  of  Mordecai  and  Esther 
we  worshipped  with  the  group  of  Christian  converts  from 
Judaism  and  Islam,  and  in  another  quarter  of  the  city  near 
the  grave  of  Avicenna  watched  Dr.  Funk  at  work  in  the  city 
dispensary  giving  relief  with  a  skill  and  understanding  of 
which  Avicenna  never  dreamed.  It  is  the  next  to  the  oldest 
of  our  East  Persia  stations,  and  it  is  beautiful  to  see  here 
as  one  sees  in  so  many  mission  stations  throughout  the  world 
the  persistent  influence  and  fruitfulness  of  the  memories  of 
the  good  men  and  women  who  gave  their  lives  to  the  revealing 
of  Christ  and  the  founding  of  His  Church.  The  first  visit 
that  I  made  in  Hamadan  was  to  the  grave  of  Mrs.  Hawkes 
marked  by  a  big  boulder  and  a  solitary  walnut  tree  in  the 
missionary  cemetery  where  she  rests  alone,  and  on  Sunday 
morning  in  Saint  Stephen's  Church  where  the  body  of  evan- 
gelical Armenian  Christians  meet  to  worship,  in  the  fine  old 
building  which  the  Shah  of  Persia,  Nasr-i-din,  helped  them  to 

338 


secure,  we  sat  by  the  graves  of  Mr.  Whipple  and  Miss  Annie 
Montgomery,  one  with  a  tablet  set  in  the  wall  over  it,  "In 
loving  remembrance  of  William  L.  Whipple,  faithful  servant 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  stationed  at  Urumia,  Tabriz,  and 
Hamadan,  Persia,  1872  to  1901.  Born  at  Mount  Vernon,  Ohio, 
U.  S.  A.,  July  13,  1844.  Died  at  Hamadan,  Persia,  May  1, 
1901.  'Be  thou  faithful  unto  death.  I  will  give  thee  a  crown 
of  life ;'  "  and  the  other  marked  by  a  tablet  set  in  the  floor 
over  the  spot  where  she  used  to  sit  just  beside  the  pulpit  and 
where  she  was  buried,  "In  memory  of  Annie  Montgomery. 
Born  May  17,  1847  at  Princeton,  Prince  Edward  Island.  Died 
November  6,  1917,  at  Hamadan.  Thirty-five  years  a  mission- 
ary of  Christ  in  Persia.  'Thanks  be  to  God  which  giveth  us 
the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.'  Age  70,"  And 
though  he  is  not  buried  on  the  field,  but  was  compelled  by 
health  to  leave  Persia  long  ago,  the  memory  of  Dr.  George 
W.  Holmes  as  a  physician  and  as  a  witness  of  Christ  is  as 
fragrant  and  as  vivid  as  though  he  had  been  here  but  yes- 
terday. 

The  work  of  the  Hamadan  station  today  is  a  very  simple 
and  yet  a  very  complicated  work.  It  is  carried  on  for  five 
races,  Persians,  Kurds,  Jews,  Armenians  and  Assyrians.  Some 
four  thousand  or  more  Assyrian  refugees  are  under  the  care 
of  the  station  which  with  the  help  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Coan  and 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bentley  and  Miss  Guild  of  the  West  Persia  Mis- 
sion is  conducting  evangelistic  and  relief  work  among  them. 
Two  hundred  and  thirty  orphan  boys  and  girls  are  housed 
in  the  old  barracks  of  the  British  Indian  troops.  Three  thou- 
sand refugees,  two-thirds  of  them  Assyrians  and  the  rest 
Armenians,  have  been  settled  in  the  villages  of  the  Hamadan 
plain  to  live  there  as  self-supporting  farmers  in  case  they  are 
not  able  to  return  to  Urumia.  The  Bahais  have  made  many 
converts  among  the  Hamadan  Jews  as  among  the  Jews  else- 
where in  Persia,  but  there  is  a  strong  group  of  Jewish  Chris- 
tians led  by  half  a  dozen  of  the  best  doctors  of  the  city  who 
received  their  medical  training  from  Dr.  Holmes  and  Dr. 
Funk. 

The  station  is  carrying  on  also  the  well  developed  and  ap- 
proved agencies  of  all  the  older  stations  in  Persia.  There  is 
organized  church  work  for  the  Armenians  in  one  group,  for 
the  Assyrians  in  another  group,  and  for  the  Jews  and  Moham- 
medan converts  together,  but  it  is  proposed  to  divide  this  last 
work  both  because  of  language  and  residence  quarters  and 
because  it  is  believed  generally  in  our  own  Mission  stations 
in  Persia  and  in  the  Arabia  Mission  of  the  Reformed  Board 

339  • 


that  the  work  for  Mohammedans  can  be  made  more  effective 
by  making  it  more  clear  and  distinct  and  by  laying  the  re- 
sponsibility for  it  more  fully  and  directly  upon  the  Moham- 
medan converts  themselves.  There  are  also  the  two  schools 
for  boys  and  girls  where  all  the  races  are  studying  side  by 
side  and  sitting  together  in  the  Bible  classes  and  the  chapel 
exercises  every  day.  On  the  outskirts  of  the  city  in  a  beautiful 
new  compound,  which  was  purchased  through  the  co-operation 
of  one  of  the  leading  Mohammedan  Mollahs,  is  the  hospital 
which  after  much  use  and  abuse  by  the  three  different  armies 
which  occupied  Hamadan  during  the  war  is  now  once  more, 
cleansed  and  re-equipped,  rendering  to  Persia  the  service 
which  she  is  receiving  from  the  missionary  hospital  alone. 

But  complicated  as  the  work  may  be,  it  is  still  as  simple 
and  direct  as  true  missionary  service  is  everywhere,  and  is 
doing  just  one  thing,  making  Christ  known  to  all  men  in  love 
and  faithfulness  and  manifesting  His  power  to  heal  the  hurts 
and  to  redeem  the  lives  of  men.  It  was  a  great  privilege  to 
meet  with  the  organized  Churches  and  to  visit  the  Faith 
Hubbard  School  f.or  Girls  and  the  boys'  school  and  the  Lily 
Reid  Holt  Hospital  and  to  hear  of  the  out-station  work  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Zoeckler  at  Doulatabad  and  to  see  the  station 
body  now  so  strongly  though  not  strongly  enough  re-enforced, 
but  there  was  no  greater  privilege  than  to  sit  one  evening  and 
to  hear  from  the  lips  of  old  Kaka  the  story  of  the  conversion 
of  himself  and  of  his  brother,  Dr.  Saeed  Khan,  now  one  of  the 
leading  physicians  in  Teheran.  They  were  sons  of  one  of  the 
most  influential  and  most  respected  Mohammedan  ecclesiastics 
in  Senneh,  a  leader  among  the  Kurds.  When  he  first  learned 
of  his  younger  brother  Saeed's  interest  in  Christianity,  Kaka 
had  thought  to  kill  him,  and  then  in  mid-winter  did  turn  him 
out  of  his  home.  Now  the  two  men,  one  in  Hamadan  and  the 
other  in  the  capital  of  Persia,  are  among  the  most  fearless 
preachers  of  Christ  to  their  fellow  Mohammedans,  and  though 
in  the  early  years  they  were  again  and  again  threatened  with 
death  in  their  old  home,  they  go  back  to  it  now  to  be  received 
with  honor.  And  these  are  only  two  of  scores  whom  we  have 
met  who  have  come  to  Christ  from  Islam.  This  is  what  ought 
to  be  by  Mordecai's  tomb. 

(5)     THE  CENTER  OF  PERSIA'S  LIFE  AND  DEATH 

Hissar,  Persia,  March  2,  1922. 
Teheran  is  the  center  of  Persia  not  only  in  those  wholesome 
and  necessary  ways  which  should  characterize  the  service  of 
a  nation's  capital  in  the  national  life  but  also  in  the  unwhole- 

•     340 


some  ways  which  betray  the  sickness  of  the  nation  and  the 
evil  influence  of  its  capital  in  aggravating  its  disease.  It  is 
much  the  largest  and  the  finest  city  in  Persia,  beautifully  situ- 
ated on  the  northern  edge  of  a  great  plain  with  a  noble  moun- 
tain range  rising  like  a  wall  behind  it  to  the  north  and  west 
and  the  white  peak  of  Demavend,  the  highest  mountain  in 
Europe  and  Asia  west  of  the  Himalayas,  looking  down  upon 
it.  The  gaudy  tiled  gates  of  the  city,  three  on  each  of  its  four 
sides,  are  tawdry  and  shabby.  The  streets  are  pools  of  mud 
these  wet  winter  days.  Its  oriental  splendor  is  a  euphemism. 
It  dominates  the  life  and  drains  away  the  substance  of  the 
rest  of  Persia.  The  governors  and  officials  throughout  the 
land  are  largely  Teheran  men,  and  too  often,  according  to  the 
Persian  system  of  revenue  and  national  support,  they  have 
had  to  buy  their  offices,  and  not  knowing  how  soon  they  may 
be  bought  away  from  them  are  obliged  to  recoup  themselves 
from  any  attainable  revenues  of  their  post  without  delay. 
What  national  revenue  there  is  is  spent  almost  entirely  upon 
the  maintenance  of  officials  and  the  support  of  the  army. 
Roads,  schools,  hospitals,  sanitation,  irrigation,  improvement 
of  agriculture,  all  the  main  services  which  are  the  duty  of  a 
state  are  almost  or  totally  neglected,  even  in  Teheran  itself. 
Still  the  picture  in  the  national  capital  is  not  altogether  dark. 
There  have  been  many  improvements  since  I  was  here  twenty- 
six  years  ago.  There  are  the  same  old  tram  cars  in  the  city 
and  only  the  same  little  five  mile  railroad  out  to  the  shrine  of 
Shah  Abdul  Azim,  but  there  are  better  buildings  and  a  neat 
wall  around  the  great  drill  square.  A  great  many  more 
trees  including  evergreens  which  have  advantageously  affected 
the  city's  rain-fall.  A  parliament  sitting  now,  it  is  true,  for 
only  the  fourth  time  in  sixteen  years,  represents  the  surrender 
of  the  Shah's  absolutism  and  the  establishment  of  constitu- 
tional government.  Educational  and  philanthropic  institu- 
tions, some  of  them  unfortunately  closed  now  for  lack  of  sup- 
port, have  nevertheless  been  established  and  recognized,  and 
furnish  the  germs  of  good  future  development.  Most  signifi- 
cant of  these  and  many  other  changes  has  been  the  growth  in 
tolerance  which  opens  here  in  the  capital  of  Persia  perhaps 
as  wide  a  door  for  the  evangelization  of  Mohammedans  as 
can  be  found  anywhere  in  the  world. 

Without  hesitation  our  Mission  has  pressed  through  this 
door.  It  is  our  Church's  Mission,  and  yet  in  a  true  sense  it 
is  the  Mission  of  our  American  Christian  people  to  Persia. 
Indeed  I  think  it  is  a  fact  that,  although  President  Harding 
has  just  appointed  an  esteemed  Jewish  Rabbi  as  American 

341 


Minister  to  Persia,  every  one  of  the  permanent  American 
residents  in  Persia  is  a  Christian  missionary.  The  Mission 
is  known  everywhere  in  Teheran  as  the  American  Mission. 
The  hospital  is  the  American  hospital,  and  the  schools  are 
the  American  schools.  In  character  and  spirit  and  unselfish- 
ness the  Mission  gives  shape  to  the  Persian  conception  of 
America,  and  it  requires  real  effort  to  make  and  to  keep  it 
clear  that  we  are  not  representing  the  American  Government, 
but  are  a  simple  spiritual  Mission  of  Christian  love  and 
Christian  witness  to  the  people  of  Persia.  I  happened  to  speak 
of  this  aspect  of  our  work  to  a  member  of  the  diplomatic 
corps  in  Teheran  remarking  that  the  Mission  enterprise  was 
a  purely  unselfish  undertaking  of  the  Christians  of  America, 
that  they  were  helping  people  whom  they  had  never  seen  and 
whom  they  never  would  see,  and  that  they  did  not  seek  and 
would  not  receive  anything  in  return.  "In  one  sense  you  are 
right,"  he  replied,  "but  in  another  sense  you  are  wholly  mis- 
taken. There  is  no  enterprise  from  which  America  receives 
as  much  in  honor  and  good-will  and  in  respect  for  its  national 
character  and  in  trust  and  confidence  as  from  the  missionary 
enterprise."  It  may  not  be  a  usable  motive,  but  the  fact  is 
that  no  other  investment  yields  anything  like  the  moral  and 
commercial  return  which  America  derives  from  the  mission- 
ary investment  made  by  her  Christian  people. 

The  American  hospital  is  one  of  the  two  oldest  hospitals  in 
the  city,  and  it  is  still  the  most  trustworthy  and  reliable.  It 
has  suffered  from  inadequate  staffing,  but  has  repeatedly  had 
the  benefit  of  the  competent  and  unselfish  help  of  Dr.  Scott 
and  Dr.  Neligan  of  the  British  telegraph  and  diplomatic  ser- 
vices. It  needs  additional  doctors  and  additional  funds  for 
maintenance.  It  is  operating  now  on  a  smaller  appropriation 
than  the  annual  cost  of  one  endowed  room  in  an  American 
hospital.  Patients  of  all  types  and  from  all  parts  of  Persia 
come  to  its  doors.  One  of  the  last  to  enter  while  we  were 
there  was  a  camel  driver  whom  a  wolf  had  attacked  in  open 
day  on  the  desert  near  Teheran  frightfully  lacerating  his  nose 
and  lip.  Another  was  a  small  boy  whose  arm  had  been  broken 
and  mangled  by  the  bite  of  a  vicious  camel.  It  is  a  small 
hospital  built  largely  with  gifts  from  Persians  themselves, 
but  it  is  well  equipped  and  maintained,  and  Christ  walks 
through  its  wards.  They  must  not  be  closed  to  Him  and  to 
those  in  whom  He  suffers. 

In  the  American  School  for  Boys  and  the  American  School 
for  Girls  there  are  nearly  nine  hundred  pupils,  and  a  few 
of  them  Jews,  but  most  of  them  Mohammedans  and  Armenians 

342 


in  nearly  equal  numbers.  There  are  no  other  schools  in  Persia 
unless  it  be  the  West  Persia  Mission  Schools  for  Boys  and  Girls 
in  Tabriz  which  are  equal  to  these  schools  in  Teheran.  Scores 
of  boys  and  girls  from  the  most  influential  families  in  Persia 
are  sent  to  them,  although  their  Christian  character  and  their 
avowed  missionary  purpose  are  everywhere  known.  They 
are  leading  scores  of  these  young  people  to  Christian  faith 
and  many  of  them  to  open  Christian  confession,  and  they  are 
raising  up  a  great  company  of  the  kind  of  men  and  women  on 
whom  Persia  must  depend  if  her  sickness  is  to  be  healed.  One 
meets  these  young  men  everywhere  and  finds  them  in  associa- 
tion with  every  institution  and  influence  which  is  seeking  to 
promote  progress  in  Persia.  We  had  a  vivid  illustration  one 
afternoon  of  the  influence  of  the  Boys'  School  during  the 
quarter  of  a  century  since  I  was  here  before.  Then  we  in- 
vited as  many  young  men  in  Teheran  as  could  understand 
English  and  would  be  willing  to  meet  for  the  purpose  to 
gather  to  hear  a  statement  of  the  claims  of  Christ.  Less  than 
a  score  could  be  gathered  together.  This  time  in  response 
to  a  similar  invitation,  hastily  given,  of  necessity,  so  that 
not  all  who  would  otherwise  have  responded  could  come,  a 
large  company  assembled  which  packed  the  Church  and  list- 
ened with  sympathy  and  response  to  all  that  was  said  in  the 
plainest  and  most  direct  way  regarding  Persia's  need  of  what 
only  Christ  can  supply.  The  boys'  school  has  acquired  a  beau- 
tiful site  of  about  sixty  acres  just  outside  the  city  for  its 
college  development,  and  the  girls'  school  has  selected  a  no 
less  satisfactory  site  within  the  city  for  the  future  college 
for  women  provided  for  from  Mrs.  Sage's  bequest  to  the 
Women's  Board.  These  schools  are  and  these  two  colleges 
will  be  the  greatest  light-houses  in  Persia. 

But  in  Teheran  as  everywhere  else,  our  chief  interest  has 
been  in  the  organized  Christian  Church,  and  this  Teheran 
Church  and  its  work  are  unique.  It  is  one  organization,  guided 
by  a  committee  of  fourteen  men  and  women,  representing 
the  Mohammedan  converts,  the  evangelical  Armenians,  and 
the  station.  In  some  services  all  meet  together.  In  others 
the  Armenians  and  Persians  meet  for  separate  services  in 
their  own  languages.  A  joint  public  preaching  service  in  Per- 
sian is  attended  every  Sunday  by  many  Mohammedans,  often 
including  mollahs  and  sayids  who  hear  their  own  former 
Moslem  associates  openly  preaching  Christ.  We  asked  the 
church  officers  for  a  statement  of  the  changes  which  have 
taken  place  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  and  also  of  the 
difficulties  which  Christianity  still  met.    The  foremost  change 

343 


they  thought  to  be  the  decay  of  fanaticism  and  the  chief 
difficulty  the  fanaticism  which  still  remained.  But  that  which 
has  not  hindered  in  the  past  will  still  less  hinder  now  that 
direct  presentation  of  Christ  to  men  which  is  the  first  and 
last  aim  and  activity  of  the  mission  in  Teheran. 

(6)    THE  GREAT   SHRINE   OF  PERSIA 

Hissar,  Persia,  March  1,  1922. 

Meshed  is  the  great  shrine  city  of  Persia.  Its  holiest  city, 
to  be  sure,  is  Kerbala  beyond  the  bounds  of  Persia  in  Mesopo- 
tamia, southwest  of  Babylon.  Here  are  the  graves  of  the  mar- 
tyred sons  of  Ali,  Mohammed's  son-in-law  and  the  fourth  of 
the  caliphs  as  the  Sunni  Mohammedans  count  the  succession, 
but  the  Shiah  Mohammedans  of  Persia  repudiate  Abu  Bekr, 
Omar,  and  Othman  and  hold  by  the  rights  of  Ali  and  his  line 
alone.  The  Imams  are  the  prophets  who  from  time  to  time 
have  appeared  since  All's  day  to  guide  the  people,  and  of  these 
Imams  the  most  esteemed  in  Persian  eyes  and  hearts  was  the 
Imam  Riza  whose  gold  domed  tomb  stands  in  the  heart  of  the 
city  of  Meshed  and  beside  it  a  mosque  in  memory  of  one  of 
the  Mohammedan  women  saints.  To  this  great  shrine  of 
tomb  and  mosque  pilgrims  come  from  all  sections  of  the  Shiah 
Mohammedan  world,  from  Mesopotamia  where  the  Shiah  Mo- 
hammedans outnumber  the  Sunnis  and  from  Turkistan,  Af- 
ghanistan and  Bokhara  and  Central  Asia  as  well  as  from  all 
corners  of  Persia. 

It  is  a  long  and  weary  journey  for  most  of  these  pilgrims. 
We  know,  for  we  have  made  it  for  ourselves  under  conditions 
which  no  doubt  seemed  great  luxury  to  the  poor  people  riding 
their  little  donkeys  or  plodding  along  on  foot,  but  which  for 
all  of  us  was  one  of  the  roughest  experiences  of  our  lives.  It 
is  five  hundred  and  sixty  miles  from  Teheran  to  Meshed  by 
the  caravan  road  which  is  the  old  road  of  travel  crossed  by 
the  feet  of  innumerable  men  between  Europe  and  Central 
Asia  since  the  dawn  of  history.  It  is  a  Persian  post 
road  all  the  way  now,  and  what  are  called  post  carriages 
are  available  on  it  with  change  of  horses  every  ten  or  twelve 
miles.  Two  of  these  carriages  went  to  pieces  with  us  on  the 
way  out  and  a  third  on  the  return  journey,  so  that  we  had  to 
come  the  last  four  hundred  miles  on  a  springless,  uncovered 
post  wagon  running  day  and  night  through  snow  and  rain 
and  cold.  Even  the  hardened  old  post  courier  who  was  in 
charge  of  the  mail  found  the  conditions  difficult.  One  mid- 
night when  we  came  to  a  changing  station  with  the  snow  deep 
on  the  ground  and  the  thermometer  not  far  from  zero  and 

344 


the  road  blocked  and  when  the  drivers  refused  to  bring  out 
fresh  horses  and  to  go  on  and  one  of  our  fellow  passengers, 
a  Mohammedan  merchant  from  Meshed,  declared  that  he 
would  freeze  to  death  unless  we  could  stop  and  find  shelter, 
while  yet  the  old  man  felt  the  urgency  of  his  duty  to  press  on, 
we  heard  him,  as  at  midnight  in  the  little  mud  room  where  we 
were  he  stood  up  to  say  his  prayer,  pause  and  interrupt  the  set 
Moslem  phrases  with  a  real  cry  from  his  heart,  "Oh  Allah,  thou 
seest  in  what  a  sore  strait  I  am."  We  can  only  thank  God  for 
the  endurance  which  made  possible  this  long  trip  of  more  than 
eleven  hundred  miles  in  the  month  of  February, 

It  has  been  a  wonderful  revelation  to  us  of  two  things. 
One  is  the  appalling  extent  of  our  unaccomplished  task  in 
Persia.  This  whole  field  of  northern  Persia  has  been  left  to 
our  Church  for  missionary  occupancy.  There  is  little  hope 
that  any  one  else  will  come  in  to  aid  in  its  evangelization. 
Across  this  whole  stretch  of  five  hundred  and  sixty  miles 
east  and  west  and  an  equal  distance  north  and  south,  there 
is  not  a  single  resident  Christian  worker  save  at  Teheran  on 
the  west  and  Meshed  on  the  east.  Passing  eastward  one  crosses 
plain  after  plain  dotted  with  villages  in  most  of  which  the 
Gospel  has  never  been  preached.  The  main  road  runs  through 
many  small  and  inviting  cities  like  Semnan  and  Damghan  and 
Sharoud  and  Subsavar  and  Nishapur.  These  cities  have  of 
course  been  visited  occasionally  in  the  past  and  memories  of 
these  visits  of  Mr.  Bassett  and  Dr.  Potter  and  especially  of 
Dr.  Esselstyn  and  Dr.  Cook  still  remain,  but  the  Persian  Mis- 
sion should  be  strong  enough  to  carry  on  a  comprehensive  and 
persistent  program  of  itineration  which  would  reach  all  these 
cities  and  larger  villages  regularly,  and  send  out  from  them 
the  influences  which  would  make  Christ's  name  and  Gospel 
known  in  all  of  these  thousands  of  accessible  communities. 

It  is  the  fact  of  this  accessibility  which  has  been  the  second 
of  these  great  revelations  to  us.  I  do  not  refer  to  the  physical 
accessibility.  That  is  difficult  enough.  I  have  traveled  now 
about  four  thousand  miles  in  Persia  on  horseback  or  on  foot 
or  in  the  wretched  conveyances  which  are  available,  and  one 
can  sympathize  with  the  objurgations  which  he  hears  in  every 
tea  house  along  the  highways  with  regard  to  Persian  roads 
and  means  of  travel.  It  is  the  moral  and  religious  accessi- 
bility, not  the  physical,  which  is  the  notable  thing.  The  work 
of  the  Meshed  station  has  been  a  wonderful  witness  to  this. 
By  the  direct  preaching  of  the  Gospel  to  Mohammedans  not 
only  in  these  towns  and  villages  of  the  province  of  Khorasan 
but  under  the  shadow  of  the  great  shrine  itself  they  have  with 

345 


tact  and  conciliation  and  yet  with  courage  and  rich  fruitful- 
ness  made  Christ  known  to  men  and  women  who  have  believed 
and  who,  like  sheep  who  know  their  shepherd,  have  recognized 
the  Voice  which  has  called  to  them  and  have  arisen  and  fol- 
lowed after  Him. 

There  are  now  in  Meshed  and  Nishapur  and  Seistan  and 
Birjand  between  forty  and  fifty  of  these  converts  from  Mo- 
hammedanism who  are  openly  confessing  Christ  and  preach- 
ing Him  to  their  people.     It  is  obvious  that  such  work  has 
had  to  be  done  with  great  patience  and  wisdom.     It  was  in 
this  spirit  that  Dr.   Esselstyn  founded  the  Meshed  station. 
At  first  he  met  with  threats  and  open  antagonism,  but  he 
held  his  ground  and  bided  his  time  and  walked  in  love  and 
wisdom.    When  he  first  visited  Meshed  in  1891  he  was  mobbed 
in  a  caravanserai  and  was  only  rescued  by  the  British  con- 
sulate.    Twenty  years  later,  however,  his  presence  as  a  per- 
manent resident  was  quietly  accepted  by  the  people,  and  soon 
no  figure  was  better  known  in  the  city  than  his  with  his  bald 
head  and  long  red  beard  and  perfect  knowledge  of  the  language 
and  his  Christian  faithfulness,  as  considerate  as  it  was  un- 
fearing.    When  some  years  ago  the  Russians  bombarded  the 
Shrine  and  then  entered  its  sacred  precincts  which  had  been 
forbidden  to  all  non-Moslems,  they  invited  Dr.  Esselstyn  to 
accompany  them.    He  refused  with  the  remark  that  the  Per- 
sians had  not  invited  him  in  and  he  would  wait  until  the 
invitation  came  from  them.     His  word  was  quoted  for  years 
up  and  down  the  bazaar,  and  men  who  had  looked  upon  him 
with  hostility  spoke  now  of  him  with  kindness  and  respect. 
By  just  such  wisdom  mingled  with  full  and  fearless  faith  in 
the  power  of  the  Gospel  to  convert  Mohammedans,  mind  and 
life  and  will,  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Meshed  station 
has  already  gathered  into  the  baptized  company  of  believers 
many  with  whom  it  was  our  joy  to  meet.    Never  will  we  forget 
especially  two  of  these  gatherings.     One  was  in  Mr.  Donald- 
son's house  where  we  sat  with  a  score  or  more  of  men  who 
had  confessed  Christ,  and  heard  their  leader  speak  to  them 
from  the  verse  in  the  first  chapter  of  John,  "And  the  Word 
was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us,  and  we  beheld  his  glory, 
the  glory  of  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and 
truth."     He   warned  the  little  company  of  the  dangers  of 
their  faith,  great  just  in  proportion  as  they  were  faithful  to 
Jesus,  and  he  reminded  them  of  persecutions  which  had  be- 
fallen the  Church  in  Persia  in  early  centuries  and  for  which 
the  new  Church  in  Meshed  must  be  prepared  today.    The  other 
gathering  was  in  Omar  Khayyam's  city  of  Nishapur.     Dr. 

346 


McDowell  of  Teheran  and  I  made  our  way  through  the  dark 
bazaars  and  down  the  side  streets  in  which  the  snow  was 
falling  to  the  home  of  one  who  had  been  the  head  of  one  of 
the  Moslem  sects  and  to  whom  the  Gospel  had  come  in  just 
the  same  persuasive,  convincing  way  in  which  it  came  to  the 
men  of  Peter's  time  and  Paul's.  An  old  merchant  and  an 
old  farmer  met  with  us,  and  we  five  spent  the  evening  to- 
gether with  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  in  His  Gospel  and 
talked  of  His  cause  which  is  to  prevail. 

These  Meshed  days  will  be  forever  memorable  to  us.  We 
have  seen  the  love  and  faith  of  the  Gospel  at  work  in  the 
hospital,  in  the  reading  room,  on  the  Bala  Khiaban,  the  big 
central  street  leading  into  the  Shrine,  in  the  homes  and  lives 
of  missionaries  and  Persian  Christians,  in  the  study  of  the 
Bible,  in  the  fellowship  of  believers,  in  word  and  deed.  This 
is  the  very  work  which  Christ  has  sent  us  forth  to  do. 

(7)     THE  STATION  ON  THE  CASPIAN 

Kasvin,  Persia,  March  13,  1922. 
The  last  of  the  five  stations  of  the  East  Persia  Mission, 
Resht,  lies  just  a  little  north  of  the  route  which  we  were 
to  take  from  Teheran  overland  to  Tabriz  and  the  West  Persia 
Mission.  The  road  to  Resht  turns  off  at  Kasvin,  about  ninety 
miles  directly  west  of  Teheran.  A  good  motor  car,  when  the 
roads  are  in  good  condition,  ought  to  run  through  from  Te- 
heran to  Resht  in  one  day.  We  were  hoping  in  a  somewhat 
decrepit  but  still  respectable  Ford  car  to  make  the  journey 
even  in  mid-winter  in  three  days.  Instead  it  has  consumed 
twelve  to  go  from  Teheran  and  to  return  to  Kasvin.  Seventy 
miles  west  of  Teheran  we  ran  into  increasingly  heavy  snow 
and  within  twelve  miles  of  Kasvin  were  held  up  for  three 
days,  as  I  have  written  in  the  letter  on  Hamadan,  in  a  cold 
and  cheerless  wayside  stopping  place.  On  the  third  day 
through  deep  but  melting  snows  we  got  into  Kasvin.  It  was 
Friday,  the  Mohammedan  day  of  rest,  and  the  shops  were 
closed,  and  the  men  at  leisure  were  walking  up  and  down 
the  center  of  the  main  street  which  had  been  shoveled  clear 
of  snow.  Not  far  from  the  declining  ex-Russian,  ex-Armenian, 
Persian  hotel  where  we  were  lodging  rose  the  blue  tiled  dome 
and  two  shapely  minarets  of  the  main  mosque  of  the  city. 
In  the  evening  as  the  pink  sun  went  down  behind  the  snow- 
white  western  hills  the  call  to  prayer  floated  out  from  the 
top  of  one  of  the  minarets.  More  strenuous  and  more  per- 
sistent, however,  than  the  call  to  prayer  have  been  the  in- 
cessant wails  of  the  beggars.     Nowhere  have  we  met  with 

347 


beggars  so  implacable,  so  undiscouragable,  so  professional  as 
these  beggars  of  Kasvin,  old  and  young,  men  and  women,  with 
even  little  babies  taught  to  wail  for  hours.  Women  and  chil- 
dren, barefooted  and  barely  clad  in  a  feAv  cotton  rags,  actually 
lay  down  in  the  slush  by  the  roadside.  On  the  main  street 
we  saw  one  old  man  dead  on  a  snow  bank. 

We  can  bear  assured  testimony  to  the  need  of  this  city  of 
Kasvin  with  its  population  of  perhaps  thirty  thousand,  for 
every  helpful  and  strengthening  influence  which  the  Gospel 
can  supply.  For  some  years  one  family  of  the  East  Persia 
Mission  was  located  here,  but  the  Mission  has  been  unable  to 
continue  the  occupation  of  the  station,  and  with  the  exception 
of  a  very  small  Armenian  community,  divided  between  the 
Gregorian  and  Catholic  Churches,  the  small  Greek  Church 
for  the  Russians  and  two  or  three  families  of  evangelical 
Christians,  the  city  is  wholly  Mohammedan.  The  Bahais 
claim  to  number  between  five  hundred  and  a  thousand,  and 
while  their  influence  has  been  useful  everywhere  in  Persia 
in  breaking  down  Mohammedan  fanaticism,  they  cannot  be 
said  to  have  contributed  anything  to  the  moral  renovation  of 
the  country,  more  desperately  needed  every  year.  A  Christian 
Mission,  with  all  the  wholesome  influences  of  healing  and 
teaching  which  accompany  it,  would  be  welcome  here  in  Kas- 
vin where,  as  in  so  many  other  cities  of  Persia,  the  growing 
tolerance  of  the  country  and  its  growing  consciousness  of  need 
open  each  year  an  ever  wider  door  of  opportunity. 

After  four  days  in  Kasvin  waiting  for  the  snow  drifts  on 
the  road  between  Kasvin  and  Resht  to  be  cut  through  and 
despairing  at  last  of  getting  any  accurate  information  in  Kas- 
vin as  to  just  what  the  storm  conditions  really  were,  we  set 
out  and  found  that  a  wisdom  greater  than  our  own  had  guided 
us,  as  we  arrived  at  the  last  bad  drifts  just  as  the  force 
of  snow  shovelers  who  had  been  cleaning  out  twenty  miles  of 
impassable  road  cut  through  the  last  mile.  The  severity 
of  the  storm  had  not  been  exaggerated.  We  passed  through 
snow  drifts  higher  than  the  top  of  the  car.  On  one  hillside 
we  counted  four  dead  donkeys  who  had  found  the  struggle 
in  the  snow  with  their  heavy  loads  too  much  for  them.  Once 
over  the  pass  between  Bekendeh  and  Uzbashchai  the  snow 
was  all  behind  us  except  on  the  mountain-sides,  and  we  ran 
easily  down  a  long,  narrow,  winding  valley  to  the  Shahrud 
which  brings  down  the  water  from  the  northwestern  slopes 
of  Mount  Demavend.  I  shall  never  forget  the  moment  when 
without  an  instant's  warning  our  road  turned  westward  down 
the  valley  of  the  Shahrud  to  Pachinar.    All  afternoon,  stand- 

348 


ing  far  ahead  and  right  across  the  bleak  tortuous  valley  we 
were  descending,  rose  a  great  wall  of  dark  mountains  marked 
by  angry  gashes  of  snow,  their  tops  hidden  in  a  shroud  of 
sullen  clouds.  It  was  like  the  wall  of  death.  Then  in  an  in- 
stant, so  suddenly  that  one  caught  his  breath  at  the  change, 
the  road  turned  to  the  left  down  a  long  sun-lit  valley.  A 
brown  river  sang  along  the  bottom  of  the  valley.  The  evening 
sun  lighted  with  soft  colors  a  wall  of  white  mountains  to  the 
west,  radiant  as  the  celestial  hills.  The  road  soon  turned 
sharp  to  the  north  again,  and  after  a  night  at  Manjil  and 
the  glory  of  an  unsurpassable  sunrise  on  limitless  hills  of 
snow,  we  ran  on  for  a  whole  morning  down  the  valley  of  the 
White  River,  out  of  the  barren  highlands,  first  past  olive  and 
evergreen  trees,  then  by  oak  and  poplar,  to  green  fields  where 
the  violets  were  blooming  and  great  beds  of  yellow  primroses, 
and  the  plum  trees  were  in  bloom,  and  the  balm  of  spring 
was  in  the  air,  and  then  across  a  wide  semi-jungle  of  low- 
lying  land  to  Resht,  the  capital  of  the  province  of  Gilan,  one 
of  the  Persian  provinces  bordering  on  the  Caspian  Sea. 

Resht  is  very  different  from  all  the  other  Mission  stations 
in  Persia.  They  are  on  the  high  plateau,  varying  from  3,500 
feet  altitude  at  Meshed  to  6,000  at  Hamadan.  Resht  is  a  few 
feet  above  the  Caspian  Sea  which  itself  is  85  feet  below  sea 
level.  The  population  of  the  province  is  not  gathered  in  vil- 
lages as  in  the  high  lands,  but  is  scattered  on  separate  farms. 
The  houses  are  not  of  mud,  but  of  wood  or  brick  or  wattles 
with  shingled  or  tiled  or  peaked  thatch  roofs.  The  gathering 
places  of  the  people  are  at  the  weekly  markets  or  bazaars. 
The  population  of  Resht  is  a  mixture  of  the  upland  Persians 
with  the  Jangalis,  or  people  of  the  low  woodlands,  and  Kurds 
who  come  down  from  Azerbaijan  for  the  winter,  scores  of 
whom,  men,  women,  and  children,  with  heavy  burdens  on 
their  backs  representing  the  earnings  of  the  winter,  we  met 
on  the  road  toiling  back  on  foot  to  their  mountain  homes  for 
the  summer.  As  the  nearest  important  city  to  Russia  also, 
there  is  in  Resht  a  larger  proportion  of  Russians  and  Arme- 
nians. It  was  a  very  different  city  from  Kasvin,  but  of  no 
less  need  and  perhaps  of  greater  opportunity.  The  political 
disturbances  of  the  last  five  years  during  which  British,  Jan- 
galis, Bolshevists  and  Persians  have  controlled  the  city  have 
interfered  with  the  continuity  of  Mission  work  and  have  left 
dreadful  scars  of  devastation.  It  was  pitiful  to  go  about  and 
mark  the  havoc  wrought  by  the  great  war  in  this  far  off 
city  of  a  nation  that  wanted  to  be  at  peace. 

The  two  useful  schools  for  boys  and  girls  which  the  Mission 

349 


had  conducted  in  the  years  before  the  war  were  both  closed, 
but  with  the  new  re-enforcements  which  have  come  to  the 
Mission  it  is  hoped  that  the  boys'  school  at  least  can  be  re- 
opened this  fall.  We  met  the  fruitage  of  the  old  school  in 
more  than  one  community  and  have  seen  here  as  we  saw  at 
Saharanpur  in  India  how  great  the  loss  is  which  results 
from  the  closing  of  such  a  fountain  of  light  and  influence  as 
every  good  mission  school  proves  itself  to  be.  The  hospital 
also  was  interrupted  during  the  unsettled  times,  and  a  good 
part  of  its  equipment,  now  replaced  in  large  measure,  was 
carried  off  by  the  Bolshevists  on  their  withdrawal  to  Russia. 
Patients  from  a  dozen  different  communities  throughout 
Gilan  may  be  counted  in  the  hospital  at  almost  any  time. 
Every  such  institution,  however  local  it  may  appear  to  be,  is 
in  reality  a  great  piece  of  itinerating  work. 

As  everywhere  else  our  chief  joy  was  in  meeting  the  little 
group  of  Christian  believers  and  sympathizers,  a  score  and 
more,  some  sure  of  Christ,  some  timidly  moving  toward  Him. 
It  is  the  old  and  ever  new  story  of  the  good  seed  on  the  many 
kinds  of  soil.  Just  to  see  this  little  group  was  to  us  an  ade- 
quate word  of  hope  and  of  new  appeal. 

Upon  our  way  back  to  Kasvin  at  midnight  two  wolves  stood 
on  the  waste  of  snow  beside  the  road  and  watched  us  pass. 

(8)  TABRIZ 

Tiflis,  Caucasus,  April  17,  1922. 
We  got  away  from  Kasvin  at  last  on  March  17th  after 
more  than  a  fortnight's  detention  on  account  of  the  snow.  The 
same  storms  had  delayed  Dr.  Packard  and  Miss  Lamme, 
whom  the  West  Persia  Mission  of  which  they  are  members  had 
requested  to  come  on  from  Kermanshah  and  Bagdad  where 
they  had  been  at  work,  in  view  of  the  impossibility  of 
their  return  to  Urumia,  to  share  in  the  conferences 
which  we  were  all  to  hold  together  in  Tabriz.  Dr. 
Packard  had  been  compelled  to  come  over  the  Assadabad 
pass  on  foot,  a  twelve  hours'  tramp  through  the  snow, 
and  he  was  badly  burned  and  blistered  by  the  sun 
and  wind.  From  Kasvin  to  Zenjan,  a  distance  of  a  hundred 
and  four  miles,  we  traveled  in  two-wheeled,  one-horse  carts, 
walking  nearly  half  the  way  in  the  deep  and  glutinous  mud 
through  which  the  horses  could  barely  drag  the  carts.  We 
were  six  days  in  getting  over  this  hundred  and  four  miles. 
From  Zenjan  to  Tabriz  the  distance  is  about  a  hundred  and 
eighty  miles,  and  the  road  crosses  two  notable  passes,  the 
Kaflan   Kuh   and   the   Shibli,   and   climbs   over   innumerable 

350 


ranges  of  hills.  We  were  eight  days  in  covering  this  part  of 
the  journey  on  horseback,  more  than  a  third  of  the  way 
through  mud  and  snow  sometimes  belly  deep  for  the  horses. 
More  atrocious  roads  than  the  Persian  roads  in  winter  it 
would  be  hard  to  find,  and  yet  this  road  runs  between  the  two 
most  important  cities  in  Persia  and  is  one  of  the  oldest  roads 
in  the  world.  Alexander  and  his  troops  must  have  traveled 
it  twenty-two  centuries  ago.  "Yes,"  said  the  Persian  governor 
to  whom  I  made  this  remark,  "and  if  he  were  to  come  back 
today,  he  would  recognize  it  as  the  same  road,  unchanged." 

We  were  met  at  Basminj,  twelve  miles  out  of  Tabriz,  by  the 
whole  mission  station,  and  from  there  into  the  city  we  had 
the  greatest  peshwaz  which  we  have  met  on  our  whole  trip. 
Scores  of  horsemen  and  carriages  met  us  and  fell  into  a  long 
procession.  Thousands  of  the  Armenian  and  Assyrian  refu- 
gees lined  the  road.  Groups  of  refugee  school  children  sang 
their  songs  of  welcome.  In  a  garden  on  the  edge  of  the  city 
Hadji  Nazim,  the  mayor  of  Tabriz  as  we  would  call  him, 
with  a  group  of  the  leading  merchants  and  bankers  were  met 
to  welcome  us  and  to  serve  tea.  There  were  friendly  mes- 
sages also  from  the  governor  and  the  kargozar.  The  govern- 
ment had  sent  mounted  guards  out  to  meet  us  even  on  the 
other  side  of  Basminj.  The  British  consul  and  the  British 
heads  of  the  bank  and  the  telegraph  had  come  out  with  the 
missionaries  for  the  picnic  lunch  which  we  all  ate  together 
by  the  side  of  a  brook  under  some  willow  trees  coloring  with 
the  first  green  of  spring,  while  the  almond  trees  were  just 
bursting  forth  with  the  pink  and  white  blossoms  which  within 
a  week  filled  all  the  gardens  of  Tabriz  with  the  most  glorious 
beauty.  So  far  as  the  missionaries  and  the  English  friends 
were  concerned  we  should  have  had  such  a  welcome  as  this 
at  any  time,  but  for  the  rest,  as  we  knew,  the  greeting  of 
the  officials  and  the  people  alike,  of  mollahs  and  Armenian 
ecclesiastics,  was  not  personal  at  all  but  altogether  represen- 
tative, welcoming  us  as  an  expression  of  their  gratitude  for 
American  Relief  and  of  their  faith  in  America's  continued 
disinterested  service. 

This  spirit  of  gratitude  and  hope  toward  America  we  met 
on  every  side  during  our  whole  stay  in  Tabriz.  A  new  gov- 
ernor had  just  come  to  Azerbaijan.  We  called  on  him,  and 
he  called  on  us  and  then  invited  all  the  men  of  the  Mission 
to  dinner  to  meet  some  of  the  leading  Persian  officials.  No 
one  could  have  been  more  kind  and  sympathetic  or,  as  it 
seemed  to  all  of  us,  more  sincere  in  his  gratefulness  and  good- 
will.    When  we  thanked  him  and  the  Armenian  Archbishop 

351 


and  leading  Moslems  both  ecclesiastics  and  laymen  for  all 
their  kindness,  their  invariable  reply  was  that  any  kindness 
that  they  could  show  was  simply  their  duty  and  that  they  could 
do  nothing  to  repay  America  for  all  the  help  and  sympathy 
which  they  had  received. 

And  Persia's  need  for  this  help  and  sympathy  is  undi- 
minished. On  every  side  wherever  we  went  we  met  with  the 
earnest  desire  that  America  would  come  to  the  help  of  Persia 
in  the  development  of  her  natural  resources  and  industrial 
possibilities.  Unless  such  help  could  be  given  all  the  Persians 
with  whom  we  talked  despaired  of  their  country.  And  the 
need  of  help  for  the  Assyrian  and  Armenian  refugees  through 
the  Near  East  Relief  is  just  now  at  its  most  acute  stage. 
Unless  the  Near  East  Relief  is  enabled  to  complete  its  work, 
much  of  what  it  has  already  achieved  will  be  lost.  We  met 
constantly  with  representatives  of  the  ten  or  twelve  thousand 
Armenian,  Assyrian  and  Moslem  refugees  in  Tabriz  and  spoke 
to  great  throngs  of  them  in  the  refugee  yard,  in  the  Armenian 
theatre,  and  in  the  churches.  Not  only  ought  the  orphans 
and  the  abandoned  children  to  be  cared  for,  but  the  people 
should  be  either  repatriated  in  their  old  homes  or  settled  in 
other  villages  with  seed  and,  if  need  be,  oxen  and  equipment 
in  order  to  establish  themselves  again  in  self-support.  Some 
thousands  of  them  had  been  employed  on  road  and  street 
work  which  has  transformed  Tabriz.  Since  the  funds  for  this 
failed,  these  willing  workmen  are  standing  about  by  the  thou- 
sands wholly  unable  to  find  employment.  It  is  earnestly  to 
be  hoped  that  both  the  Near  East  Relief  and  the  Mission  will 
be  adequately  supported  in  their  effort  to  accomplish  a  genu- 
ine and  lasting  salvation  for  these  poor  people  who  have 
waded  the  rivers  of  death. 

In  addition  to  all  the  relief  work  which  they  have  to  do, 
the  missionaries  have  carried  forward  all  their  mission  enter- 
prises to  a  standard  of  efficiency  and  fruitfulness  which  filled 
us  with  gratitude  as  we  compared  the  work  of  today  with  the 
work  of  twenty-five  years  ago.  Then  there  were  no  Moslem 
students  in  the  schools  and  no  converted  Moslems  in  the  church 
or  helping  in  the  work.  Now  the  majority  of  the  pupils  are 
from  Mohammedan  homes.  The  daughter  of  the  most  influ- 
ential Mohammedan  ecclesiastic  is  in  the  Girls'  School.  A 
converted  mollah  is  studying  to  be  a  Christian  evangelist. 
The  leading  Persian  doctor  of  the  city  is  an  outspoken  Chris- 
tian man  who  goes  about  with  the  respect  of  every  one  wit- 
nessing to  Christ  in  the  leading  homes  of  the  city.  The  hos- 
pital and  the  dispensaries,  especially  Dr.  Vanneman's  work 

352 


for  a  generation  which  has  made  him  perhaps  the  best  known 
and  the  most  respected  citizen  of  Tabriz,  in  spite  of  the  reti- 
cent modesty  with  which  he  hides  his  Christlike  service,  are 
gathering  an  unmeasured  harvest  of  gratitude,  and  nowhere 
are  the  power  and  opportunity  of  direct  preaching  and  evan- 
gelistic work  greater  than  here.  Kasha  Auraham  Moorhatch, 
one  of  the  ablest  and  best  loved  leaders  of  the  Assyrians,  is 
carrying  on  with  rare  tact  and  with  his  extraordinary  knowl- 
edge of  Islam  and  of  the  Turkish  language  a  direct  evan- 
gelistic service  for  Mohammedans  which  is  bringing  the  Gos- 
pel to  hundreds  of  people  who  a  few  years  ago  were  wholly 
inaccessible.  The  Tabriz  station  still  needs  a  strong  body 
of  reinforcements  both  for  work  in  this  great  city,  now  so 
uniquely  accessible,  and  also  for  the  adequate  cultivation  of 
the  vast  unreached  field  through  part  of  which  we  rode  com- 
ing from  Zenjan.  It  deserves  these  reinforcements  all  the 
more  because  of  the  earnest  and  tireless  way  in  which  it  is 
employing  its  present  forces  whether  in  school  or  hospital  or 
itineration  or  city  and  personal  evangelism  to  make  Christ 
known  to  the  people  of  Azerbaijan. 

A  sayid,  a  descendant  of  Mohammed,  was  standing  at  the 
church  gate  the  first  Sunday  afternoon  when  we  were  speak- 
ing to  Mohammedans,  warning  people  not  to  go  in.  Mr.  Wil- 
son overheard  him.  "Why  do  you  say  that,"  said  he.  "Do 
you  know  what  is  being  said  inside?  Won't  you  come  in  and 
hear  for  yourself?"  So  in  he  came  and  heard  and  went  away 
not  objecting  but  pondering  what,  he  said,  seemed  to  be  true. 
"Why  did  I  come  from  Mohammed  to  Christ?"  said  one  of 
the  able  young  men  who  had  been  won,  "because  I  found  in 
Christ  the  power  of  the  new  life."  Even  so.  For  truth  and 
power  and  life  it  is  to  Christ  that  Tabriz  and  all  Persia  must 
come. 

(9)    THE  STATION  WE  COULD  NOT  VISIT 

Tiflis,  Caucasus,  April  17,  1922. 
The  station  which  we  wished  most  of  all  to  visit  is  the  only 
one  of  all  the  stations  of  our  Church  in  India  and  Persia  to 
which  we  have  not  been  able  to  go.  We  knew  that  the  way 
was  closed  when  we  left  America  last  summer,  but  we  had 
lived  in  hope  that  by  the  time  we  reached  Tabriz  the  dis- 
orders from  which  the  Urumia  plain  has  suffered  might  be 
quelled  and  that  we  might  go  in  with  one  of  the  first  parties 
to  plan  for  the  reestablishment  of  Urumia,  where  ninety  years 
ago  our  Mission  work  in  Persia  was  first  begun.  The  situa- 
tion, however,  as  we  left  Persia  was  worse  than  it  had  ever 
been.     The  Kurdish  chief,  Ismail  Agha  or  Simko,  as  he  is 

353 

12 — India   and  Persia 


usually  called,  holds  all  the  country  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Urumia  lake  from  Soujbulak  in  the  south  to  the  Salmas 
plain  on  the  north  and  has  turned  it  into  a  devastation.  The 
entire  Christian  population  had  been  driven  out  in  the  sum- 
mer of  nineteen  hundred  and  eighteen.  This  took  away  a 
great  part  of  the  most  industrious  and  prosperous  element  of 
the  population  and  left  scores  of  villages  empty  of  their  inhabi- 
tants and  the  fields  and  vineyards  destitute  of  their  cultiva- 
tors. For  a  little  time  that  section  of  the  Persian  Mohamme- 
dan population  which  wished  to  be  rid  of  the  Christians  for 
good  and  all  were  satisfied.  Its  gratification  was  of  but  short 
endurance.  The  Kurdish  invaders  with  their  Sunnee  fanati- 
cism and  fanatical  counsellors  and  with  their  instincts  of  loot 
and  destruction,  having  driven  out  the  Christians,  turned 
now  upon  the  Persian  Shiah  Mohammedans,  stripped  them 
of  their  property,  helped  themselves  to  their  wives  and  daugh- 
ters, pillaged  their  shops  and  their  homes,  tortured  out  of 
them  the  secret  of  any  hidden  wealth,  and  then  drove  out  the 
best  of  the  Moslem  population  just  as  they  had  driven  out 
the  Christians. 

While  we  were  in  Tabriz,  in  addition  to  the  conferences 
with  the  refugee  Urumia  Christians,  we  met  several  deputa- 
tions of  Urumia  Mohammedans  and  a  number  of  individual 
Mollahs  and  others,  some  of  whom  had  just  come  away  from 
Urumia,  and  again  and  again  on  the  highway  between  Kasvin 
and  Tabriz  we  met  groups  of  ragged  penniless  fugitives  who 
had  fled  from  their  village  homes  in  the  Urumia  or  Salmas 
plains  before  the  destruction  of  the  Kurds.  Mohammedan 
refugees  from  Urumia  who  had  been  among  the  wealthiest 
residents  of  Urumia  city  and  who  had  owned  rich  villages  on 
one  or  another  of  the  three  rivers  watering  the  plain,  were  now 
begging  bread  in  the  streets  of  Tabriz,  and  every  house  in 
their  villages  was  burned  down.  The  wild  boars,  they  said, 
were  rooting  up  their  vineyards,  and  the  wolves  were  com- 
ing into  the  streets  of  the  city. 

The  Near  East  Relief  having  naturally  and  properly  con- 
ceived it  to  be  its  primary  duty  to  care  for  the  Christian 
populations  of  the  Near  East,  harried  and  decimated  by 
oppression  and  cruelty,  the  Persian  Government  has  not 
unnaturally  directed  what  relief  it  could  provide  toward  these 
Moslem  refugees.  Persians  who  had  been  close  to  the  admin- 
istration to  the  funds  were  frank  to  confess  the  immense 
proportion  of  the  Government  relief  which  had  been 
eaten  up  by  officials  or  committees  through  whose  hands 
it     had     passed,     but     even     so     considerable     relief     had 

354 


been  afforded  by  the  government  through  the  retention 
in  Tabriz  with  the  authority  of  Teheran  of  a  good  frac- 
tion of  the  wheat  tax  to  be  used  to  succor  these  suffering 
Urumia  Mohammedans.  The  Persian  Government  has  also 
inaugurated  unusual  military  operations  against  Simko.  He 
is  reported  to  have  between  four  and  six  thousand  armed 
Kurdish  soldiers.  Against  these  the  Government  has  now 
mobilized  twelve  thousand,  and  these  are  waiting  at  the 
present  time  to  be  joined  by  two  or  three  thousand  more 
before  the  attack  on  Simko  is  begun.  The  Persians  declare 
that  it  is  their  intention  to  shatter  Simko's  banditry  once  for 
all.  If  they  merely  drive  him  over  the  border  into  Turkey,  as 
one  very  intelligent  man  put  it  to  us,  they  might  just  as  well 
do  nothing,  for  either  he  would  return  as  soon  as  the  Persian 
troops  withdrew  or  if  they  remained  their  presence  would 
make  the  peaceful  reoccupation  of  the  villages  and  the  indus- 
trial restoration  of  the  country  impossible.  We  could  well 
believe  this  from  our  own  observation  in  following  for  two 
weeks  in  the  train  of  the  regiments  which  had  been  moved 
from  Kasvin  to  Tabriz.  The  villages  were  ruined  behind 
them.  Many  of  the  villages  had  been  completely  deserted  by 
their  inhabitants  who  had  taken  out  the  woodwork  of  their 
houses  and  had  gone  off  with  their  remaining  possessions  to 
the  mountains  to  escape  any  further  visitations.  One  can 
hardly  wonder  at  the  depredations  of  the  troops  who  had 
been  marched  through  in  the  depth  of  winter  with  no  com- 
missary arrangements,  save  in  the  case  of  one  or  two  regi- 
ments, with  scanty  equipment,  and  with  their  pay  long  in 
arrears. 

If  Simko's  power  is  broken  and  the  Kurds  are  driven  out 
and  the  Persian  troops  are  withdrawn,  then  the  question 
remains  whether  the  former  Christian  and  Mohammedan 
inhabitants  can  go  back  to  rebuild  their  destroyed  homes  and 
to  restore  to  Urumia  the  prosperity  which  made  it  in  old  days 
the  garden  spot  of  Persia.  We  took  this  question  up  with 
the  proper  Persian  officials  in  Kermanshah,  Hamadan,  Tehe- 
ran, and  Tabriz,  and  were  assured  by  them  all  without  excep- 
tion not  only  that  the  Urumia  Christians  would  be  allowed 
to  return  but  that  they  would  be  encouraged  to  do  so.  "There 
will  be  no  opposition  to  the  return  of  the  Christians,"  said  one 
of  the  deputations,  made  up  of  some  of  the  most  responsible 
Mohammedans  from  Urumia.  "They  and  we  are  in  the  same 
situation.  We  have  suffered  together,  and  we  must  all  go 
back  and  rebuild  together.  Our  one  purpose  is  to  strengthen 
friendly  relations  between  the  two  peoples."    "I  think,"  said 

355 


the  oldest  and  most  influential  man  in  the  group,  "that  in  all 
the  world  no  people  have  suffered  as  the  Urumia  people,  Mos- 
lem and  Christian,  have  suffered.  If  nothing  is  done  by  next 
fall  to  drive  out  the  Kurds,  most  of  the  Persian  Moslems  who 
are  left  in  Urumia  will  starve."  No  doubt  there  are  Urumia 
Mohammedans  who  do  not  share  these  kindly  feelings.  I 
was  told  of  some  who  when  they  met  Assyrian  Christians  in 
Tabriz  told  them  if  they  ever  came  back  to  Urumia,  they 
would  be  hewn  in  pieces.  And  unquestionably  the  return 
of  the  refugees  will  raise  innumerable  difficult  problems  as 
to  property  rights  and  legal  relationships  and  proceedures.  It 
will  be  as  necessary  as  it  will  be  difficult  for  the  Mission  to 
hold  itself  aloof  from  entanglements  in  the  solution  of  these 
problems. 

It  has  been  inspiring  in  all  these  conferences  to  see  the 
unlimited  confidence  and  regard  in  which  the  people  both 
Moslem  and  Christian  have  held  Dr.  Packard.  Now  and  then 
it  seemed  wise  to  talk  with  the  people  without  his  presence 
in  order  to  make  sure  that  what  they  were  saying  was  not 
due  to  the  fact  that  he  was  there  to  hear.  Whether  in  his 
presence  or  alone  we  have  met  with  only  one  expression 
from  all,  an  expression  of  eager  desire  for  the  restablishment 
of  the  Mission  in  Urumia  and  for  Dr.  Packard's  return  to 
reestablish  the  medical  work.  It  is  now  as  it  was  in  Dr.  Coch- 
ran's time.  The  loving  help  of  efficient  Christian  medical 
service  has  made  itself  indispensable.  "When  are  you  coming 
back  to  stay?"  the  old  Kargozar,  the  official  who  has  charge 
of  the  interests  of  Christian  people  in  Azerbaijan,  said  to  Dr. 
Packard.  "I  do  not  like  your  waiting  in  Kermanshah.  I 
am  thinking  of  preventing  your  going  back  there  and  of  keep- 
ing you  here  now."  Of  the  many  clear  and  unmistakable 
calls  which  we  have  heard  in  Persia  no  one  has  seemed  to  us 
more  indisputable  than  the  call  to  reoccupy  Urumia  the  very 
instant  the  way  opens  to  return. 

What  one  regrets  is  that  the  political  complications  did  not 
allow  us  to  attempt  to  continue  a  medical  mission  in  Urumia 
even  through  these  bloody  days  of  Kurdish  occupation. 
Nowhere  else  in  the  world  is  such  a  mission  of  healing  and 
of  love  more  needed  this  very  day  than  among  the  Kurds  in 
Urumia  for  whom  also  Christ  died,  and  among  whom  are  so 
many  of  good  qualities  and  of  friendly  hearts. 


356 


3.    THE  NEED  AND  DESTITUTION  OF  PERSIA 

There  is  nothing  more  interesting  in  Persia  than  the  old 
Shah  Abbas  caravanserais  scattered  over  the  country  from 
the  Persian  Gulf  to  the  Caspian  Sea.  Shah  Abbas  reigned 
from  1586  to  1628.  He  was  a  contemporary  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, a  statesman,  and  a  builder.  He  founded  Bunder  Abbas, 
the  port  which  bears  his  name  on  the  Strait  of  Ormuz  as  an 
outlet  for  the  trade  of  his  country  with  Arabia  and  India, 
and  he  developed  the  caravan  routes  across  the  deserts  and 
the  mountains  of  his  far  extending  kingdom  and  scattered 
along  them  for  the  comfort  and  safety  of  travelers  the  999 
caravanserais  which,  in  spite  of  the  negligence  of  his  suc- 
cessors and  the  ravages  of  time,  stand  still  as  his  noble 
memorial.  One  wonders  how  in  the  lonely  and  desert  places 
where  so  many  of  them  are  found  his  workmen  burned  the 
brick  and  made  the  lime  and  got  the  labor  with  which  to 
construct  these  massive  and  enduring  buildings.  His  archi- 
tects were  tied  to  no  monotonous  model.  They  built  in  squares 
and  parallelograms  and  octagons  usually  with  great  open 
courtyards,  single  or  with  two  or  three  adjoining,  wide  enough 
to  hold  caravans  of  hundreds  of  camels.  Sometimes  they  built 
with  no  open  courts  at  all,  but  with  spacious  domed  roofs 
covering  recess  after  recess  in  which  hundreds  of  travelers 
with  their  animals  and  their  goods  might  find  shelter  and 
security.  Sometimes  they  laid  their  brick  in  plain  courses  and 
again  in  a  dozen  rich  designs  in  a  single  caravanserai.  Vast 
domed  stables  ran  around  the  courtyard,  and  arched  recesses 
within  and  without,  with  fire  places  set  in  the  brick  walls,  fur- 
nished lodging  places  where  men  might  sleep  with  their  cara- 
vans at  rest  beneath  their  eyes.  The  doors  in  the  great  gate- 
ways which  constituted  the  only  entrance  were  made  of  heavy 
planks  covered  with  iron  bosses  and  set  in  stone.  The  national 
life  which  produced  and  sustained  caravanserais  such  as  these 
must  have  had  a  solidity  and  volume  which  are  gone  from 
the  life  of  Persia  today.  All  over  the  land  the  fine  old  cara- 
vanserais of  Shah  Abbas's  time  are  in  ruin  and  decay.  Now 
and  then  a  shambling  stable,  set  up  in  a  corner  of  the  sturdy 
walls,  houses  the  horses  of  the  modern  Persian  Government 
Post,  and  only  the  picturesque  ruins,  a  few  local  traditions, 
and  here  and  there  a  marble  tablet  still  remaining  over  the 
gateway,  preserve  the  story  of  the  great  past  from  which 

357 


Persia  has  come  down  to  the  mean  little  mud  caravanserais 
which  are  built  today  and  abandoned  tomorrow,  to  the  help- 
lessness and  negligence  of  a  government  which  despairs  of 
doing  a  government's  work,  even  of  collecting  its  taxes,  and 
to  the  pitiful  but  appealing  destitution  of  the  Persia  of  our 
own  time. 

The  deterioration  of  Persia  has  been  a  long  process  but  not 
so  long  that  one  cannot  see  it  going  on  under  his  eyes.     Com- 
munities where  we  lodged  twenty-five  years  ago  have  nov7 
completely  disappeared,  and  on  every  one  of  the  roads  over 
which  we  passed  were  viHages  wholly  or  partly  depopulated 
because    of    agricultural    and    economic    misfortunes    which 
energy  and  forethought  might  have  forestalled  but  which  no 
one  had  made  the  least  attempt  to  prevent.     We  asked  the 
governor  of  one  of  the  largest  provinces  of  Persia  whether 
he  thought  Persia  had  advanced  during  the  last  twenty-five 
years,  and  he  answered  that  he  thought  it  had  done  so  in  the 
matter  of  political  liberty,  but  commercially  and  economically 
it  had  gone  steadily  backward.    One  must  allow  of  course  for 
Persia's  share  in  the  trade  depression  which  all  over  the  world 
has  followed  the  war.     Indeed  there  are  few  parts  of  the 
world  where  one  can  see  so  clearly  the  merciless  consequences 
of  war  upon  the  innocent.    One  feels  this  outrage  to  the  very 
roots  of  his  soul  standing  on  the  Parthenon  and  seeing  the 
wreckage  which  ancient  war  made  of  all  that  glory.     One 
ought  to  feel  it  equally  as  he  looks  at  the  ravages  of  recent 
war  in  Persia  where  it  made  a  desolation  of  the  fairest  sec- 
tion of  Azerbaijan  and  where  it  has  cut  almost  every  strand 
of  Persia's  commercial  well-being.    The  destruction  of  Russia 
alone  has  cost  Persia  more  than  a  half  of  all  its  trade  pros- 
perity.    Its  poverty  which  was  deep  enough  before  the  war 
is  still  deeper  now.     The  cities  and  villages  are  full  of  idle 
men  and  the  roads  of  travelers  who  have  left  no  work  and  are 
going  to  none.     Beggars  abound  on  every  hand.     I  think  we 
met  fewer  of  them  in  Teheran  than  in  any  other  city,  but 
they  are  lacking  nowhere.    Again  and  again  on  the  highway, 
toiling  through  the  mud  or  sitting  on  the  snowy  wastes  or 
out  in  the  deserts  we  would  come  upon  groups  of  wanderers, 
sometimes  refugees  from  the  disturbed  area  around  Urumia, 
but  more  often  mere  vagrants,  clad  in  rags  or  barely  clad  at 
all,  and  living  on  nothing  but  the  scraps  of  bread  which  they 
begged  from  place  to  place.     The  begging  is  worse  in  some 
of  the  cities,  and  of  all  the  cities  which  we  visited  it  was  worst 
in  Kasvin,  worse  there  even  than  in  Tabriz  with  its  thou- 
sands of  Assyrian,  Armenian,  and  Mohammedan  refugees.    In 

358 


Kasvin  small  children  with  bare  legs  and  bare  bodies   lay 
by  the  roadside  in  the  snow  and  mud  and  wailed  all  day  long. 
Blind  men  and  women  were  led  up  and  down  the  street  by 
ragged  children.     It  was  impossible  to  stand  still  anywhere 
because  of  the  crowd  of  paupers  which  at  once  gathered  round 
importuning  and  plucking  at  one's  garments.     We  saw  one 
old  beggar  lying  dead  on  a  snow  heap  in  the  principal  street 
of  the  city.    A  great  deal  of  this  beggary  is  professional.    For 
years  in  Hamadan  an  old,  blind,  red-headed  man  has  begged 
all  day  by  the  wall  near  the  Ottoman  Bank.    At  home  the  old 
man  is  comfortably  off  and  supports  two  wives.     In  Kasvin 
we  heard  an  old  woman  beggar  berating  across  the  street  one 
of  the  begging  children  because  she  did  her  work  so  poorly. 
"Do  you  want  me  to  come  over  there  and  twist  your  ear?" 
screamed  the  old  woman.     "Why  don't  you  attend  to  your 
business  better?"     And  Islam  fosters  this  rot  of  mendicancy 
by  making  indiscriminate  and  undirected  almsgiving  one  of 
the  five  great  religious  duties.     The   poverty  of   Persia   is 
encouraged  by  this  giving  of  doles.     It  can  never  be  eradi- 
cated in  this  way.    What  is  needed  is  a  deeper  treatment  that 
will  cut  at  the  roots  of  the  very  commonest  ideas  that  control 
conduct  in  Persia  under  the  sanctions  of  religion. 
_One  is  saddened  but  not  surprised  by  the  poverty  of  the 
country,  but  he  is  both  saddened  and  surprised  by  the  mass 
of  illiteracy  and  ignorance.     There  is  so  much  culture  and 
intelligence  and  literary  taste  in  Persia  that  one  looks  for  a 
good  local  system  of  education  and  for  a  large  percentage  of 
literacy.     There  are  no  accurate  census  returns,  nor  indeed 
any  census  returns  at  all,  but  the  accepted  estimate  of  illiter- 
acy in  the  towns  and  cities  is  95  per  cent  and  in  the  villages 
98  per  cent.     There  is  no  public  school  system  throughout 
the  country.     In  many  communities  there  are  no  schools  of 
any  kind.     In  others  the  mollahs  conduct  small  schools  for 
boys  where  the  Koran  is  unintelligently  memorized.  Real  prog- 
ress, nevertheless,  has  been  made  in  education  during  the  last 
twenty  years,  and  so  far  as  the  scanty  revenues  of  the  country 
permit,  many  communities  are  developing  schools  which  aim 
at  giving  a  modern  education.     Not  one  of  all  these  schools, 
however,  approximates  a  good  American  high  school.     The 
only  schools  of  this  quality  are  the  Mission  schools  in  Teheran, 
Tabriz,  Hamadan,  and  Isfahan. 

The  lack  of  schools  is  no  evidence  of  a  lack  of  desire  for 
them.  -  Hundreds  of  communities  want  them  who  have  no  way 
of  providing  them.  There  are  no  trained  teachers,  and  there 
are  no  funds  for  their  support.    The  internal  poverty  of  the 

359 


country  and  the  lack  of  foreign  trade  are  poor  fields  from 
which  to  reap  a  revenue.  The  Belgian  head  of  the  Persian 
customs  in  Kermanshah,  through  which  the  foreign  trade  by 
way  of  Bagdad  enters  Persia,  told  us  that  two-thirds  of  all 
Persia's  import  trade  is  now  coming  in  by  this  route,  but 
that  it  was  only  a  fraction  of  what  ought  to  enter  in  times 
of  real  prosperity.  Persia  does  not  publish  any  statement 
of  national  and  provincial  receipts  and  expenditures,  and  prob- 
ably no  one  knows  what  the  revenues  of  the  country  are. 
Taxes  that  should  be  sent  to  Teheran  are  held  for  provincial 
uses,  and  in  many  cases  the  income  of  the  central  govern- 
ment from  crown  lands  or  foreign  loans  is  expended  through 
the  provinces.  The  national  budget  submitted  to  the  last 
Me j  lis,  or  Parliament,  contemplated  an  income  of  tomans 
16,000,000  and  an  expenditure  of  tomans  19,000,000  with  no 
provision  for  the  deficit  except  the  hope  of  a  foreign  loan. 
The  income  of  the  government  is  derived  from  crown  land, 
from  import  duties,  from  taxes  on  opium  and  liquor,  and 
from  taxes,  direct  and  indirect,  upon  agriculture,  and  to  a 
very  limited  degree  on  trade.  City  property  in  a  city  like 
Tabriz,  for  example,  unless  rented  pays  no  tax.  Leading  reve- 
nue officials  said  quite  plainly  that  the  country  was  bankrupt, 
that  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  collect  the  taxes  which  were 
necessary  for  the  maintainance  of  national  and  local  govern- 
ment. In  one  of  the  largest  provinces  the  revenue  depart- 
ment was  collecting  now  only  two-fifths  of  the  amount 
assessed,  all  of  which  had  been  collected  before  the  war. 
What  import  trade  was  coming  into  the  country  helped  in 
the  matter  of  revenue,  but  on  the  national  balance  sheet  it 
was  offset  by  no  corresponding  exports,  and  the  inevitable 
result  unless  a  foreign  loan  could  be  contracted,  the  revenue 
officials  declared,  was  bankruptcy.  "For  that  matter,"  they 
said,  "the  country  is  bankrupt  now.  All  the  government  hos- 
pitals in  Teheran  are  closed  except  one  and  that  is  barely 
maintained.  The  government  schools  are  closed,  and  the  teach- 
ers unpaid.  Without  a  foreign  loan  it  will  not  be  possible 
to  maintain  the  army  which  has  been  sent  to  suppress  Simko 
and  to  restore  order  and  govern  authority  in  Urumia."  "All 
this  is  true,"  one  of  the  Swedish  officers  in  the  gendarmerie 
said  to  us.  "I  have  been  here  ten  years  and  conditions  are 
worse  than  when  I  came.  I  have  had  no  pay  for  three  months. 
The  Swedish  head  of  the  gendarmes  in  Resht  has  had  no 
pay  for  five  months,  and  many  of  the  civil  officials  in  Teheran 
have  been  unpaid  for  six  months."  Nevertheless  in  spite  of 
these  gloomy  vievs^s  the  country  is  not  bankrupt.     The  deficit 

360 


of  tomans  3,000,000,  on  a  proposed  expenditure  of  19,000,000 
and  income  of  16,000,000,  gives  a  ratio  of  revenue  to  expendi- 
ture of  81  per  cent  as  compared  with  the  corresponding  ratio 
of  50  per  cent  in  the  French  budget  for  1920,  34  per  cent  in 
the  Italian  budget,  64  per  cent  in  the  budget  of  Switzerland, 
85  per  cent  in  the  budget  of  Holland,  36  per  cent  in  the  budget 
of  Germany,  34  per  cent  in  the  budget  of  Greece.  Persia 
moreover  has  no  such  foreign  debt  as  these  other  nations  are 
attempting  to  bear.  By  her  treaty  with  Soviet  Russia  all  her 
indebtedness  to  Russia  was  obliterated.  All  that  remains  is 
the  debt  of  approximately  £4,500,000  to  Great  Britain. 
Against  this  indebtedness  and  her  adverse  trade  balances, 
Persia  has  her  almost  entirely  undeveloped  natural  resources. 
Of  these  she  has  alienated  as  yet  by  trade  concessions  only 
the  rich  oil  rights  in  southwestern  Persia  which  have  proved 
immensely  lucrative  to  the  Anglo-Persian  Oil  Company.  The 
Persian  currency  also  has  been  saved  from  debasement.  One 
shudders  to  think  what  would  have  happened  to  Persia  if  she 
had  been  cursed  with  a  paper  currency.  All  of  Persia's  money, 
however,  is  silver  money,  and  when  we  have  been  disposed 
to  complain  at  the  enormous  weight  of  two  kran  pieces  (six- 
teen cents  at  present  exchange)  which  we  have  had  to  carry, 
we  have  consoled  ourselves  with  the  thought  of  the  suffering 
and  ruin  which  Persia  has  been  spared  by  the  solidity  of  her 
national  currency.  The  contrast  with  the  currency  conditions 
in  the  Caucasus  is  tragic.  One  hardly  dare  have  gold  or 
silver  money  in  his  possession  in  the  Caucasus.  The  best 
paper  money  there  is  the  rouble  of  the  Georgian  Republic 
which  exchanged  in  April  at  the  rate  of  one  American  dollar 
for  roubles  250,000.  We  paid  for  our  railroad  tickets  in  a 
box  freight  car  from  the  Persian  border  at  Julf a  to  Erivan,  the 
capital  of  the  Armenian  Republic,  with  the  money  of  the 
Azerbaijan  Republic  whose  capital  is  at  Baku.  It  is  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty  miles  from  Julfa  to  Erivan,  and  we  paid  for 
each  ticket  2,700,000  Azerbaijan  roubles,  worth  fifty  cents 
a  million.  We  rented  a  samovar  for  breakfast  tea  for  500,000 
roubles.  Persia  has  been  spared  all  this,  and  the  government 
deserves  credit  for  its  refusal  to  take  the  paper  money  path- 
way to  apparent  prosperity  and  certain  ruin.  Furthermore 
even  though  her  foreign  trade  has  suffered  severely,  Persia 
has  escaped  the  ruinous  exchange  depreciation  of  the  conti- 
nental countries.  During  the  war  the  toman,  which  had  in 
normal  times  been  at  par  or  a  little  under  par  with  the  dollar, 
rose  to  two  dollars.  Even  as  late  as  the  summer  of  1920  the 
toman  was  worth  a  dollar  and  sixty  cents.    In  August,  1921,  it 

361 


fell  as  low  as  sixty-two  cents,  but  had  risen  again  during 
the  first  quarter  of  1922  to  eighty  cents. 

One  evening  when  we  stopped  for  the  night  in  an  unusually 
prosperous  village  on  the  road  between  Teheran  and  Tabriz, 
we  were  hardly  settled  in  our  menzil  before  the  governor  of 
the  district  called.  He  had  had  a  son  in  one  of  the  Mission 
schools,  and,  as  emerged  at  the  close  of  the  call,  he  was 
desirous  of  consulting  Dr.  Packard  professionally.  He  began 
with  pleasant  and  friendly  words  of  appreciation  and  of  under- 
standing. We  were  of  one  heart,  said  he,  he  and  we.  He 
knew  the  ideas  that  were  in  our  mind  and  the  purposes  which 
had  brought  us  to  Persia,  and  he  approved  of  these.  I  asked 
him  if  he  felt  hopeful  about  his  country.  "I  have  no  hope 
at  all,"  said  he,  "unless  some  civilized  nation  will  put  Persia 
upon  its  feet."  Which  one  of  the  nations  might  be  expected 
to  do  this,  we  asked  him.  "There  is  only  one,"  said  he,  "and 
that  is  America.  It  is  the  richest  and  the  most  civilized  of 
the  nations,  and  it  has  no  axe  to  grind.  Its  purposes  are 
unselfish  purposes.  Our  hope  is  in  America."  I  said  that  it 
was  a  doubtful  hope,  that  politically  our  country  would  not 
intervene,  and  that  commercially,  if  American  trade  came,  it 
would  come,  to  be  sure,  for  the  mutual  profit  of  the  two  coun- 
tries, and  if  the  best  American  spirit  controlled  it,  it  would 
not  seek  to  exploit  Persia  or  to  take  advantage  of  her,  but 
would  develop  an  honorable  interchange  which  would  help 
both  countries,  that  there  was  an  ever  increasing  number  of 
men  in  America  who  realized  that  trade  did  not  mean  defraud- 
ing one  country  for  the  benefit  of  another  but  mutual  benefit 
to  both.  Nevertheless  there  were  many  who  were  still  ungov- 
erned  by  this  spirit,  and  it  was  not  unlikely  that  some  might 
come  who  would  seek  only  to  gain  and  not  to  give ;  that  there 
were  not  many  enterprises  like  the  Mission  enterprise  whose 
only  motive  was  to  serve  and  which  sought  only  to  give  and 
not  to  gain.  Yes,  he  said,  he  understood  this,  and  he  and  the 
missionaries  were  of  one  mind,  but  he  believed  that  America 
was  unselfish  and  he  knew  that  it  was  wealthy,  and  it  was  best 
for  a  poor  man  and  a  rich  man  to  walk  together.  America 
wanted  no  Persian  territory,  and  Persia  wanted  American 
help.  I  asked  him  if  the  country  had  gone  backward  or 
forward  within  his  memory.  In  its  military  organization,  the 
gendarmerie  and  the  army,  it  had  gone  on.  In  its  revenue 
and  its  commerce,  no.  It  was  difficult  to  collect  the  old  taxes 
of  wheat  and  barley  and  money  levied  on  each  village.  The 
new  taxes  on  rented  properties  in  cities,  on  opium  and  liquor, 
and  on  each  load  of  merchandise  or  grain  entering  a  city  were 

362 


more  readily  collectible,  but  altogether  they  were  insufficient 
for  the  necessities  of  government.  Did  he  not  think,  we 
inquired,  that  perhaps  some  of  the  taxes  restrained  pros- 
perity? In  America  cities  sought  to  attract  trade,  and  instead 
of  raising  barriers  against  it  or  imposing  a  fine  upon  its 
entrance,  encouraged  it  in  every  way.  Yes,  he  said,  there  were 
educated  men  in  Persia  who,  like  himself,  understood  enough 
of  economics  to  realize  that  there  were  better  ways,  but  they 
could  not  change  things  now.  I  told  him  that  my  impression 
was  that  in  twenty-five  years  poverty  and  tolerance  had  both 
greatly  increased  in  Persia.  This  was  his  judgment  also. 
What  then  were  the  causes  of  this  poverty  and  why  had  the 
caravanserais  of  Shah  Abbas  fallen  into  decay?  What 
explained  the  difference  between  those  noble  old  buildings  and 
the  cheap  mud  caravanserais  of  today?  "I  think  of  three 
reasons,"  he  replied.  "In  the  first  place  the  population  has 
increased.  Persia  then  had  an  even  larger  area  than  now, 
with  greater  agricultural  wealth  and  with  a  much  smaller 
number  of  people,  so  that  there  was  more  general  pros- 
perity. In  the  second  place  the  cost  of  government  is  now 
much  greater  than  it  was  then.  There  was  more  centralized 
authority  and  control  and  the  Shah  had  money  for  the  build- 
ing and  the  upkeep  of  the  caravanserais  which  he  scattered 
all  over  the  land.  In  the  third  place  there  was  less  rebellion 
and  political  unsettlement  and  provincial  independence  then 
than  now.  There  were  poorer  firearms,  and  people  like  the 
Shahsavans  and  Shekoik  Kurds  could  not  harrass  trade  and 
keep  the  country  in  turmoil  as  they  do  today.  But  we  are 
hoping  for  better  days  now  with  our  new  army."  We  asked 
him  about  this  new  army  knowing  that  a  good  part  of  it  had 
passed  through  his  village  on  its  way  westward.  We  had 
seen  the  closed  tea  houses  and  the  abandoned  villages  through 
which  it  had  passed.  Yes,  he  admitted,  there  was  still  a  great 
deal  to  be  done.  The  army  had  no  adequate  commissary. 
Some  officer  came  on  one  day  ahead  of  his  regiment  and 
had  to  gather  food  for  it  as  best  he  could.  In  the  case  of 
one  regiment  there  had  been  payment.  Another  had  come 
from  Resht  and  had  brought  its  own  rice.  A  third  had  come 
with  no  advance  commissary  preparations  at  all,  bringing 
nothing  with  it  and  living  off  the  country  it  came  through. 
What  else  indeed  could  the  soldiers  do? 

Our  good  friend's  analysis  could  be  subjected  to  criticism 
in  a  number  of  particulars,  but  there  is  a  great  deal  of  truth 
in  it.  Government  in  Persia  has  been  both  arbitrary  and 
Uberal.     In  the  old  days  the  Shah  had  absolute  power,  and 

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the  political  system  consisted  in  the  sale  of  this  power  from 
the  top  all  the  way  down  to  the  village  khoda,  each  purchaser 
recouping  himself  for  his  expenditure  as  quickly  as  possible 
by  the  exercise  of  his  authority,  not  knowing  when  he  should 
be  bought  out  of  his  place  by  his  successor.  The  system  made 
no  provision  for  schools,  communications,  public  improve- 
ments, or  any  of  the  functions  of  a  progressive  modern  gov- 
ernment. Apart  from  its  financial  exactions,  however,  it  did 
allow  a  great  measure  of  freedom,  and  both  from  Turkey  and 
from  Afghanistan  those  who  desired  some  measure  of  liberty 
were  sure  to  find  it  by  crossing  the  border.  The  old  abso- 
lutism of  the  Shah  is  gone  and  with  it  the  diffusion  of  his 
autocracy  among  lower  officials  is  going.  There  seems  to  be 
much  less  of  the  old  system  of  bribery  and  recovery  of  the 
bribe  by  financial  extortion.  The  establishment  of  the  consti- 
tution in  1906  and  the  meetings  of  the  Mejlis,  or  parliament, 
even  though  there  have  been  but  four  of  these  in  sixteen  years, 
have  in  part  expressed  and  in  part  engenderd  a  new  spirit 
of  popular  freedom  and  political  responsibility.  The  whole 
system  of  government  is  still  very  loose- jointed  and  irregular 
in  comparison  with  the  old  system  of  regularized  corruption, 
but  great  progress  has  been  made,  and  there  is  intelligence 
enough,  if  character  also  can  be  found,  to  assure  the  future 
progress  of  the  country  in  orderly  and  constitutional  self- 
government.  It  has  before  it  the  problem  of  every  weak  gov- 
ernment dealing  with  large  territories  with  inadequate  means 
of  communication.  A  man  like  Mohammed  Taghi  or  Ismael 
Agha,  the  former  in  Meshed  and  the  latter  in  Urumia,  very 
different  men  at  the  two  extremes  of  the  country,  defends 
his  revolt  against  the  central  government  in  Teheran  with 
obvious  arguments.  The  first  answer  to  these  arguments 
must  be  honest  and  capable  central  government.  The  second 
answer  is  the  assertion  of  the  central  authority  in  the  effec- 
tive military .  control  of  disorder.  And  the  third  is  the 
improvement  of  communications.  A  fourth,  which  ought  not 
to  be  last  in  time,  is  the  adequate  support  of  education. 

Almost  every  Persian  official  with  whom  we  spoke  with 
regard  to  the  progress  of  Persia  cited  the  development  of  the 
Persian  army.  This  has  been  something  that  the  Persians 
could  see.  It  has  been  associated  with  the  rise  of  Reza  Khan, 
the  present  Minister  of  War,  who  is  said  to  be  unable  to  read 
and  write  but  who  is  a  man  of  great  force  and  power,  and 
who  has  risen  from  the  common  ranks  to  be  the  outstanding 
personality  in  Persia  at  the  present  time.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  he  will  not  use  his  power  in  any  foolish  or  harmful  way. 

364 


There  is  no  evidence  that  he  intends  to  do  so.  His  one  pur- 
pose thus  far  appears  to  be  to  repress  disorder  and  to  maintain 
the  proper  authority  of  the  government.  I  saw  the  Persian 
army  in  the  old  unkempt  drill  s(iuare  in  Teheran  twenty-five 
years  ago  and  I  saw  it  again  on  this  visit,  and  it  is  a  new  drill 
square,  and  a  new  army  very  creditable  to  those  who  have 
developed  it  and  quite  adequate  now,  one  would  hope,  after 
order  is  established  in  Urumia,  and  without  further  expan- 
sion, to  furnish  the  police  force  needed  to  repress  brigandage 
and  to  maintain  peace  throughout  the  country.  The  gendar- 
merie is  a  police  force  begun  by  Mr.  Shuster  to  aid  in  the  reve- 
nue department.  It  has  been  officered  and  taught  by  a  Swedish 
personnel  who  are  now  being  released,  and  the  body  which 
they  built  up  has  been  incorporated  with  the  army.  Just  prior 
to  the  incorporation  and  a  few  weeks  before  we  reached  Tabriz 
local  anti-government  leaders  made  use  of  the  gendarmes  in 
a  political  coup  which  was  only  frustrated  by  the  recall  of 
troops  which  were  in  the  field  against  Ismael  Agha. 

If  the  Persian  army  is  not  needed  to  repress  disorder  there 
is  certainly  no  better  use  to  which  it  could  be  put  than  build- 
ing roads.  Persia  has  no  roads  except  those  which  Russia  and 
Great  Britain  built  for  her  before  and  during  the  war  from 
Enzeli  to  Kasvin,  from  Teheran  to  Hamadan  and  Tairuk,  from 
Julfa  to  Tabriz  and  from  Seistan  to  Meshed.  A  few  excep- 
tions should  be  made  to  this  statement,  such  as  the  wide 
straight  road  from  Teheran  to  Kasvin  and  the  road 
which  the  strong  old  governor  of  Meshed,  Neir-i-Dowleh, 
built  from  Meshed  to  Sharifabad,  the  road  from  Teheran 
south  to  Kum,  and  the  stone  road  over  the  Kaflan  Kuh 
Pass.  With  these  exceptions  there  are  no  made  roads  in 
northern  Persia  at  least.  The  want  of  good  roads  makes 
both  travel  and  the  transport  of  goods  difficult  and  expensive. 
It  took  us  a  fortnight  in  the  month  of  March,  traveling  stead- 
ily in  all  kinds  of  weather  to  cover  the  three  hundred  miles 
between  Kasvin  and  Tabriz.  This  was  as  fast  as  ordinary 
caravans  would  have  traveled  in  the  best  weather.  It  was 
over  the  only  road  between  the  two  chief  cities  of  Persia. 
Even  when  roads  and  bridges  have  been  once  built,  they  have 
not  been  kept  in  order.  There  is  a  magnificent  old  arched 
brick  bridge  over  the  Karangu  river  just  east  of  Mianeh.  The 
approaches  are  fast  falling  into  ruin,  and  not  a  hand  is  lifted 
to  maintain  the  beautiful  old  structure  which  is  necessary  to 
travel  and  commerce.  Many  streams  are  wholly  unbridged. 
Gullies  are  allowed  to  deepen  until  the  road  is  entirely 
destroyed  and  a  circuitous  route  has  to  be  found.    Bogs  that 

365 


could  easily  have  been  crossed  by  causeways  are  allowed  to 
grow  into  hopeless  morasses.  Nothing  but  the  patience  and 
sense  of  helplessness  bred  into  camels  and  donkeys  and  horses 
and  men  by  centuries  of  suffering  and  endurance  could  keep 
Persia's  trade  moving  at  all  over  its  execrable  highways.  "I 
know  that  our  country  is  backward,"  said  one  Paris  educated 
governor,  "and  it  is  chiefly  because  of  our  roads."  A  thought- 
ful Persian  will  defend  his  country  from  the  disgrace  of  its 
roads  by  pointing  out  that  the  people  have  never  used  wheeled 
vehicles,  that  all  travel  and  traffic  has  been  by  caravan,  that 
the  feet  of  the  animals  preferred  soft  desert  trails  to  metaled 
roads,  and  that  the  population  is  sparse  and  unable  to  build  or 
maintain  the  necessary  highways.  On  the  other  hand  the 
climate  is  not  unfavorable  to  the  preservation  of  good  roads; 
road  material  is  always  near  at  hand  for  building  and  repairs ; 
the  Mohammedan  religion  requires  pilgrimages  and  ought  to 
have  been  the  great  road-building  faith ;  and  the  terrible  roads 
which  the  country  has  endured  for  unnumbered  centuries 
have  cost  far  more  in  the  lives  of  animals  and  of  men  and 
in  the  price  of  merchandise  than  it  would  have  cost  to  build 
and  maintain  the  few  good  highways  which  the  country  needs. 
But  the  lack  of  roads  in  its  relation  to  national  prosperity 
and  character  is  not  so  much  a  cause  as  an  effect.  One  must 
look  deeper  than  this  for  the  reasons  for  Persia's  decline,  for 
her  loss,  like  Spain's  and  Portugal's,  of  the  great  place  which 
she  once  filled.  Some  attribute  it  to  the  breaking  down  of 
the  nation's  physical  health.  What  forces  could  have  done 
this?  We  asked  the  doctors  whether  the  indolence  and  anemia 
of  so  much  of  the  population  could  be  due  to  hook  worm,  to 
which  similar  conditions  are  traced  in  many  other  lands.  No, 
the  doctors  said,  hook  worm  was  practically  unknown.  For 
some  years  the  doctors,  both  Persian  and  foreign,  had  been 
seeking  for  it,  and  only  one  had  encountered  it.  Malaria,  they 
said,  had  been  the  great  curse  of  Persia,  malaria  and  unname- 
able  diseases,  which  have  always  flourished  in  Mohammedan 
lands.  The  pilgrimages  also  as  in  Arabia  had  been  a  great 
source  of  moral  and  physical  contagion.  Meshed,  as  the  great- 
est, has  been  the  worst  of  the  shrine  cities  in  Persia  in  this 
regard,  maintaining  a  host  of  mosque  women  for  temporary 
.marriage  to  pilgrims.  As  much  guilt  probably  must  be  laid 
to  opium  as  to  malaria.  The  doctors  differ  as  to  the  extent 
of  its  use,  which  no  doubt  varies  greatly  in  different  sec- 
tions of  the  country.  In  some  sections  it  is  almost  universal. 
It  is  used  much  less,  one  would  judge,  in  western  Persia.  In 
one  hospital  it  was  found  that  95  per  cent  of  the  children  who 

366 


were  brought  in  had  been  given  opium  at  home.  Often  times 
a  traveler  discovers  that  what  he  took  for  incompetence  or 
stupidity  was  nothing  but  the  torpor  of  opium.  But  opium 
also  is  a  symptom  rather  than  a  cause  of  national  degeneracy. 
There  are  moral  reasons,  found  in  the  ignorance  of  the  people, 
especially  of  the  women,  in  bad  government,  in  falsehood  and 
dishonesty,  in  religious  tyranny  and  corruption. 

Something  more  may  be  said  about  each  of  these.     Thp 
want  of  activity  and  of  enterprise  is  due  in  part  to  the  want 
of  probity  and  confidence.    Of  course  Persian  society  could  not 
hold  together  at  all  without  certain  forms  of  trust,  but  it  can- 
not progress  without  far  more  trust  and  trustworthiness  than 
are  found  in   Persia  today.     We  were  welcomed   when   we 
entered  Tabriz  by  the  head  of  the  municipality,  surrounded 
by  the  leading  merchants  and  bankers  of  the  city,  in  a  beau- 
tiful garden.    As  we  left  Tabriz  a  fortnight  later  our  host  was 
in  prison  under  accusation  of  having  "eaten"  some  sixty  thou- 
sand dollars  of  wheat  revenue.     I  do  not  know  whether  he 
was  guilty  but  this  sort  of  thing  in  Persia  is  too  common. 
Islam  also  has  unquestionably  worked  as  an  influence  of  dis- 
integration and  corruption  in  Persian  character.     There  is  a 
great  deal  that  is  noble  in  Mohammedanism  and  in  the  Koran, 
and  one  is  glad  to  recognize  all  these  elements  of  nobility  and 
power ;  but  on  the  other  hand  both  the  teachings  and  the  teach- 
ers of  Islam  have  wrought  evil  in   Persian  life.     Emerson 
could  never  have  likened  the  Days  that  looked  scornfully  on 
the  loss  of  opportunity,  to  Dervishes  if  he  had  known  Persia. 
"It  is  the  mollahs  and  the  mujtahids  who  have  been  the  great 
enemies  of  education,  at  least  of  modern  education  and  the 
education  of  women,"  one  of  the  most  intelligent  of  the  men 
we  met  declared.    For  a  generation  now,  however,  the  Moham- 
medan ecclesiastical  power  has  been  breaking  down.     For  a 
long  time  the  rift  has  been  opening  between  the  urf  or  civil 
law  and  the  shar  or  ecclesiastical  law.     There  was  a  brief 
revival  of  ecclesiastical  prestige  when  the  mollahs  led  the 
popular  opposition  to  the  proposed  Tobacco  Regie  monopoly 
supported   by   the   government   a  generation   ago,   but   this 
prestige  soon  waned,  and  although  mollahs  and  mujtahids 
exercise,  and  not  unjustly,  because  of  their  gifts,  a  large  public 
influence  and  fill  a  disproportionate  place  in  the  Mejlis,  never- 
theless it  is  upon  a  democratic  basis  that  they  now  have  to 
maintain  their  influence,  and  what  they  will  have  to  reckon 
upon  increasingly  will  be  popular  prejudice  and  not  privilege 
or  prestige. 

We  could  not  but  feel  sorry  as  we  travelled  over  the  country 

367 


to  see  the  disrespect  in  which  the  Shah  is  held.  Poor  and 
weak  as  liis  government  has  been,  one  would  still  like  to 
find  that  he  had  held  in  some  way  the  good  will  of  his  people. 
We  met  one  old  farmer  one  day  who  spoke  of  him  with  real 
regard  and  who  pointed  out  the  energy  with  which  he  had 
developed  an  army  and  was  trying  to  put  down  disorder.  He 
did  not  know  that  the  Shah  was  far  away  from  his  country 
and  bearing  no  share  in  meeting  its  great  difl^iculties.  Several 
times  I  spoke  to  groups  of  young  men  with  regard  to  Persia 
and  always  referred  to  the  Shah  in  the  respectful  way  in 
which  it  seemed  to  me  the  ruler  of  a  country  should  be  spoken 
of.  In  each  case  the  young  men  listened  without  response 
and  afterwards  expressed  amazement  that  any  one  should 
speak  in  such  a  tone  with  regard  to  the  Shah.  In  this  and 
in  a  score  of  other  ways  I  reflected  one  afternoon  as  I  walked 
along  the  road  alone,  how  different  is  Persia  from  Siam !  In 
many  respects  the  two  countries  are  in  similar  position.  They 
are  very  much  alike  in  area  and  population.  They  have  had 
similar  external  political  problems  to  face.  Each  bears  the 
burden  of  an  anesthetizing  and  sterilizing  rehgion.  Each 
copes  with  the  problem  of  national  illiteracy  and  ignorance, 
of  lack  of  communications,  and  of  the  consequences  of  gen- 
erations of  autocracy.  In  meeting  all  these  problems  Persia 
has  distinct  advantages  over  Siam  in  climate,  in  proximity 
to  markets,  in  the  character  of  the  national  stock,  in  energy 
and  industry,  in  a  larger  class  of  alert  and  intelligent  men  of 
modern  outlook  and  experience,  and  in  the  stimulus  of  con- 
stitutional government  and  parliamentary  institutions,  and 
yet  in  efficiency  and  achievement  the  Siamese  government  has 
completely  outdistanced  the  Persian.  It  has  developed  efficient 
and  honest  administration.  It  has  solved  its  external  political 
problems.  It  is  seeking  to  abolish  the  opium  traffic  and  to 
cancel  the  item  of  opium  excise  in  the  government  revenues. 
It  has  begun  the  establishment  of  a  good  school  system. 
It  has  a  small  army  not  less  efficiently  equipped  and  organized 
than  Persia's  and  with  a  flying  corps  which  Persia  lacks. 
Persia  has  no  railroads  except  the  line  between  Julf^  and 
Tabriz  which  Russia  built  and  operates,  while  Siam  now  has 
an  excellent  and  well  maintained  railway  system  from  its 
southern  boundary  in  the  Melay  Peninsula  to  Bangkok  and 
from  Bangkok  north  through  the  heart  of  the  country  to 
Chieng  Mai.  And  the  contrast  is  vivid  between  the  rulers  of 
the  two  lands,  the  uneducated  Shah  and  the  king  who  was 
trained  at  Oxford,  the  Shah  with  his  harem  and  the  bachelor 
King  who  has  said  that  he  did  not  intend  to  be  married  until 

368 


he  could  abjure  the  polygamous  precedents  of  his  fathers,  and 
whose  good  name  in  Siam  is  free  from  scandal ;  and  the  Shah 
who  has  but  little  to  do  with  his  own  government  and  who  is 
now  far  away  from  its  problems  in  Paris  and  the  King  who 
is  the  actual  administrative  force  in  Siam  devoting  himself 
unremittingly  to  the  interests  of  his  country.  What  might  not 
the  Shah  do  for  Persia  if  he  would  follow  such  an  example  as 
this  and  give  himself  to  the  service  of  his  needy  and  lovable 
people  ? 

But  the  great  weight  which  holds  all  Moslem  peoples  down 
beyond  all  hope  and  from  which  they  must  free  themselves  if 
they  are  to  rise  and  go  forward  is  the  subordination  of  woman. 
It  may  well  be  that  in  the  Arabia  of  the  seventh  century 
Mohammedanism  was  a  boon  to  women,  giving  them  a  pro- 
tection which  they  had  not  possessed  before  and  diminishing 
the  wrongs  and  inequalities  from  which  they  suffered.  There 
are  those  who  hold  a  contrary  view.  Be  the  truth  what  it 
may  about  the  seventh  century  in  Arabia,  it  is  certain  that 
in  Persia  and  Turkey  today  the  forces  and  conceptions  which 
hold  women  down,  by  the  same  grasp  hold  society  back.  "The 
great  intolerance  of  Mohammedanism,"  says  Professor  Flin- 
ders Petrie,  ''and  the  lower  position  accorded  in  law  and  prac- 
tice to  women  will  always  be  a  bar  to  its  surpassing  in  civiliza- 
tion the  races  of  other  creeds."  Both  in  Persia  and  in  Turkey 
the  women  are  already  beginning  to  cast  off  the  old  shackles. 
As  we  came  out  of  the  mosque  of  St.  Sophia  in  Constantinpole, 
we  met  a  company  of  seventy  or  eighty  Moslem  school  girls 
coming  in  in  a  body.  They  wore  their  black  tcharscheffs  but 
not  over  their  faces.  As  they  went  by  with  their  laughing 
eyes  and  ruddy  cheeks  unconcealed,  they  vividly  illustrated 
the  change  that  is  taking  place.  The  old  ideas  still  hold  with 
such  a  tenacious  grip,  however,  that  many  Moslem  women 
have  no  hope.  One  of  the  ablest  apologists  for  the  old  order 
in  Tabriz  is  a  Mohammedan  woman  who  was  educated  in 
Europe  and  who  returned  with  bold  ideas  which  she  has 
come  to  despair  of  realizing,  and  who  is  now  preaching  the 
doctrine  of  resignation  to  the  inevitable.  The  subjugation  of 
women  to  the  ownership  of  man  is  not  inevitable,  however. 
It  is  inevitable  that  human  society  will  ultimately  rebel 
against  any  estimate  of  woman  which  prevents  her  rendering 
her  full  service  towards  social  progress.  It  is  a  tribute  to  the 
durability  of  the  fine  elements  in  womanhood  that  they  have 
not  been  crushed  out  under  the  influences  of  Islam,  and  no 
small  part  of  Persia's  hope  is  to  be  found  in  the  undestroyed 
capacities  of  Persian  women.     And  it  is  a  grave  mistake  to 

369 


take  a  discouraged  view  of  Persia  or  of  the  Persian  people. 
One  of  the  ablest  and  most  detached  students  of  Persia  told 
rne  that  he  attributed  the  long  decline  of  Persian  civilization 
to  dessication.     The  country  and  the  race  had  dried  out.    It 
was  clear,  he  said,  that  in  old  days  Persia  had  been  a  much 
better  forested  land,  that  the  disappearance  of  the  forests  had 
robbed  the  soil  of  necessary  nourishment  and  had  been  accom- 
panied by  a  change  of  climate  which  had  diminished  the  rain- 
fall and  dried  up  the  water  fountains  and  dessicated  the  char- 
acter of  the  people.     There  were  many  title  deeds,  he  said, 
which  forbade  the  planting  of  forests  because  of  the  shelter 
which  they  gave  to  outlaws.    Perhaps  his  judgment  is  sound, 
but  one  would  like  to  see  the  test  made  as  to  whether  the 
moral  and  physical  and  economic  forces  which  are  within 
man's  control  could  not  be  used  in  Persia  to  restore  the  pros- 
perity of  the  nation  and  to  recover  its  character.     If  it  is 
true  that  the  country  has  lost  ground  in  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century,  it  is  equally  true  that  it  has  gained  ground.     It  is 
more  intelligent  and  free  spirited.     It  has  entered  into  the 
inspiration  of  a  new  sense  of  political  rights  and  duties.     It 
knows  what  modern  education  is  and  it  wants  it  both  for 
intelligence  and  for  character.    It  has  grown  in  tolerance  and 
freedom.     Compared  with  its  neighbors  it  has  held  its  own 
in  troublous  times  not  without  skill  and  success,  and  it  is 
looking  onward  and   not  backward.     It   is   true  that   Shah 
Abbas's  caravanserais  are  in  ruins,  but  so  also  are  the  abbeys 
of  England  and  Scotland  and  the  works  of  Queen  Elizabeth's 
time,  who  built  when  Abbas  built.     And  if  old  castles  and 
villages  are  gone  in  Persia,  what  has  become  of  the  manor 
houses  and  the  villages  and  the  people  who  once  filled  the 
parish  churches  and  whose  children  cannot  fill  their  porches 
in  the  England  of  two  or  three  centuries  ago  in  the  valley  of 
the  Avon?  (See  Cobbett,  "Rural  Rides  in  England,"  Vol.  II, 
Chap.  "Down  the  Valley  of  the  Avon  in  Wiltshire.")    No  doubt 
a  great  deal  of  Persian  stock  both  in  city  and  village  is  debili- 
tated beyond  recovery,  but  a  great  deal  of  it  is  as  sturdy 
and  vital  as  any  stock  to  be  found  anywhere,  full  of  cheerful- 
ness, long  suffering,  patience  and  good-will. 

What  Persia  needs  is  a  friend,  and  no  country  in  the  world 
is  asking  more  earnestly  for  a  friend  than  Persia  is  asking 
for  the  friendship  of  America.  Wherever  we  went,  we  were 
asked  with  regard  to  the  possibility  of  American  help  in  the 
development  of  the  resources  of  Persia.  One  old  farmer  had 
gained  the  idea  that  America  had  fully  resolved  to  do  for 
Persia  whatever  was  necessary  and  that  as  soon  as  Ismail 

370 


Agha  was  disposed  of  America  was  coming  to  build  roads  and 
to  bring  prosperity.  The  practical  hope  of  intelligent  per- 
sons was  that  the  Standard  Oil  Company  would  accept  the 
concession  which  the  Me.jlis  had  voted  to  give  it  for  the 
development  of  the  oil  resources  of  the  five  provinces  of 
Azerbaijan,  Gilan,  Mazandaran,  Astrabad,  and  Khorasan. 
There  was  not  one  dissenting  voice  among  all  those  with  whom 
we  talked  from  Meshed  to  Tabriz.  They  wanted  America's 
help.  If  America  would  not  help  them  then  they  had  no  hope 
for  the  future  of  their  country.  America  ought  to  help  them 
and  can  very  well  do  so  in  ways  which  will  be  to  Persia's 
advantage  and  her  own. 

But  Persia  needs  a  greater  friend  than  the  Standard  Oil 
Company  or  the  United  States  of  America  and  who  can  do 
more  for  her  than  build  roads  or  develop  oil  or  promote  trade. 
She  does  need  prosperity  instead  of  poverty,  but  that  will 
not  be  a  mere  economic  change.  Slie  needs  the  enlightenment, 
the  freedom,  the  purity,  the  righteousness,  the  Truth,  and  the 
Life  which  are  also  the  Way.  She  has  had  enough  of  Moham- 
med. She  needs  Christ  whom  Mohammedanism  has  praised, 
ilris-truer^ut  has  also  effaced — long  enough. 

S.  S.  Constantinople, 

Mediterranean  Sea,  May  8,  1922. 


371 


4.    THE  GROWTH  OF  TOLERANCE  AND  RELIGIOUS 
LIBERTY  IN  PERSIA 

In  November,  1896,  Dr.  Coan  of  Urumia  and  I  made  a  chap- 
par  journey  from  Hamadan  to  visit  the  missionaries  in  Tehe- 
ran. We  rode  post  horses  eastward  from  Hamadan  as  long 
as  they  were  obtainable,  changing  horses  at  the  end  of  each 
three  hours  and  covering  between  seventy  and  a  hundred 
miles  a  day.  At  the  end  of  the  third  day  post  horses  were  no 
longer  available,  and  we  covered  the  last  stage  to  Saveh, 
where  we  joined  the  great  carriage  road  running  from  Teheran 
to  Kum,  in  a  rough  cart  drawn  by  one  big  horse  between 
the  shafts  and  a  little  horse  hitched  outside  the  shaft  by  ropes. 
The  driver  of  this  equipage  assured  us  that  our  troubles  would 
be  at  an  end  when  we  reached  Saveh  at  noon,  for  there  the 
post  diligence  from  the  south  to  the  capital  would  be  waiting 
for  us,  "And  once  you  are  on  board,"  said  he,  "it  will  travel 
like  a  flame."  The  flame-like  diligence  was  not  waiting,  but 
it  toiled  in  at  midnight.  It  was  a  covered  Russian  forgan 
very  much  like  the  prairie  schooner  of  the  old  days  in  the 
West.  It  was  loaded  with  bags  and  mail  parcels,  leaving  but 
a  scanty  open  space  between  the  cargo  and  the  wooden  ribs 
over  which  the  canvas  top  was  spread.  It  had  already  a  good 
complement  of  passengers  including  three  sayids,  descendants 
of  Mohammed.  They  were  somewhat  dandified  young  men, 
wearing,  beside  the  green  sashes  that  marked  their  order, 
nice  camel  hair  abbas  and  rather  dainty  heel-less  slippers. 
They  made  it  plain  at  once  that  we  were  no  welcome  addi- 
tion to  their  company,  and  they  set  up  a  barrier  of  luggage 
across  the  wagon,  leaving  Dr.  Coan  and  me  an  isolated  sec- 
tion of  our  own  at  the  rear.  The  next  day  we  encountered 
snow  and  heavy  storms  which  almost  blocked  the  road.  I 
remember  our  finding  one  poor  traveler  dead  by  the  roadside, 
lying  cold  and  stiff  in  the  snow.  For  hours  we  trudged  along 
in  the  cold  and  wet,  stopping  in  the  roadside  tea  houses  as 
we  came  to  them  for  a  few  moments  of  warmth  and  shelter. 
We  were  all  caught  in  one  common  misery,  but  our  Moham- 
medan friends  made  it  plain  that  even  in  misery  there  was 
to  be  no  community  with  us.  We  were  bad  enough  dry,  but 
our  wet  infidelity  was  doubly  contaminating,  and  they  would 
touch  no  tea  glasses  out  of  which  we  had  drunk,  and  by  the 
tea  house  fires  drew  their  cloaks  about  them  that  they  might 

372 


not  be  defiled  by  our  touch.  Neither  food  nor  fellowship 
would  they  share  with  us,  and  not  one  human  courtesy  did 
they  show  us.  Perhaps  this  group  possessed  less  of  the  cus- 
tomary kindness  of  the  Persian  heart  than  was  usual  in  those 
days  even  among  sayids  and  mollahs,  but  in  general  their 
attitude  of  intolerance  and  bigotry  was  characteristic  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  ago.  No  doubt  there  were  many  exceptions 
and  even  then  Persian  Mohammedanism  was  far  more  kindly 
and  accessible  than  the  Sunni  Mohammedans  of  Turkey,  but 
the  day  of  toleration  and  religious  freedom  had  not  come. 

Last  February  on  our  return  journey  from  Meshed  to 
Teheran  we  had  a  very  different  experience.  For  a  week  we 
had  with  us  as  a  fellow  traveler  on  the  post  wagon  a  Moham- 
medan merchant  from  Meshed  on  his  way  to  Teheran  to  buy 
goods.  He  was  a  very  devout  man.  Morning,  afternoon,  and 
night,  when  we  stopped  to  change  horses,  he  would  wash  him- 
self, bathing  his  feet  and  washing  his  arms  from  elbow  to 
fingers,  after  the  Shiah  fashion,  and  then  before  us  all,  with- 
out either  shame  or  ostentation,  say  his  prayers.  We  sat 
together  day  after  day  in  close  and  friendly  fellowship,  shar- 
ing our  food  and  wrapping  him  in  our  own  blankets  when  the 
weather  was  too  cold  for  the  insufficient  cloaks  he  had  brought. 
One  long  afternoon  and  evening  we  were  all  drenched  together 
by  a  heavy  rain  which  ended  in  a  fierce  wind  and  sleet  so  that 
even  the  dogged  old  post  courier,  whom  nothing  could  daunt, 
was  forced  to  give  in  and  order  the  wagon  to  lay  up  at  the 
next  caravanserai  until  the  storm  should  abate.  It  turned 
out  to  be  no  caravanserai  at  all,  however,  but  only  a  desolate 
chappar  station  with  no  accommodations.  The  wagon  was 
sheltered,  in  a  roofed  passage  way,  and  the  old  courier  and 
Dr.  McDowell  of  Teheran  who  was  with  us  wrapped  them- 
selves in  their  blankets  and  slept  on  the  load.  The  three  of 
us,  however,  and  the  merchant  set  out  in  the  night  to  find, 
if  we  could,  a  tea  house  in  which  to  dry  out  and  rest.  Through 
the  whistling  wind  and  rain  and  the  mud  and  a  little  running 
stream  we  made  our  way  to  a  closed  tea  house  which  the  mer- 
chant got  open  for  us.  Then  he  had  fires  built  at  which  he 
helped  us  to  dry  our  wet  clothes,  arranged  places  where  we 
could  lie  down  for  a  little  sleep,  got  tea  for  us  with  his  own 
hands,  and  then  insisted  on  carrying  a  pot  of  tea  out  through 
the  stormy  night  to  Dr.  McDowell.  No  mother  could  have 
been  more  solicitous  for  her  children,  more  full  of  tender  and 
loving  care  than  the  good  man  was  of  us.  He  was  as  devout 
a  Moslem  as  we  had  met,  and  he  lived  in  the  most  sacred  city 
of  Persia.    The  whole  week  that  we  were  together  he  treated 

373 


us  as  his  brothers  and  friends  and  we  said  good-bye  to  him  at 
last  with  what,  I  am  sure,  was  genuine  mutual  affection  and 
sincere  regret  that  we  would  never  meet  again.  As  we  sat 
together  in  our  wet  clothes  around  the  little  brazier  fire  in 
the  tea  house  at  Mehman  Dust  I  recalled  the  experience  of 
twenty-five  years  ago  in  the  post  wagon  on  the  Kum  road. 
No  doubt  some  of  the  difference  between  that  experience  and 
this  was  due  to  differences  in  personal  character,  but  unques- 
tionably also  the  two  experiences  are  representative  of  the 
great  change  which  has  taken  place  in  Persia. 

The  letters  which  I  wrote  home  from  the  different  stations 
in  Persia  cite  many  instances  of  this  change  in  the  attitude 
of  the  people.  I  wish  to  bring  together  here  some  more  of 
the  evidence  which  came  to  our  attention  in  addition  to  the 
station  letters  and  the  testimony  which  I  have  set  down  in 
"Talks  with  Mohammedan  Converts  in  Persia." 

There  could  be  no  more  notable  indication  of  the  change 
which  is  passing  over  Persia  than  is  found  in  the  increased 
freedom  of  women.  For  a  long  time  the  influence  of  the 
mollahs  resisted  the  education  of  girls,  but  within  the  last 
few  years  mollahs  who  undertook  to  resist  the  movement  have 
been  openly  flouted.  A  large  proportion  of  the  girls  in 
our  Mission  girls'  schools  are  now  from  Moslem  homes,  includ- 
ing the  homes  of  the  most  prominent  oflficials  and  ecclesiastics. 
They  are  all  openly  taught  the  Bible,  in  some  cases  by  well 
known  Moslem  women  who  have  become  Christians.  The  old 
limitations  of  woman's  dress  have  not  been  thrown  aside, 
but  they  have  been  greatly  relaxed,  and  the  women  are  increas- 
ingly careless  in  covering  their  faces.  Mrs.  Boyce  has  writ- 
ten out  for  us  a  short  statement  regarding  some  of  the  most 
recent  changes  in  the  life  and  interest  of  Persian  women. 

"Since  Persia  adopted  constitutional  government  in  1906, 
there  has  been  a  great  awakening  among  the  Mohammedan 
women  of  this  country.  This  awakening  has  found  expres- 
sion in  the  opening  of  many  girls'  schools  in  the  larger  cities, 
notably  in  Teheran.  Three  years  ago  the  Government  opened 
ten  free  schools  for  girls  in  Teheran  and  a  number  in  other 
places.  These  government  schools  offer  a  four  years  course 
which  a  child  would  naturally  complete  at  the  age  of  ten. 
The  private  schools  give  two  years  more.  In  connection  with 
two  private  schools  the  Government  has  established  an  addi- 
tional three-years  course,  designed  to  train  girls  for  teaching. 
A  significant  fact  about  these  higher  courses  is  that  men  are 
teaching  some  of  them ;  up  to  now  men  have  not  been  employed 
in  Persian  schools  for  girls,  except  in  our  own  Mission  schools. 

374 


About  fifty  girls  are  taking  the  advanced  courses  which  a 
girl  would  ordinarily  complete  at  the  age  of  fifteen  or  sixteen. 
French  is  taught  in  many  of  the  private  schools  but  only  as 
a  language,  not  as  a  medium  of  instruction.  There  is  no 
demand  in  these  schools  for  English.  The  only  other  train- 
ing open  to  girls  is  a  course  in  midwifery,  given  in  French 
by  a  French  woman  doctor  connected  with  one  of  the  govern- 
ment hospitals.  Judging  by  the  wonderful  progress  in  the 
last  fifteen  years,  we  can  be  very  sure  that  the  Persian  schools 
for  girls  are  going  to  increase  in  numbers  and  in  standard  of 
work  done. 

"Another  sign  of  awakening  has  been  the  publication  of 
four  papers  for  women, — the  first  in  Isfahan,  three  years  ago, 
the  second  in  Teheran,  the  third  by  the  alumnae  of  our  girls' 
school  in  Teheran,  the  fourth  appearing  in  Meshed  and  then 
moving  to  Teheran.  The  Isfahan  paper  was  suppressed 
because  the  bright  woman  who  published  it  could  not  keep  her 
pen  out  of  politics.  The  Meshed  paper  was  sensationally 
supressed  because  it  spoke  too  frankly  on  the  subject  of  free- 
dom for  women  and  aroused  the  opposition  of  the  mollahs. 
The  second  on  the  list  moved  to  Tabriz  and  probably  stopped 
for  lack  of  funds,  so  that  the  magazine  our  alumnae  are  pub- 
lishing is  the  only  surviving  member  of  the  quartette. 

"A  third  sign  of  the  times  could*  be  discerned  in  the 
anjomans  or  societies,  several  of  which  existed  in  Teheran 
last  year  and  there  were  said  to  be  some  in  other  cities.  These 
societies  were  short-lived,  as  a  change  in  the  Government  for- 
bade all  kinds  of  meetings  for  several  months.  The  purpose 
of  these  societies  was  to  work  for  the  freedom  of  women, 
especially  for  their  unveiling.  The  society  I  knew  most  about 
had  about  50  members,  men  and  women  together  with  open 
faces,  the  only  condition  being  that  every  man  who  attended 
should  be  accompanied  by  wife  or  sister  as  his  chaperon ! 
This  year  a  group  of  young  men,  graduates  of  our  boys'  school, 
have  formed  a  similar  society  among  themselves  to  work  for 
the  freedom  of  women. 

"The  unveiling  of  Mohammedan  women  in  Constantinople 
is  bound  to  have  a  great  effect  on  the  Mohammedan  women 
of  Persia.  With  the  unveiling  of  Persian  women  there  will 
come  tremendous  changes  in  the  whole  state  of  society  and 
a  demand  for  the  kind  of  education  which  will  fit  women  to 
fill  many  positions  which  the  .veil  now  prevents  and  forbids 
women  to  occupy." 

The  work  of  every  one  of  our  stations  in  Persia  is  a  witness 
to  the  new  freedom  which  has  come.     The  very  existence  of 

375 


the  Meshed  station  would  not  have  been  possible  twenty-five 
years  ago.  At  least  one  of  those  who  undertook  missionary 
work  there  in  the  early  days  had  to  be  sheltered  from  harm 
in  the  British  consulate.  No  one  would  have  dared  then  to 
rent  us  property  for  missionary  use.  Today  leading  eccle- 
siastics connected  with  the  Shrine  itself  are  ready  to  facilitate 
the  purchase  of  property  for  the  Mission.  Some  thirty  years 
ago  the  Persian  Government  demanded  the  removal  from 
Urumia  of  a  German  missionary  who  had  come  for  direct  work 
for  Moslems.  Today  we  have  been  urged  by  Persian  officials 
and  by  Moslem  ecclesiastics  not  to  let  anything  interfere  with 
the  return  of  our  Mission  to  Urumia  to  work  there  both  for 
Christians  and  for  Mohammedans.  Some  thirty  years  ago 
when  it  was  reported  to  the  Shah  that  Moslems  were  attending 
the  Mission  services  in  Teheran,  Nasr-i-din  replied,  "I  cannot 
prevent  their  hearing,  but  if  they  apostatize  let  them  beware." 
When  the  Teheran  hospital  was  built,  the  Shah  conditioned  his 
permission  for  its  building,  declaring,  "all  the  workmen  and 
servants  must  be  Mohammedans.  A  Mohammedan  chaplain 
must  be  supported  from  Mission  funds,  and  the  call  to  prayer 
must  be  regularly  sounded  in  accordance  with  the  customs 
of  Islam."  It  is  needless  to  say  that  nothing  of  the  sort  was 
ever  done,  but  the  significant  thing  is  that  the  very  idea  of 
such  conditions  as  these  would  never  enter  any  one's  mind 
today. 

The  change  that  has  taken  place  in  Tabriz  is  perhaps  even 
more  notable.  In  1874,  the  Armenian  priests  stirred  up  the 
Moslem  mujtahids,  or  ecclesiastics,  and  a  number  of  Moslems 
attending  the  services  on  Sunday  were  seized  and  beaten,  one 
of  them  to  death.  In  consequence,  more  Moslems  than  ever 
came  to  hear  the  missionaries,  and  to  learn  what  it  was  that 
so  offended  the  priests.  In  1885  again  fanaticism  broke  out, 
and  the  city  was  in  an  uproar  against  a  Moslem,  Mirza  Ali, 
who  proclaimed  belief  in  Christianity,  and  who  had  to  flee 
from  the  country.  In  1892  the  government  without  any  noti- 
fication locked  up  the  doors  of  the  church  and  school,  and 
put  red  sealing  wax  over  the  keyholes.  When  at  last  an 
explanation  could  be  obtained,  the  reasons  assigned  for  seal- 
ing up  the  buildings  were,  "lack  of  proper  permission  to 
build  the  church,  having  the  Ten  Commandments  written 
in  the  interior  of  the  church  in  a  Mohammedan  language  and 
in  the  sacred  blue  color,  having^a  water  tank  under  the  church 
in  which  to  baptize  converts,  having  a  tower  in  which  we 
intended  to  put  a  bell,  baptizing  Mussulmans,  of  whom  Mirza 
Ibrahim  was  now  in  prison,  receiving  Mussulman  boys  into 

376 


our  school  and  women  to  the  church,  having  Dr.  Bradford's 
dispensary  near  the  church."  After  explanations  and  a  long 
delay,  the  seals  were  removed,  the  government  issuing  the 
following  order  to  the  missionaries:  "That  we  must  not 
receive  Mussulman  women  and  children  to  our  schools  or 
church,  that  we  must  not  take  photographs  of  Mussulman 
women,  that  we  must  not  conduct  ourselves  contrary  to  cus- 
tom." 

Over  all  the  work  for  Mohammedans  at  that  time  hung  the 
black  shadow  of  remembrance  of  the  fate  of  Mirza  Ibrahim. 
He  was  a  Mohammedan  of  Khoi  who  found  peace  in  Christ 
for  his  troubled  heart,  and  was  publicly  baptized  in  1890. 
The  mollahs  reasoned  with  him,  and  tried  to  bribe  him.  His 
wife  and  children  left  him,  and  took  all  his  property  accord- 
ing to  Moslem  law.  While  he  was  going  about  the  village 
preaching,  he  was  arrested  and  taken  before  the  governor  in 
Urumia.  When  he  spoke  for  Christ,  saying,  "He  is  my 
Saviour,"  they  cried,  "Beat  him."  He  was  beaten  and  reviled, 
but  he  only  replied,  as  his  face  shone,  "So  was  my  Saviour 
beaten."  After  a  short  imprisonment  he  was  removed  to 
Tabriz.  As  he  was  led  away  from  the  prison,  he  solemnly 
called  his  fellow-prisoners  to  witness  that  he  was  free  from 
their  blood  if  they  should  reject  the  way  of  life,  and  "they  all 
rose  with  heavy  chains  on  their  necks  and  bade  him  go  in 
peace,  while  they  prayed  that  his  God  and  the  Saviour  whom 
he  trusted  would  protect  him."  One  of  tne  Monammedan 
officers  who  had  watched  him,  said  to  the  Mohammedan  crowd 
in  the  yard:  "This  is  a  wonderful  man.  He  is  as  brave  as 
a  lion.  A  mollah  has  just  been  trying  to  convince  him  of 
his  error,  but  he  replies  to  everything,  and  the  mollah  has  gone 
away  with  his  head  hanging  down.  He  says  that  Mohammed 
is  not  a  prophet,  and  that  unless  they  can  prove  that  he  is, 
from  the  Holy  Books,  he  will  not  give  up  his  faith  in  Christ, 
even  if  they  cut  off  his  head."  His  last  request  as  he  set  out 
for  the  capital  of  the  province  was:  "Pray  for  me  that  I  may 
be  a  witness  for  Christ  before  the  great  of  my  people.  I 
have  no  fear'though  I  know  that  I  shall  die.  Good-by."  Some 
of  the  officials  in  Tabriz  and  Urumia  seemed  to  be  in  real 
sympathy  with  the  prisoner,  but  he  was  cast  into  the  dark 
dungeon  at  Tabriz,  chained  to  vile  criminals,  beaten,  stunned 
and  deprived  of  his  clothes  and  bedding.  One  night  when 
he  witnessed  for  Christ  to  his  fellow-prisoners,  they  fell  upon 
him,  kicked  him,  and  took  turns  in  choking  him.  His  throat 
swelled  so  that  he  could  scarcely  swallow  or  speak,  and  on 
Sunday,  May  14,  1893,  he  died  from  his  injuries.     When  the 

377 


Crown  Prince  was  informed  oi!  his  death,  he  asked,  "How  did 
he  die?"    And  the  jailor  answered,  "He  died  like  a  Christian." 

"He  through  fiery  trials  trod, 

And  from  great  affliction  came; 
Now  before  the  throne  of  God, 

Sealed  with   His  almighty  name, 
Clad  in  raiment  pure  and  white, 

Victor  palms  within  his  hands. 
Through  his  dear  Redeemer's  might 

More  than  conqueror  he  stands." 

He  was  buried  by  night  in  the  grave  of  a  rich  Moslem, 
whose  body  had  been  removed.    Twenty-six  years  ago  I  went 
to  see  the  dungeon  in  which  he  had  been  imprisoned  and  where 
he  died,  but  his  grave,  it  was  said,  was  secret,  and  I  could 
not  be  taken  to  it  lest  the  betrayal  of  the  place  might  lead  to 
some  fanatical  riot.    On  this  visit  the  dungeon  was  no  longer 
to  be  seen.     Only  the  site  of  it  remained,  but  there  was  now 
no  concealment  of  the  grave,  and  the  Mohammedan  who  had 
buried  Mirza  Ibrahim  in  it,  now  a  Christian,  offered  to  take 
me  to  the  spot.     We  attended  large  gatherings  of  Moslem 
converts  and  inquirers  who  came  and  went  without  hindrance 
and  fear.     We  visited  the  tea  houses  in  the  central  bazaars 
where  the  Scriptures  were  sold  and  the  Gospel  was  preached 
not  only  without  opposition  but  so  long  as  the   work  was 
tactfully  done  with  the  thorough  good  will  of  the  people.     A 
policeman  came  into  one  of  the  tea  houses  while  we  were 
there,  and  with  a  smile  of  friendly  greeting,  bought  his  bread 
and  sat  down  while  Mr.  Wilson  and  Rabbi  Ephraim,  the  agent 
of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  sold  Scriptures  and 
read  the  story  of  our  Lord's  temptation  and  talked  about  the 
Saviour  and  offered  prayer.    Not  long  ago  one  of  the  Moslem 
converts   was   called  up   by  the   police.     "There   is   nothing 
secret,"  he  replied.     "Come  and  hear  what  is  said  and  see 
what  is  done."    In  what  was  formerly  an  inaccessible  Moham- 
medan quarter  of  the  city  there  is  now  a  flourishing  school  for 
girls  from  Moslem  homes.    We  were  taken  to  visit  it,  and  the 
visit  of  four  men  to  a  Mohammedan  girls'  school  instantly 
aroused  questioning.     A  deputation  of  ecclesiastics  called  at 
once  to  order  the  suppression  of  the  school,  but  when  it  was 
known  that  we  had  requested  the  girls  according  to  their  own 
custom  to  draw  their  chudders  over  their  faces  before  we 
came  in  a  favorable  murmur  went  about  the  city,  and  the 
school  continued  entirely  undisturbed.     "The  city  is  greatly 
pleased  with  Mr.  Speer's  visit,"  one  of  the  leading  men  told 
Dr.  Vanneman,  "because  he  told  the  Mohammedan  girls  to 
cover  their  faces  before  he  spoke  to  them  at  the  Khiaban 

378 


school."  There  are  eight  other  requests  for  similar  schools 
which  the  Mission  could  establish  if  it  were  able  to  do  so  in 
other  districts  of  Tabriz.  The  doors  are  still  wider  open,  if 
that  be  possible,  in  the  villages.  Garabed,  the  evangelist  who 
worked  for  so  many  years  with  Miss  Holiday,  told  us  of  calls 
that  had  come  for  village  schools  from  twenty-three  Moslem 
villages  in  the  district  of  Garadagh.  All  these  calls  were  sealed 
by  the  Moslem  village  masters.  He  had  a  list  of  several  hundred 
Moslem  families  who  wanted  to  move  to  some  Christian  village 
and  join  the  Christian  community  there  as  soon  as  they  had 
reaped  their  present  harvest.  He  was  meeting  with  no  oppo- 
sition either  from  the  Moslem  village  owners  or  from  the 
mollahs.  In  all  the  villages  they  were  treating  him  as  a 
friend,  entertaining  him  as  their  guest,  and  providing  for  his 
transportation  from  village  to  village. 

A  new  freedom  of  speech  has  come  in  Persia,  at  least  as 
regards  religion.  In  politics  the  censorship  is  still  rigid 
enough.  When  we  were  in  Tabriz,  every  newspaper  had  been 
suppressed.  They  will  emerge  again,  however,  and  no  doubt 
be  many  more  times  suppressed  before  the  day  of  complete 
liberty  of  political  discussion  comes.  So  far  as  religion  is  con- 
cerned no  one  who  will  behave  prudently  and  temperately  need 
fear.  One  hears  the  frankest  talk  about  Islam  from  all  classes 
of  the  people,  high  and  low.  One  of  the  most  influential  pub- 
lications is  the  "Kaveh,"  a  monthly  magazine  published  by 
young  Persians  living  in  Berlin  but  widely  circulated  in  Persia. 
Recently  it  has  printed  a  series  of  articles  entitled  "Famous 
Men  of  the  East  and  West."  The  number  of  October  3,  1921, 
contained  the  life  of  Martin  Luther.  Mr.  Donaldson  showed 
us  the  article  in  Meshed  and  summarized  its  translation  for 
us.  "It  starts  out  by  saying  that  it  is  generally  recognized 
by  European  thinkers  that  if  Martin  Luther  had  not  broken 
the  power  and  bigotry  of  the  Catholic  priesthood,  Europe 
would  not  by  any  means  have  reached  the  modern  degree  of 
civilization  and  enlightenment.  He  showed  that  there  must 
be  freedom  of  thought  in  religion  and  that  religion  in  itself 
is  not  contrary  to  reason.  His  work  was  in  the  beginning  of 
the  reign  of  reason,  when  science  and  philosophy  were  taking 
new  life,  and  with  the  new  freedom  of  thought,  the  Chris- 
tian religion  made  rapid  progress.  Accordingly  the  science, 
civilization,  and  religion  of  Christendom,  owe  an  everlasting 
debt  of  gratitude  to  Martin  Luther. 

"The  article  goes  on  to  point  out  that  in  Mohammedan  coun- 
tries today  there  are  reforms  needed  in  many  lines,  among 
which  the  following  are  mentioned: 

379 


1.  Considering  others  than  Moslems  unclean. 

2.  The  imprisonment  of  women  by  the  purdah  system. 

3.  The  legalizing  of  polygamy. 

4.  The  ease  of  divorce. 

5.  Deeming   those  of  religions   other   than   "ahl-i-kitab" 

infidels  and  worthy  of  death. 

6.  The   restriction   of   religious   teaching   to   the   Arabic 

language. 

"The  story  of  the  life  of  Martin  Luther  is  then  narrated, 
and  throughout  there  is  emphasis  on  the  necessity  for  free- 
dom of  thought  in  order  that  civilization  may  advance  and 
intellectual  progress  be  made  possible." 

Whether  or  not  Islam  is  breaking  up  in  Persia  or  elsewhere 
I  do  not  know.  A  religion  which  has  lasted  for  twelve 
hundred  years  and  which  has  laid  hold  on  personal  and  com- 
munity and  national  life  with  a  thousand  pervasive  invisible 
bonds  is  not  likely  to  break  up  over  night.  One  hears  both 
from  Mohammedans  and  others  strong  judgments  as  to  the 
decay  and  disintegration  of  Mohammedanism,  but  then  one 
hears  the  same  kind  of  talk  in  the  West  with  regard  to  the 
decay  and  disintegration  of  Christianity.  We  asked  constantly 
in  Persia  for  opinions  as  to  the  real  facts.  Were  the  pilgrim- 
ages diminishing?  Were  the  revenues  of  the  shrines  and  the 
mosques  decreasing?  Did  the  people  still  pray  in  their  homes 
or  in  their  public  places  of  prayer?  How  were  the  fasts 
observed?  What  was  the  influence  of  the  mollahs  and  the 
mujtahids?  On  these  and  similar  questions  one  could  present 
a  body  of  conflicting  testimony,  but  I  believe  the  sound  con- 
clusion is  that  Islam  as  a  religious  force  is  weakening,  but 
that  as  a  political  instrument  to  be  utilized  as  an  agency 
of  nationalism  it  has  stiffened  greatly  in  Turkey  and  India. 
The  stiffening  is  not  so  perceptible  in  Persia.  Now  and  then 
there  are  evidences  that  the  forms  of  Shiah  Mohammedanism 
are  being  encouraged  in  the  interest  of  political  nationalism, 
but  Persian  character  is  so  easy  going  and  everything  is  so 
unorganized  and  careless  in  Persian  life  that  any  galvaniza- 
tion of  Mohammedanism  in  a  political  interest  is  far  more 
than  offset  by  the  disintegrating  influences. 

These  disintegrating  influences  grow  ever  stronger  and 
stronger  and  more  outspoken.  One  of  the  papers  recently 
repressed  in  Tabriz  was  entitled  "Azad,"  or  "Freedom."  In  its 
issue  of  January  1,  1922,  appeared  the  following  article: 

"A  Medicine  for  Those  Tied  to  Moslem  Ecclesiastics.  Let 
all  Persians,  both  religious  and  irreligious,  read  this. 

380 


"Oh  Persians  of  the  Shiah  sect,  either  you  believe  or  you 
do  not  believe.  But  those  who  do  believe,  let  them  give  ear 
and  hear  what  I  am  saying.  How  unworthy  are  those  who 
confess  that  Islam  is  a  religious  system  both  spiritual  and 
worldly,  but  who  forget  that  a  tree  must  be  known  by  its 
fruits.  While,  as  you  say,  this  religion  has  the  happiness  of 
this  world  to  offer  as  well  as  the  coming  world,  yet  in  every 
point  all  Moslems  over  the  world  are  low,  poor,  unclean,  with- 
out civilization,  foolish,  ignorant  and  in  general  they  are  two 
hundred  years  behind  American  and  European  Christians 
and  even  behind  the  Zoroastrians. 

"If  it  were  only  in  some  places  that  we  found  Islam  in  this 
condition  we  might  attribute  the  results  to  some  other  reason 
but  where  we  find  Islam  everywhere  in  the  same  condition  we 
can  see  no  other  reason  but  Islam  itself.  This  appears  true 
to  every  man  who  looks  at  the  question,  because  Islam  has 
lost  the  real  Islam.  The  foundations  of  true  Islam  have  been 
dropped  and  other  superstitious  things  have  been  brought 
into  their  place. 

"We  Moslems  must  recognize  that  the  very  thing  which 
has  brought  us  to  this  point  is  that  we  have  followed  the  faith 
of  the  ecclesiastics.  Our  learned  and  able  men  have  under- 
stood that  each  age  has  its  own  ways  and  its  own  leaders  and 
therefore  every  age  must  follow  a  new  leader.  And  they 
think  that  their  command  is  the  command  of  God  and  His 
prophet.  If  the  leader  of  a  certain  age  says  that  paper  money, 
for  instance,  is  unclean;  then  no  poor  Moslem  can  touch 
paper  money  no  matter  how  useful  a  thing  it  may  be,  and  so 
of  other  things. 

"Now  let  us  see  what  great  losses  have  been  brought  in  our 
age  by  our  following  these  ecclesiastics.  Now  I  ask  you  ad- 
vocates of  Islam,  can  the  judgment  of  one  man  be  trusted 
to  such  an  extent?  Anyone  with  a  little  wisdom  will  say,  No. 
Even  more  than  that,  are  our  ecclesiastical  leaders  ready  to 
give  up  all  selfish  motives?  I  am  sorry  to  say.  No !  No !  Now 
I  pray  all  believers,  let  them  bestir,  arise  and  gird  themselves, 
and  find  the  rules  of  the  genuine  Islam  which  will  be  a  great 
help  for  us  in  this  world  and  the  one  to  come. 

"Now  for  Persians  who  have  no  religion.  You  will  say  that 
Islam  is  not  true,  but  do  we  not  need  something  to  hold  to- 
gether and  provide  for  the  welfare  and  progress  of  the  coun- 
try? You  will  say  that  we  have  no  money  and  there  is  no 
unity  in  our  country.  What  shall  we  do?  I  say  that  we  must 
come  under  the  standard  of  Islam  (but  true  Islam).  Let  us 
throw  away  this  following  of  the  mujtahids.     I  have  heard 

381 


that  once  upon  a  time  a  King  of  Persia  was  visiting  at  the 
court  of  King  William  of  Germany,  and  after  reviewing  all 
the  regiments  of  splendid  troops  he  sat  down  to  dinner  and 
spoke  to  Kaiser  William :  'What  shall  we  do  in  order  to  make 
Persia  as  successful  as  your  country?'  Kaiser  William  an- 
swered: 'You  can  not  feed  one  hundred  thousand  soldiers 
and  you  can  not  maintain  order  in  your  cities  as  we  do,  and 
you  can  not  have  manufacturing  plants  as  we  have,  but  you 
can  do  the  following  things  that  will  be  acceptable  all  over 
the  world.  First,  you  can  refuse  to  tie  yourselves  as  all  the 
followers  of  one  man  and  say  that  his  command  is  the  com- 
mand of  God  and  the  prophet,  and  second  you  can  treat  your 
various  tribes  so  that  they  will  not  be  tools  in  the  hands  of 
your  neighbor  nations.  If  you  do  these  things  I  assure  you 
that  your  kingdom  will  be  great.'  Therefore  arise  and  take 
your  sword  and  dig  up  all  those  thorns  which  have  grown 
up  around  Mohammed, — may  the  blessings  of  God  be  upon 
him  and  his  children, — so  that  we  may  be  blessed  both  in  this 
world  and  the  world  to  come.  I  shall  be  glad  to  receive  any 
suggestions  or  any  advice  from  any  reader  of  this  paper." 

I  met  the  editor  of  this  paper  and  the  writer  of  this  editorial 
and  had  several  very  interesting  conversations  with  him.  He 
does  not  believe  in  Mohammedanism  at  all.  Kasha  Moorhatch 
asked  him  with  regard  to  this  editorial,  "Do  you  really  mean 
that  there  is  a  true  Islam?"  And  he  replied,  "No,  there  is 
no  true  Islam.  I  have  merely  spoken  as  though  there  were 
to  save  my  head.  I  realize  that  there  is  no  good  in  Islam." 
And  he  told  me  quite  frankly  that  there  was  no  hope  for  Persia 
until  the  power  of  Islam  was  shattered.  If  I  were  free  to 
do  so,  I  could  quote  similar  opinions  from  some  of  the  most 
influential  leaders  of  the  Near  East. 

Among  the  Mohammedan  ecclesiastics  themselves  there  is 
growing  up  in  Persia  an  increasingly  kindly  and  tolerant 
feeling  toward  Christian  Missions.  Mollahs  who  have  acted 
as  language  teachers  to  the  new  missionaries  or  as  teachers 
of  the  Persian  language  in  the  schools  have  been  brought  near 
to  Christianity,  and  some  of  them  have  openly  accepted  it. 
We  met  mollahs  in  homes  and  in  Christian  services  who  were 
either  openly  or  at  heart  Christians,  and  we  had  friendly  talks 
with  others  who  were  ready  to  discuss  temperately  the  claims 
of  Christianity.  During  the  Turkish  occupation  of  Tabriz 
when  Dr.  Vanneman  and  Mr.  Jessup  who  had  remained  in  the 
station  were  imprisoned  by  the  Turks,  the  two  leading  mollahs 
of  the  city  were  their  strong  defenders.  One,  the  head  of  the 
largest  Shiah  sect,  openly  preached  in  the  mosque  on  their 

382 


behalf.  He  declared  that  he  had  known  Dr.  Vanneman  and 
Mr.  Jessup  ever  since  they  had  come  to  Tabriz,  and  that  he 
had  never  known  anything  but  good  of  them,  and  that  unless 
they  were  released  he  would  take  it  upon  himself  to  stir 
the  city  in  their  behalf.  The  other  was  the  head  of  another 
Shiah  sect,  and  he  went  himself  to  the  Turkish  pasha  to 
speak  for  the  missionaries.  It  was  afterwards  learned  that 
the  mollahs  and  merchants  of  the  city  had  prepared  a  paper 
to  present  in  behalf  of  Dr.  Vanneman  and  Mr.  Jessup  in  case 
they  were  courtmartialed.  In  Hamadan,  the  leading  mollah 
of  the  city  bought  for  the  station  the  land  on  which  the  hos- 
pital and  its  residences  stand,  and  turned  it  over  to  Dr.  Funk. 
At  the  time  of  the  Turkish  occupation  there  the  mollahs 
declared  to  the  Turks  that  Dr.  Funk  must  not  be  sent  away 
from  the  city.  When  Dr.  Funk  broke  his  leg  and  was  confined 
to  the  house  his  room  would  often  be  full  of  his  white  tur- 
baned  mollah  friends  who  had  come  to  inquire  after  him.  An 
endless  tale  not  of  kind  words  only  but  of  kind  deeds  also 
could  be  told,  revealing  the  ever  deepening  good  will  and  en- 
larging friendships  which  are  binding  together  the  mission- 
aries of  the  Christian  Gospel  and  these  Moslem  people  of 
Persia  who  so  greatly  need  and  so  truly  deserve  our  love  and 
help.  It  was  a  satisfaction  to  meet  especially  two  Moslems 
from  Urumia,  One  was  the  man  who  helped  Judith  David 
during  the  long  weeks  when  almost  single  handed  she  kept 
alive  a  terror  stricken  company  of  destitute  Assyrians  in 
Urumia  and  could  not  have  done  so  but  for  the  loyal  help 
of  this  humane  man  who  is  still  doing  all  that  he  can  to  pro- 
tect the  propertv  of  the  Mission  in  Urumia  and  to  assure  its 
return.  He  had  just  come  to  Tabriz  from  Urumia  and  drew 
a  vivid  picture  of  its  ruin  and  its  despair.  He  was  returning 
to  do  what  he  could  and  when  I  thanked  him  he  replied  that 
he  was  glad  to  serve  us  and  that  what  he  was  doing  was  not 
for  the  sake  of  protecting  properties  only  but  that  the  work 
of  God  in  which  he  believed  might  go  on.  The  other  man 
was  the  one  Moslem  in  Urumia  who  after  the  last  dreadful 
massacre  came  to  Dr.  Packard  and  took  him  by  the  hand  to 
escort  him  safely  out  of  the  carnage  into  the  yard  of  the 
governor. 

No  one  has  had  a  better  opportunity  to  observe  the  changes 
that  have  been  taking  place  in  Persia  in  the  past  twenty-five 
years  than  Kasha  Moorhatch,  who  after  his  education  in  the 
Mission  schools  in  Urumia,  took  his  theological  course  in  Mc- 
Cormick  Seminary,  and  has  for  twenty-five  years  been  preach- 
ing first  to  the  Assyrians  and  of  late  years  to  the  Moham- 

383 


medans  with  a  wisdom,  faithfulness  and  power  which  mark 
him  out  as  one  of  the  most  useful  evangelists  of  our  day  in 
the  missionary  approach  to  Islam.  I  asked  him  in  Tabriz 
whether  he  would  be  good  enough  to  jot  down  some  of  the 
changes  which  he  had  seen  and  the  reasons  for  them.  This  he 
was  good  enough  to  do  as  follows: 

"For  1300  years  Islam  has  been  the  seeming  insurmountable 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  Christianity  and  the  greatest  enemy  to 
be  conquered,  for  the  reason  that  Islam  has  the  appearance  of 
the  knowledge  of  God  without  the  power  and  Spirit  thereof. 
From  my  experience  of  nearly  half  a  century  as  a  preacher 
and  from  personal  knowledge  of  this  religion  and  nation.  I 
can  see  that  the  walls  of  Islam  are  tottering  to  their  fall.  The 
great  changes  could  be  arranged  under  three  heads:  Per- 
sonal, Social  and  Religious. 

"(1)  Personal  changes  or  changes  in  relation  to  the  home 
and  personal  life  in  Islam.  Not  many  years  ago  the  home  life 
and  the  way  of  living  and  dressing  among  Europeans  was  not 
only  despised  by  Islam  but  looked  upon  as  'm.urdar'  (religious- 
ly unclean).  A  real  Moslem  was  forbidden  to  dress  and 
eat  and  live  like  a  non-Moslem.  I  have  heard  Islam's  'ulema' 
(doctors  of  the  religious  law)  speak  of  Christian  dresses  as 
'murdar.'  and  so  also  Christian  food ;  but  now  you  will  see  the 
streets  full  of  Moslems  dressed  like  Europeans  with  necktie, 
collar,  etc.,  and  among  the  higher  classes  of  people  the  women 
dressed  entirely  like  Western  ladies,  although  they  do  not  go 
out  of  doors  without  being  veiled.  The  use  of  forks  and 
knives,  tables  and  chairs,  and  ornaments  in  the  house  like 
Europeans  and  the  idea  of  educating  their  women  are  growing. 

"In  recent  days  there  was  a  paper  being  published  in  Tabriz 
named  *Azad'  (Free).  In  one  of  its  numbers,  the  editor, 
although  speaking  with  'taggiyah'  stresses  very  freely  and 
boldly  the  cause  of  the  decline  of  Islam.  'It  is  Islam  itself.' 
The  present  writer  started  some  meetings  in  Teheran,  now 
continued  in  Tabriz,  in  which  the  men  and  women  sit,  talk 
and  eat  together  without  the  latter  being  covered  or  veiled. 
Although  these  meetings  are  secret,  they  are  continuing. 

"(2)  Social  Changes,  i.  e.,  in  their  relation  to  non-Moslems. 
I  remember  well  when  it  was  impossible  for  a  Christian  to 
use  the  sacred  greeting  'salam  alakum'  (Peace  be  to  you) 
to  a  Moslem.  If  by  mistake  a  Moslem  should  give  the  same 
salam  to  a  Christian,  the  Christian  had  to  suffer  for  it.  But 
today  the  use  of  this  salam  is  common  between  Moslem  and 
Christian.  Twenty  years  ago  it  was  impossible  for  a  Moslem 
to  shake  hands  with  a  Christian,  but  now,  not  only  do  they 

384 


shake  hands,  but  like  Orientals,  they  quite  often  kiss  each 
other.  Then  it  was  a  death  penalty  for  a  Christian  to  speak 
before  Moslem  fanatics  about  the  divinity  of  Christ,  but  now 
if  a  Christian  is  well  informed  in  language  and  intelligent 
in  speech,  he  can  say  openly  that  Christ  is  God-Man,  the  only 
Mediator,  outside  of  Whom  all  else  are  sinners  incapable  of 
mediatorship.  Then  it  was  impossible  to  sit  with  Moslems 
at  one  table,  but  today  among  the  higher  classes  it  is  very 
common  and  free.  Twenty  years  ago  it  was  dangerous  to 
preach  in  one  of  the  Moslem  languages  in  the  presence  of 
Moslems,  but  today  any  intelligent  man  who  knows  the  lan- 
guage can  speak  about  the  Trinity,  the  Atonement,  the  New 
Birth,  and  can  openly  condemn  Islam  as  a  religion  of  pure 
formalism. 

"(3)  Religious  Changes.  To  any  one  who  is  acquainted 
with  the  foundation  of  Islam,  it  is  clear  that  Islam  is  opposed 
to  progress,  civilization,  equality  and  freedom  and  will,  there- 
fore, never  accept  the  advances  made  by  the  intellect  and 
civilization.  Thus  said  to  me  a  man  by  birth  a  Moslem,  when 
I  asked  him  if  he  were  a  Mussulman :  'Adami  ki  yek  misgal 
agl  darad,  Mussulman  bashad?'  or  'Can  a  man  who  has  an 
ounce  of  sense  be  a  Moslem?'  In  Caucasia  the  Moslems  have 
translated  the  Koran  into  the  common  speech  although  this  is 
contrary  to  their  faith.  There  is  a  great  awakening  going 
on  showing  dissatisfaction  with  Islam.  Many  are  looking 
back  toward  Zoroastrianism ;  many  have  gone  astray  to  Ba- 
haism;  hundreds  and  thousands  have  gone  toward  rational- 
ism; many  are  awakening  to  see  the  folly  of  the  Muharrem 
and  of  pilgrimages  to  sacred  shrines.  There  is  talk  among 
the  intelligent  party  of  starting  a  Protestant  movement  in 
Islam  which  looks  toward  a  revision  of  Islam  in  order  to  reach 
the  'real  Islam.'  My  hope  is  that  they  will  continue  in  their 
search,  for  at  bottom  they  will  reach  nothing.  Oh,  how  many 
of  their  learned  Ulema  have  spoken  to  me  with  contempt  of 
the  book  'Zad-al-Ma'ad'  (Provision  for  Eternity)  ! 

"I  am  sure  that  Islam  has  reached  the  days  when  it  should 
fall.  We  need  workers — intelligent,  acquainted  with  Islam, 
and  self-sacrificial  in  spirit. 

"The  causes  of  these  changes  may  be  noted  as  follows: 

"(1)  Intermingling  with  Foreign  Nations.  In  the  last  few 
years  many  Persians  have  gone  west  for  merchandising,  edu- 
cation and  travel,  and  many  Western  people  have  come  to 
Persia  for  different  purposes.  Many  native  Christians  who 
have  been  educated  abroad  or  educated  in  mission  schools 
have  been  having  dealings  with  the  Moslems.    In  seeing  these 

385 

13 — India   and  Persia 


things  any  intelligent  Moslem  must  discover  that  there  must 
be  something  behind  Christianity  that  cannot  be  found  in 
Islam. 

"(2)  The  wide  work  of  Christian  missions.  From  these 
missions  many  influences  have  scattered  through  preaching, 
education,  medicine  and  social  life.  When  an  intelligent  nation 
like  Persia  sees  such  things  they  cannot  help  saying  there 
must  be  some  mystery  in  Christianity  undiscoverable  in  Islam. 

"(3)  The  distribution  of  so  many  thousands  of  the  Bible 
and  religious  tracts  which  give  to  mankind  the  highest  ideal 
of  life,  not  to  be  found  in  Islam. 

"(4)  The  work  of  traveling  evangelists,  who  have  preached 
the  Gospel  to  thousands  and  have  showed  by  their  lives  the 
power  that  lies  in  Christianity  and  not  in  Islam. 

"(5)  The  relief  work.  Although  some  foolish  Moslems 
have  a  superstitious  idea  that  Mohammed  compelled  the 
Christians  to  help  the  Moslem,  the  best  and  intelligent  part 
of  them  have  come  to  this  thought :  'Really  there  must  be  some- 
thing secret  in  Christianity  not  to  be  found  in  Islam.' 

"(6)  The  spirit  of  the  Persian  Constitution  (mashruta). 
This  spirit  is  the  greatest  blow  against  the  tottering  walls  of 
Islam.  The  Constitution  means  freedom,  equality,  brother- 
hood which  smite  the  foundations  of  this  false  religion.  I 
say  freely  that  Islam  and  the  spirit  of  constitutional  govern- 
ment are  incompatible  forever. 

"(7)  The  increase  of  education  in  Islam  itself.  Either 
this  was  borrowed  from  the  West  or  from  the  American  Mis- 
sion Schools,  with  the  result  that  a  great  many  schools  have 
been  started  for  boys  and  girls  on  modern  principles.  I  am 
sure  that  such  schools,  if  they  do  not  make  Christians,  will 
certainly  make  the  children  non-Moslems. 

"Advices  for  the  Future  Work. — The  plan  is  only  one, 
started  by  Christ  and  followed  by  Paul  and  his  companions, 
viz.,  to  preach  Christ  and  Him  crucified.  The  object  is  one: 
to  build  up  men  in  the  stature  of  Christ.  Suggestions:  (1) 
Let  all  the  mission  institutions,  such  as  schools,  orphanages, 
hospitals,  relief  work,  etc.,  find  their  proper  place.  Let  it  be 
known  that  these  are  not  worldly  institutions  but  Christian. 
The  object  of  missionary  work  is  not  education  of  the  world 
but  to  lead  the  world  to  Christ. 

"(2)  It  seems  to  me  that  the  time  has  arrived  when  instead 
of  dissipating  our  efforts  in  unrelated  tours  in  which  the  one 
touring  spends  only  a  few  days  in  a  place  and  passes  on  to 
forget  it  for  years  to  come,  we  should  concentrate  our  efforts 
and  systematize  them  by  placing  a  missionary  and  a  native 

386 


helper  in  centers  which  can  be  used  as  a  base  of  operations 
for  the  methodical  touring  of  a  whole  district. 

"(3)  A  special  effort  for  the  distribution  of  the  Bible  and 
tracts. 

"(4)  To  use  as  workers  those  who  are  orthodox  in  faith, 
zealous  in  the  work,  loving  in  their  social  life,  skilled  in  preach- 
ing, acquainted  with  Islam,  filled  with  the  Spirit  and  self- 
sacrificing. 

"(5)  Great  caution  should  be  used  in  building  the  founda- 
tions of  the  Islam  'Church,'  because  this  nation  believes  and 
works  by  'taggiyah'  (which  permits  freedom  to  lie  if  to  gain 
a  personal  end  favorable  to  one's  self)  under  which  wolves 
may  creep  in  under  the  guise  of  sheep.  Therefore  there  must 
be  care  and  patience  and  examination  into  the  real  character 
and  motive  of  those  accepted  into  the  church  as  proselytes 
from  Islam  lest  later  we  be  shamed  before  God  and  men  by 
too  hasty  admission  of  unworthy  members.  I  cannot  stress 
this  point  too  strongly.  Be  sure  that  undue  haste  will  bring 
us  into  unpardonable  mistake." 

Kasha  Moorhatch's  analysis  of  the  causes  was  confirmed  by 
many  others.  There  has  been  a  great  seepage  of  Christian 
conceptions  into  Persia.  The  mollahs  have  been  judged  by 
new  canons  of  character,  and  western  conceptions  of  the  sepa- 
ration of  the  Church  and  State  have  cut  at  the  very  founda- 
tion of  the  Mohammedan  principle  of  their  identification.  As 
I  sat  in  the  Persian  parlament  one  evening  and  saw  the  score 
of  mollahs  there,  constituting  a  small  minority,  and  listened 
to  one  of  their  number  debating  ineffectually  before  a  body 
which  was  regarding  him  not  as  a  mollah  but  as  a  man,  I 
realized  afresh  over  how  wide  a  space  the  thought  and  life 
of  Persia  had  passed  since  the  young  sayids  folded  up  their 
privilege  in  their  brown  abbas  in  the  tea  houses  on  the  Kum 
road  twenty-five  years  ago.  There  is  opposition  and  diflficulty 
enough  remaining,  moral  inertia,  the  terrible  effects  of  the 
moral  education  and  the  social  institutions  of  Islam,  ignorance 
and  fanaticism  and  sin.  There  is  hostility  as  well  as  hospi- 
tality. But  as  an  able  Armenian  woman  said  to  us  in  Teheran, 
"The  ground  has  been  broken  up  and  softened  by  the  rain 
and  is  open  for  the  seed.  The  old  days  of  the  hard  closed 
soil  are  passed."    Once  again  let  the  sower  go  forth  and  sow. 

S.  S.  George, 

Black  Sea,  April  22,  1922. 


387 


5.     APPROACHES    TO    PERSIAN    MOHAMMEDANISM 

It  it  an  easy  thing  anywhere  in  Asia  to  talk  with  men  on 
the  subject  of  religion.  Nowhere  is  it  easier  surely  than  in 
Persia,  where  the  subjects  of  conversation  are  few  and  where 
the  interests  of  men  are  elemental.  Outside  of  the  cities  not 
two  per  cent  of  the  people  are  literate,  and  in  most  of  the  towns 
and  villages  there  are  few  if  any  books,  no  post  office,  no 
newspaper,  no  news,  and  no  new  thoughts.  Yet  the  land  is 
full  of  intellectual  curiosity  and  interest.  In  every  tea  house 
the  men  are  happy  to  listen  to  any  one  who  will  bring  them 
information  of  the  world  or  lift  their  thoughts  off  their 
ceaseless  talk  about  barley  and  debts  and  the  passage  of  the 
days  and  daily  bread.  The  wise  itinerating  missionary  can 
go  anywhere  and  find  those  who  will  listen  to  him  with 
friendly  interest.  Colonel  Gray,  formerly  the  British  consul 
in  Meshed,  and  an  earnest  Christian  man,  who  cared  for  Dr. 
Esselstyn  in  his  last  illness  and  laid  his  body  to  rest  in  the 
little  cemetery  beyond  the  city  walls,  and  Sir  Mortimer  Du- 
rand,  formerly  British  minister  in  Persia  and  later  British 
Ambassador  to  Washington,  have  both  told  me  of  the  delight 
with  which  they  used  to  listen  to  Dr.  Esselstyn  talking  to  the 
people.  Colonel  Gray  knows  Persia  well,  but  he  said  that 
each  time  he  heard  Dr.  Esselstyn  speak  he  learned  something 
more,  as  he  heard  him  with  a  skill  that  entranced  his  auditors 
putting  the  truth  of  Christianity  to  them  with  a  more  perfect 
command  of  their  own  idioms  of  thought  and  speech  than 
they  themselves  possessed  and  finding  no  difficulty  in  setting 
forth  the  Christian  truths  in  a  way  that  silenced  the  thought- 
less and  sent  the  thoughtful  away  thinking  new  thoughts 
about  Islam  and  Christ.  Sir  Mortimer  told  the  Student  Vol- 
unteer Convention  in  Nashville  in  1906  of  sermons  which 
Dr.  Esselstyn  had  preached  even  in  Shiah  mosques  on  the 
invitations  of  the  mollahs,  sitting  down  beside  them  on  the 
preacher's  pulpit  and  talking  with  the  kindness  and  skill  which 
never  want  a  cordial  response  in  Persia. 

Nowhere  in  the  Moslem  world  can  the  Christian  preacher 
find  more  points  of  sympathetic  contact  than  among  the  Per- 
sian Mohammedans. 

The  Persians  are  Shiah  Mohammedans  and  are  looked 
upon  as  heretical  by  the  great  body  of  Mussulmans.  The 
division  between  the  Sunnees  or  orthodox  Moslems  and  the 
Shiahs  or  sectaries  began  in  the  first  generation  after  the 

-388 


prophet.  The  Shiahs  claim  that  the  Caliphate  should  have 
descended  through  the  family  of  Ali,  the  cousin  of  Moham- 
med, who  married  his  daughter  P^atima.  Ali  who  was  the 
fourth  Caliph  was  assassinated  and  his  sons  were  killed. 
From  that  day  the  Shiahs  and  the  Sunnees,  while  both  Mos- 
lems against  Christian  foes,  have  been  at  enmity  with  one 
another.  Their  chief  points  of  difference  are:  1.  That  the 
Shiites  reject  Abu  Bekr,  Omar  and  Othman,  the  three  first 
Caliphs,  as  usurpers  and  intruders;  whereas  the  Sunnites 
acknowledge  and  respect  them  as  rightful  Imams.  2.  The 
Shiites  prefer  Ali  to  Mohammed,  or,  at  least,  esteem  them 
both  equal ;  but  the  Sunnites  admit  neither  Ali  nor  any  of  the 
prophets  to  be  equal  to  Mohammed.  3.  The  Sunnites  charge 
the  Shiites  with  corrupting  the  Koran  and  neglecting  its  pre- 
cepts, and  the  Shiites  retort  the  same  charge  on  the  Sunnites. 
4.  The  Sunnites  receive  the  Sunna  or  book  of  traditions  of 
their  prophet,  as  of  canonical  authority;  whereas  the  Shiites 
reject  it  as  apocryphal  and  unworthy  of  credit.  .  .  .  —  (Sale: 
"Koran,"  Preliminary  Discourse,  Sect.  VIII.) 

The  Shiah  theology  is  a  very  simple  theology  of  five  Roots 
and  ten  Branches.  The  five  Roots  are :  (1)  The  unity  of  God. 
(2)  Justice,  asserted  as  a  principle  of  the  divine  character 
over  against  the  Sunni  conception  of  rigid  and  arbitrary  sov- 
ereignty. As  between  free  will  and  determinism  Shiah  theo- 
logians say  that  A  Middle  Statement  is  as  close  to  the  truth 
as  they  can  see.  (3)  The  Prophets,  124,000  in  all,  of  whom 
Mohammed  was  the  last.  (4)  The  Imamate,  wherein  they 
differ  most  from  the  Sunnis.  (5)  Eschatalogy.  The  ten 
Branches  are  religious  duties  which  the  Shiah  theologians  ar- 
range in  five  pairs:  (1)  fasting  and  prayer,  (2)  pilgrimage 
and  holy  war,  (3)  the  giving  of  one-fifth  to  the  Sayids  and 
one-tenth  to  the  poor,  (4)  treating  the  friends  of  God  as  one's 
own  friends  and  the  enemies  of  God  as  one's  own  enemies, 
(5)  the  duty  of  guiding  others  towards  the  truth  and  the 
duty  of  warning  others  against  infidelity.  Every  point  offers 
opportunities  for  sympathetic  religious  discussion. 

Mr.  Pitman,  whose  knowledge  of  Persian,  Armenian  and 
Turkish  and  constant  study  of  Shiah  theology,  and  wide  and 
sympathetic  contact  with  the  people,  are  making  him,  in  spite 
of  his  modesty  and  self-effacement,  one  of  the  most  efficient 
leaders  in  the  evangelization  of  Persia,  has  no  difficulty  any- 
where in  avoiding  profitless  controversy  and  in  setting  forth 
the  loving  but  plain  spoken  truth.  I  asked  him  what  his 
method  of  presentation  was,  and  he  said  it  was  always 
the  simple  positive  presentation  of  the  Gospel,  (1)  our  need 

389 


of  a  Mediator,  challenging  his  hearers  to  find  one  verse  in 
the  Koran  which  called  Mohammed  by  the  name  of  Shafi,  the 
word  for  mediator  in  the  Mohammedan  traditions,  (2)  our 
need  of  a  perfect  example  which  could  not  be  Mohammed, 
who  in  the  simple  matter  of  marriage  had  forbidden  his 
followers  to  follow  his  example,  for  he  had  had  nine  or  eleven 
wives  but  had  limited  others  to  four,  and  (3)  our  need  of  a 
Divine  Power  to  follow  this  example.  Who  met  these  needs 
but  Christ? 

One  day  as  we  rode  along  together  on  the  road  west  of 
Nikbai  I  asked  Mr.  Pittman  whether  the  ordinary  Persian 
villager  knew   anything  about   Roots  and   Branches   or  the 
points  of  his  religion.     "Yes,"  he  said,  "The  Shiahs  regard 
this  knowledge  as  important."    Toward  the  close  of  the  after- 
noon after  a  long,  hard  day's  journey  we  came  to  the  village 
of  Sarcham.    Just  before  reaching  the  village  we  had  to  ford 
twice  a  swift  brown  river.     The  road  had   run  beside  the 
river  at  the  foot  of  a  high  hill,  but  had  been  entirely  cut  away 
by  the  stream,  and  with  customary  improvidence  the  Per- 
sians let  it  go  and  submitted  to  all  the  inconvenience  and 
dangers  of  the  double  ford.     With  the  same  improvidence 
they  had  allowed  the  fine  old  brick  caravanserai  built  by  Shah 
Abbas  between  the  hill  and  the  village  to  fall  into  complete 
ruin.     The  only  lodging  places  were  the  mud-walled,  mud- 
roofed  houses  of  the  village  and  the  big  plain  behind  them 
where  the  camel  caravans  encamped.    At  Sarcham  I  went  up 
on  the  roof  of  the  gate  house  of  our  lodging  place  and  spread 
out  my  shoes  and  stockings  and  puttees,  which  had  been  soaked 
at  the  ford  where  two  of  the  horses  had  fallen  in  the  water, 
to  dry  in  the  warm  Persian  sunshine.     The  load  horses  had 
not  yet  come  in,  and  while  we  waited  Mr.  Pittman  sat  down 
in  the  shaded  street  just  beneath  me  and  was  soon  surrounded 
by  a  little  group  of  a  dozen  men  and  boys  in  pleasant  conver- 
sation.    Presently  from  the  roof  I  asked  the  little  group  be- 
low if  they  all  knew  the  Roots  and  Branches.     "What  did  it 
matter?"  they  replied,  "whether  they  knew  them  or  not?" 
I  explained  to  them  that  I  was  a  stranger  from  America  visit- 
ing Persia  and  interested  most  of  all  in  what  the  Persians 
thought  about  the  greatest  questions  of  life,  and  that  I  wanted 
to  be  able  to  tell  the  people  at  home  whether  the  Persian 
people  really  knew   their  own   religion.     Thereupon   all   of 
them  avowed  that  they  knew  the  Roots  and  Branches,  and 
one  of  the  men  at  once  named  the  five  Roots,  but  none  of  them 
would  go  on  to  name  the  ten  Branches.    As  soon  as  the  drift  of 
our  conversation  had  become  evident  one  of  the  boys  had 

390 


slipped  away,  and  just  at  this  point  he  returned  bringing  with 
him  a  pleasant  faced  man  whose  dress  indicated  that  he  was 
a  Sayid,  or  descendant  of  Mohammed,  and  after  the  custo- 
mary respectful  greeting  to  and  fro,  and  an  explanation  of 
what  our  conversation  was  about  the  new-comer  named  over 
the  ten  Branches.     Then  I  asked  them  why,  if  it  was  a  duty 
to  go  on  pilgrimage  to  the  holy  shrines,  no  roads  had  ever 
been  built  to  make  this  duty  easier  for  the  weak  and  the  weary. 
Mohammedanism,  one  would  think,  with  its  requirement  of 
pilgrimage  would  have  been  the  great  road  building  religion. 
As  pious  Mohammedans  had  been  wont  to  lay  up  merit  for 
themselves  by  building  shrines  and  bridges,  why  had  they  not 
served  their  religion  equally  well  and  laid  up  for  themselves 
much  merit  by  building  also  good  roads?    The  Sayid  answered 
that  the  roads  were  an  affair  of  government,  and  that  the 
government  took  no  interest  in  religion.     But  I  replied  that 
for  many  centuries  the  religion  and  the  government  had  been 
identical.     In  those  days  when  Church  and  State  were  one, 
why  had  not  the  roads  been  built?   The  Sayid  answered  that 
it  was  for  fear  of  other  countries,  that  good  roads  and  rail- 
ways opened  an  easy  path  for  foreign  invasion,  but  he  admitted 
that  the  real  reason  for  this  and  many  other  defects  in  Persia 
was  the  lack  of  religious  zeal  in  government  and  people  alike. 
I  suggested  that  one  strong  evidence  of  this  lack  of  religious 
zeal  was  the  total  absence  of  the  missionary  spirit  in  Per- 
sian Mohammedanism.     He  himself  could  see  what  the  mis- 
sionary spirit  in  Christianity  was  doing  for  Persia.     They 
replied  that  it  was  true  that  they  were  sending  no  religious 
teachers  to  other  peoples,  but  that  it  was  the  duty  of  these 
other  peoples  themselves  to  seek  the  truth  which  they  needed. 
When  they  came  of  their  own  accord  looking  for  the  truth, 
then  the  Shiah  Mohammedans  would  be  glad  to  teach  them. 
But  were  they  sure,  I  asked  them,  that  they  had  the  truth  and 
that  they  themselves  did  not  need  to  go  in  search  of  it?     A 
good  part  of  the  world  believed  that  of  all  men  they  needed 
to  seek  it  most.    Perhaps  this  was  so,  they  admitted,  and  they 
were  not  unwilling  to  seek.     Well  then,  had  they  ever  read 
the  Bible  to  which  their  own  Koran  bore  witness  or  were  they 
willing  to  read  it?    No,  the  Sayid  said,  he  had  never  seen  the 
book  although  of  course  he  knew  of  it  and  was  very  willing 
to  study  it.     At  this  point  one  of  the  men  who  had  slipped 
away  a  few  moments  before  returned,  bringing  with  him  a 
white  turbanned  mollah.    Again,  in  the  pleasant,  leisurely  way 
of  the  East,  friendly  greetings  passed  to  and  fro  until  at 
length  the  course  of  conversation  passed  back  to  the  Bible 

391 


again,  and  the  mollah  remarked  that  he  had  a  copy  of  the 
New  Testament  which  he  had  secured  in  Zenjan  and  of  which 
he  had  read  a  little  but  not  all,  and  he  did  not  have  it  with 
him  at  Sarcham.  On  my  part,  I  told  him,  I  had  read  the  Koran 
and  had  my  copy  with  me.  Had  he  read  enough  of  his  copy 
of  the  New  Testament  to  gain  an  impression  of  Christ's 
character,  and  if  so,  how  did  it  compare  with  the  character 
of  Mohammed?  Upon  this  there  was  much  discussion  in 
which  some  of  the  group  at  first  claimed  Mohammed  to  be 
superior,  but  at  last  they  all  agreed  in  the  view,  or  at  least  in 
the  statement,  that  while  a  claim  of  superiority  in  behalf  of 
Mohammed  might  be  made  on  the  basis  of  the  Koran,  they 
were  of  the  opinion  that  in  reality  Christ  and  Mohammed 
were  of  equal  character.  I  asked  them  what  they  made  of 
the  fact  that  Mohammed  died  and  that  was  the  end  of  it  and 
that  Christ  died  and  rose  again.  All  waited  for  the  mollah 
to  answer.  "Outwardly,"  said  he,  "it  is  true  that  our  Prophet 
died,  but  inwardly  he  lives  and  is  nearer  to  us  than  our  jugu- 
lar vein."  This  is  a  favorite  figure  of  speech  with  Persian 
Mohammedans.  Yes,  we  asked,  and  did  he  have  conscious 
spiritual  communion  with  Mohammed,  and  could  he  tell  us 
where  in  the  Koran  Mohammed  had  authorized  this  idea  of 
a  conscious  spiritual  fellowship  between  his  immortal  spirit 
and  the  faithful  believer?  No,  he  could  not  cite  the  sura 
of  the  Koran  in  which  the  idea  could  be  found,  but  with  un- 
diminished earnestness  he  repeated  his  metaphor  of  the  jugu- 
lar vein.  "But  that  is  not  for  us  common  people,"  one  of  the 
laymen  broke  in.  "What  the  mollah  says  may  be  very  true, 
but  such  ideas  are  only  for  him  and  the  Sayids  and  mujtehids. 
We  common  men  know  nothing  of  this  communion  with  the 
Prophet  as  close  as  our  jugular  vein."  Looking  up  I  saw  the 
load  horses  coming  through  the  ford,  and  our  little  gathering 
broke  up  in  friendliness  and  good-will,  the  mollah  promising 
to  read  his  New  Testament  through,  and  he  wrote  down  his 
name  on  the  fly  leaf  of  my  pocket  Testament,  "The  name 
of  this  despised  one  is  Jalal-ud-din  of  Khalkhal,"  and  that  we 
might  have  his  name  in  order  to  send  him  a  Bible  from  Tabriz, 
the  Sayid  wrote  down  his  name  also,  "Sayid  Khalil  of  Sar- 
cham." 

I  have  written  down  this  simple  incident  not  because  it  is 
unusual  in  any  way,  but  because  it  is  so  truly  representative. 
Everywhere  in  Persia  the  missionaries  and  the  Persian  evan- 
gelists find  unending  opportunity  for  friendly  and  hospitable 
talk  about  the  Gospels.  Controversy  and  hostility  can,  of 
course,  be  easily  aroused,  and  now  and  then  a  Mohammedan 

392 


ecclesiastic  will  seek  to  break  up  a  household  or  a  village 
gathering.  But  such  occurrences  are  exceptional,  and  with 
tact  and  kindness  the  Gospel  can  be  preached  almost  any- 
where in  Persia,  and  almost  invariably  with  response. 

"What  was  it  in  Christianity,"  we  asked  some  capable  young 
men  in  Tabriz,  one  of  whom  had  been  a  mollah  and  who  had 
come  from  Islam  to  Christ,  "What  was  it  in  Christianity 
which  made  appeal  to  your  mind  and  heart?"  "Its  inward 
power,"  replied  the  ex-mollah.  "Other  religions  work  out- 
wardly, Mohammedanism  most  of  all.  It  is  a  religion  of 
statutes  and  performances;  Christianity  works  within  men's 
hearts  with  a  living  spiritual  power."  "I  agree,"  said  another, 
"and  I  would  like  to  add  the  love  of  God,  shown  to  the  world 
through  Christ.  Islam  knows  nothing  of  a  God  of  love  sacri- 
ficing Himself  for  us."  What  Islam  needs,  they  agreed,  is 
to  have  the  power  and  love  of  Christianity  made  clear  to  it 
with  love  and  power.  "Yes,"  we  asked  them,  "but  what  is 
the  best  way  to  present  the  Gospel  to  Mohammedans?"  This 
is  one  of  the  two  supreme  missionary  problems  in  every  field. 
The  other  is  how  we  who  preach  Christ  may  also  live  him  in 
illustration  and  verification  of  our  preaching.  And  this  is  a 
problem  for  the  Church  at  home  as  well  as  for  the  missionary 
abroad.  "The  best  method  of  presentation,"  said  the  mollah, 
"is  to  compare  the  foundations  of  Christianity  and  Islam,  to 
^lake  the  Mohammedan  understand  there  is  something  he  does 
not  know  or  possess.  Mohammedans  think  they  have  all  the 
truth.  They  must  be  shown  that  they  do  not  have  it."  "No," 
said  one  of  the  others,  "in  this  I  do  not  agree.  From  my 
experience  I  believe  that  comparison  creates  antagonism. 
I  believe  that  we  should  show  the  love  of  God  positively.  This 
is  the  principle  I  follow,  just  to  preach  Christ.  If  we  make 
comparisons,  then  people  must  defend  themselves." 

What  the  Christian  converts  from  Mohammedanism  in 
Persia  regard  as  the  weakness  of  Islam  and  the  attractions 
of  Christianity,  and  what  they  believe  to  be  the  best  method 
of  approach  to  their  fellow  Mohammedans  are  set  forth  in 
an  ingenious  and  instructive  way  in  the  answers  which  a 
score  or  more  of  these  converts  gave  to  a  set  of  seven  ques- 
tions sent  out  by  Mr.  Wilson  of  Tabriz.  I  am  glad  to  be  able 
to  quote  some  of  these  answers  which  Mr.  Wilson  let  me  copy. 
They  come  from  all  types,  educated  and  ignorant,  men  and 
women,  young  and  old,  from  different  social  levels.  As  indi- 
cated in  the  answers  to  the  first  questions,  some  had  been 
Christians  for  long  years  before  their  open  baptism.  Others 
were  recent  believers.     The  questions  were  as  follows: 

393 


(1)  How  long  have  you  been  a  Christian? 

(2)  In  what  ways  did  Islam  fail  to  satisfy  you? 

(3)  What  first  attracted  your  attention  to  Christianity? 

(4)  What  brought  about  your  conversion? 

(5)  What  has  Christianity  done  for  you? 

(6)  In  trying  to  convert  Moslems  should  Christians  argue 

with  them  on  points  of  religion? 

(7)  What  do  you  consider  to  be  the  best  methods  to  be 

followed  in  winning  Moslems  to  Christ? 
The  following  are  representative  answers: 

Mirza Khan. 

(1)   Fourteen  years. 

(2)1.  The  teachings  of  the  Koran  are  against  the  conscience. 

2.  The  different  teachings  of  the  prophets.  3.  The  fruits  of 
Islam  are  wickedness,  lies,  enmity  and  many  other  bad  things 
which  are  among  the  Mohammedans  of  today. 

(3)  The  first  thing  which  attracted  my  attention  to  Chris- 
tianity was  the  character  of  Christians,  and  then  conversing 
^ith  the  American  missionaries  at  Resht. 

T4) 

(5)  Christianity  has  delivered  me  from  the  death  and  has 
comforted  me  and  given  me  a  new  birth. 

(6)  In  conversing  with  a  Moslem  the  Word  should  be  read 
to  him  and  one  should  explain  it  and  speak  so  kindly  that 
he  should  be  made  silent. 

of  Teheran  (woman)  : 

(1)  Eighteen  years,  from  childhood. 

(2)  The  character  of  Mohammed  and  the  errors  of  the 
Koran  prove  them  to  be  from  man  and  the  Devil. 

(3)  The  Messianic  prophecies. 

(4)  The  thirteenth  chapter  of  Zechariah. 

(5)  Christianity  made  me  over  again.  It  made  me  a  dif- 
ferent person.    I  am  in  the  Kingdom  already. 

(6)  We  should  argue  only  on  special  occasions. 

(7)  In  order  to  win  the  Moslems  to  Christ  it  is  necessary, 
to  show  them  what  religion  is.  Make  them  understand  the 
horrors  of  sin  and  call  their  attention  to  certain  passages  of 
the  Koran  where  Mohammed  has  confessed  himself  to  be  a 
sinner  and  has  stated  that  people  can  be  saved  by  the  Law^ 

Khan ,  of  Teheran: 

(1)  Four  years. 

(2)  1.  Lack  of  salvation.    2.  The  corruption  of  the  priests. 

3.  The  law  of  Mohammed  being  a  copy  of  the  Mosaic  Law.    4. 

894 


The  qualities  of  God.    5.  The  shrines.     6.  The  person  of  Mo- 
hammed having  very  shameful  qualities. 

(3)  The  sinlessness  of  Christ.  His  crucifixion  for  our  sal- 
vation. The  firm  faith  of  the  missionaries  in  Him.  Their 
kindness  to  the  Gentiles. 

(4)  Reading  the  Holy  Book.  Speaking  to  the  Christians 
on  religious  truths.  Going  to  the  Church  and  other  religious 
meetings. 

(5)  It  has  saved  my  life.  It  has  given  me  inward  peace 
and  happiness,  and  a  firm  belief  in  the  world  to  come. 

^-(6)    No. 

(7)  The  method  to  be  followed  is  to  show  them  the  corrup- 
tion of  Islam,  and  their  hopelessness  to  be  saved  through  a 
man  who  was  a  sinner  himself.  Proving  to  them,  by  quoting 
some  verses,  that  no  prophet  should  come  after  Christ  and 
through  Christ  alone  salvation  could  be  received.  Showing 
them  the  loving  kindness  of  God  and  His  desire  to  receive  us 
in  His  Heavenly  Canaan  above.  It  is  advisable  to  ask  them 
to  read  the  Bible  from  first  to  end;  and  also  to  kneel  down 
and  ask  God  to  help  them  in  finding  the  true  way  that  leads  to 
salvation. 

Khanim  of  Teheran  (woman) 


(1)  Eighteen  years. 

(2)  1.  Because  I  found  out  that  Christians  were  not  looking 
for  any  prophet  to  come  after  Christ.  2.  Because  Islam  failed 
to  satisfy  my  spiritual  desires. 

(3)  The  Messianic  Prophecies. 

(4)  A  Heavenly  vision. 

(5)  Christianity  has  quenched  my  spiritual  thirst.  I  can 
forgive  and  I  have  protection  against  sin. 

(6)  It  depends  upon  persons. 

(7)  1.  By  our  conduct.  2.  Make  them  understand  that 
Christ  is  the  First  and  the  Last.  3.  To  show  them  with  great 
patience  that  they  have  nothing  by  which  they  can  be  saved. 

Khan,  of  Teheran : 


(1)  Twenty-four  years. 

(2)  I  saw  that  the  fruit  of  Islam  was  bad,  and  as  I  looked 
closely  I  understood  that  the  tree  was  bad. 

(3) 

(4)  I  do  not  know.     God  knows  how. 

(5)  It  has  given  me  peace  at  my  heart,  and  has  kept  me 
in  the  peace  of  Christ. 

(6)  No. 

(7)  1.  That  Christ  is  the  last  of  all  the  prophets,  and  the 

395 


Saviour.     2.  Nothing  in  regard  to  Mohammed  is  written  in 
the  New  Testament.    3.  There  is  nothing  new  in  the  Koran. 
Mohammed  Khan,  of  Teheran: 

(1)  One  year. 

(2)  1.  The  opposition  of  the  Koran  with  the  Heavenly- 
Books.  2.  The  opposition  of  the  verses  with  each  other  in  the 
Koran.  3.  The  self -loving  of  Mohammed  and  taking  the  wives 
of  others  by  the  verse  which  he  made  for  his  lasciviousness. 
4.  The  words  of  Mohammed  did  not  give  me  peace  at  the 
heart.  5.  The  untruthful  actions  of  the  Moslems  and  the  lack 
of  love  between  them.  And  thousands  of  other  things  which 
cannot  be  mentioned. 

(3)  Reading  the  Word  and  knowing  that  it  is  true.  The 
treatment  by  Christians  of  each  other  according  to  the  Gospel 
and  their  sincere  love  to  each  other. 

(4)  As  the  one  who  asks  this  question  is  a  Christian,  of 
course  he  knows  that  conversion  will  not  happen  unless  by 
the  help  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  and  if  one  has  not  received  the 
Holy  Spirit,  he  has  not  been  converted;  and  if  he  has  not 
been  convei-ted,  he  has  not  known  Christ. 

(5)  I  was  a  sinner  and  Christ  has  forgiven  my  sins.  I  was 
dead  and  He  has  given  me  the  everlasting  life.  I  always  was 
afraid  of  death,  but  now  being  anxious  to  see  Christ,  I  am 
ready  to  meet  the  death.  My  heart  was  always  beating  be- 
cause of  the  fear  of  sin,  and  I  was  living  in  trouble,  but  Christ 
has  comforted  me  and  given  me  an  external  peace,  and  I  know 
the  blood  of  Christ  has  cleansed  my  sins  and  I  have  part  in 
the  blessing  with  Him. 

(6)  Yes. 

(7)  In  the  first  place  a  Testament  should  be  given  to  him, 
to  read  it  attentively,  in  order  that  the  Word  itself  may  lighten 
his  heart.  Then  the  cutting  sword,  i.  e.,  "The  Mizan-el-Haq," 
should  be  given  to  him,  so  that,  if  he  is  a  conscientious  man 
he  may  understand  that  Mohammed  was  a  false  prophet. 
Mirza --=-,  of  Teheran:  ^__. 

(1)  Fourteen  years, 

(2)  It  takes  a  long  time  to  answer  this  question,  but  the 
most  important  thing  which  unsatisfied  me  was  this,  that 
Islam  was  not  able  to  give  me  peace  at  heart, 

(3)  At  first  reading  the  New  Testament,  then  speaking 
with  somebody. 

(4)  In  the  time  of  conversion  I  felt  that  I  entered  a  new 
world, 

(5)  Christianity  has  given  me  peace  at  heart  and  has  de- 
livered me  from  the  punishment  which  was  due  me, 

396 


(6)  Yes. 

(7)  In  the  first  place  ask  him  whether  in  the  time  of  death 
liis  heart  is  at  rest  or  not,  and  then  it  should  be  proved  for 
him  that  there  is  nothing  in  Islam  which  can  give  one  peace 
of  heart.  Prove  for  him  that  Mohammed  himself  was  a  sinner. 
He  must  be  told  that  there  is  nothing  in  regard  to  the  com- 
ing of  Mohammed  in  the  New  Testament. 

of  Urumia : 

(1)  Three  or  four  years,  but  I  just  recently  confessed 
openly. 

(2)  Mohammed  was  a  man  like  me  and  cannot  help  me.  If 
Mohammedanism  were  true  how  could  all  of  its  followers 
fall  so  far  short  of  the  truth.  I  was  satisfied  the  mollahs 
were  not  proper  religious  leaders. 

(3)  Reading  the  New  Testament. 

(4)  From  what  I  heard  in  the  school  at  Urumia,  from 
preaching  and  from  reading  I  was  converted.  I  first  openly 
confessed  in  revival  services  in  Tabriz,  March,  1922. 

(5)  The  great  blessing  is  that  Christ  gave  Himself  a  sac- 
rifice for  us  and  gaA^e  jis  salvation.  Christianity  has  shown 
me  the  true  morals. 

(6)  Yes,  we  must  bring  to  them  the  proofs  of  Christianity. 

(7)  For  those  who  can  not  read,  preaching  salvation  is  the 
best  way  to  convert  them.  For  those  who  can  read  both 
preaching  and  books  and  especially  the  New  Testament. 

Mirza of  Tabriz: 

(1)  Eight  years — on  probation  six  months. 

(2)  The  proper  foundation  for  world  relations,  I  had  long 
considered  to  be  love  but  I  found  no  love  in  Islam.  I  never 
found  assurance  in  Islam  as  to  what  the  final  state  of  man- 
kind would  be.  Mohammed  was  himself  a  sinner  as  proven 
by  his  own  prayers  and  verses  from  the  Koran  and  can  never 
bring  salvation  to  the  world, 

(3)  I  worked  with  a  Christian  and  heard  his  conversations 
with  Kasha  Moorhatch  and  especially  saw  his  good  life. 

(4)  Reading  the  New  Testament  and  holy  books  of  other 
religions. 

(5)  My  conscience  and  heart  are  at  peace  and  I  have  assur- 
ance of  Salvation. 

(6)  The  first  thing  to  show  is  Christian  Life — let  him 
compare  that.     Then  discussion  is  sometimes  profitable. 

(7)  1.  Christians  must  live  according  to  the  program  set 
forth  in  the  New  Testament.  We  must  strive  to  live  like 
Jesus.     2.  We  must  endeavor  to  find  what  obstacles  lie  in 

397 


men's  minds  and  remove  these  obstacles.  3.  We  must  en- 
deavor to  co-operate  to  the  fullest  extent  in  keeping  converts 
from  going  astray.  4.  Just  as  we  must  plow  before  we  sow 
seed,  so  small  tracts  and  words  scattered  here  and  there  are 
necessary  to  prepare  Moslems  to  accept  preaching  and  the 
New  Testament.  We  must  first  awaken  the  sleepers  of  Islam 
before  they  can  see  and  understand  the  Truth. 

B. of  Meshed  (woman)  : 

(1)  Almost  five  years. 

(2)  All  I  found  in  Islam  was  superstition.  There  was  no 
salvation. 

(3)  I  came  in  contact  with  the  English  missionaries  in 
Kerman  and  heard  the  Bible  read. 

(4)  My  husband  was  converted  first.  I  saw  the  change  in 
him,  so  I  knew  it  must  be  right. 

(5)  It  made  me  secure  in  my  home.  I  was  childless  for 
many  years  and  relatives  suggested  that  my  husband  divorce 
me  or  take  another  wife.  He  did  neither.  Then  the  last  few 
years  I  have  been  sick  a  great  deal.  If  we  had  not  both  been 
Christians  we  could  never  have  lived  together. 

(6)  If  they  understand  Islam  it  is  all  right  to  argue;  but 
if  they  don't  understand,  it  is  useless.  The  best  way  all  round 
is  to  live  the  life  that  will  illustrate  your  words. 

(7) 

of  Meshed  (woman) : 

(1)  About  four  months. 

(2)  I  was  never  happy,  but  did  not  know  why.  My  hus- 
band mistreated  me.  We  quarreled  constantly,  and  there  was 
nothing  in  life  for  me. 

(3)  My  husband's  changed  life. 

(4)  My  husband's  patience  with  me,  and  his  teaching  me 
the  Testament. 

(5)  It  has  made  me  happy,  and  now  in  place  of  quarreling 
and  jealousy  we  are  happy  and  have  confidence  in  one  another, 
and  I  know  Jesus  is  my  Saviour. 

(6)  No  experience  as  yet. 

of  Meshed : 

(1)  14  months  since  baptism. 

(2)  Three  years  ago  I  saw  the  mollahs  were  corrupt,  and 
they  defended  themselves  by  saying  they  are  following  Mo- 
hammed. Now  I  see  Persians  being  made  Moslems  at  point 
of  sword. 

(3)  Reading  a  Bible  which  a  native  Christian  had  given  me. 

(4)  I  saw  how  different  Jesus  was  from  Mohammed  and 

398 


that  I  had  been  deceived.  My  heart  became  bright,  and  I 
believed.  i^P 

(5)  Before,  I  loved  evil,  now  I  love  good.  Before,  I  abused 
my  family,  now  I  am  kind.  Before,  I  used  to  ride  over  people 
on  the  street,  now  I  won't  hurt  any  one.  Before,  my  heart 
had  no  rest,  now  I  have  peace. 

(6)  Sometimes  it  is  necessary  to  argue  fiercely. 

- — il)  We  must  not  live  in  sin,  as  Moslems  do.  We  must 
prove  Christ's  divinity  from  the  Bible.  We  must  sell  Scrip- 
tures, but  try  to  follow  up  and  explain.  A  hospital  and  Sun- 
day nieetings  are  a  help. 


(1)  2  months  since  baptism. 

(2)  I  saw  that  the  leaders  of  Islam  said  but  did  not  do. 
There  was  no  Saviour  from  sin. 

(3)  I  saw  that  the  ivord  and  the  action  of  a  certain  Persian 
Christian  was  one. 

(4)  I  saw  that  the  Bible  was  true.  I  asked  God  to  give 
me  a  dream  if  I  should  accept  Christianity,  and  that  very 
night  I  saw  Jesus  Christ  and  believed. 

(5)  I  used  to  quarrel  with  men.  Now  I  have  no  desire  to 
do  so.    I  forgave  a  man  a  debt  of  Ts.  200. 

(6)  It  is  necessary. 

Vj7)   Right  conduct  of  Christians.     Conversation  with  men. 

B of  Meshed : 

(1)  14  months. 

(2)  Dissatisfied  first  after  a  study  of  Moslem  law  in  con- 
nection with  a  study  of  the  Bible. 

(3)  Impressed  by  the  consistency  and  agreement  of  the 
moral  teachings  in  the  Bible.  Christ  in  the  New  Testament 
seemed  to  fulfill  the  Messianic  hope  of  the  Old  Testament. 

(4)  Fellowship  with  Christian  friends,  especially  in  the 
reading  room. 

(5)  Personal  assurance  of  faith  and  happiness  in  living. 
The  pleasure  of  helping  others  to  the  same  state  of  salvation 
and  Christian  fellowship. 

(6)  With  friendship,  love,  and  patience  argument  may  be 
used  to  advantage. 

(7)  Through  the  evidence  of  Christian  character,  friend- 
ship, and  love,  in  all  the  natural  contacts  that  one  Christian 
may  have  with  friends,  relatives  and  acquaintances. 

Mirza ,  of  Meshed : 

(1)  14  months  since  baptism. 

(2)  I  saw  that  there  was  nothing  but  lying,  stealing,  op- 

399 


pression,  pride,  etc.,  from  the  days  of  Mohammed  till  now. 
I  saw  that  the  mujtahids  were  not  at  one  in  their  beliefs  and 
teaching,  and  so  some  of  them  must  be  wrong. 

(3)  The  love  and  character  of  the  missionaries. 

(4)  The  love  of  Christ  in  enduring  the  most  terrible  suf- 
ferings for  me. 

(5)  I  think  my  conduct  has  improved.  I  am  happy  now, 
as  I  was  not  formerly. 

(6)  It  is  necessary. 

(7)  We  must  mingle  with  men  and  be  kind  to  them.  We 
must  talk  with  them,  proving  the  truth  of  Christianity.  Sell- 
ing Scriptures  without  follow  up  by  personal  conversation, 
etc.,  is  of  no  value.  Reading  Room,  Hospital,  etc.,  not  bad, 
but  work  of  Christian  brethren  more  important. 

I  give  these  answers  in  all  their  simplicity  and  naivete. 
Here  and  there  an  imitative  note  appears  and  there  is  much 
that  will  grow  into  more.  But  these  are  genuine  lives.  And 
the  work  from  which  they  have  come  is  genuine  work. 

The  most  powerful  although  for  many  years  it  may  seem 
to  be  an  indirect  approach  to  a  nation  or  a  religion  is  through 
its  women,  and  the  next  generation  will  reveal,  as  we  cannot 
estimate  it  now,  the  immense  influence  which  Christian  mis- 
sions are  exerting  upon  the  world  in  the  quiet  work  which 
they  are  doing  for  the  women  and  girls  of  the  non-Christian 
lands.  The  Christian  ideal  of  woman,  the  redemption  and  the 
release  of  her  immense  creative  energies  for  social  progress, 
the  enrichment  of  life  which  she  is  to  make  when  first  her 
own  life  has  been  enriched  by  Christ,  these  things  change  the 
face  of  every  society  to  which  they  come.  No  society  needs 
them  more  or  will  be  more  profoundly  influenced  by  them  than 
Persia.  They  will  revolutionize  the  villages  of  Persia,  turning 
to  usefulness  forces  of  womanhood  which  now  are  wasted  or 
worse  than  wasted  in  the  deterioration  which  they  effect  in 
home  and  community  life.  The  doorway  to  the  new  Persia 
through  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the  village  women,  now  so 
empty  of  all  but  deadening  manual  toil  and  the  animal  activi- 
ties of  life,  is  wide  open  to  the  approach  of  Christian  women 
and  the  interests  and  expansions  and  purities  which  they  bring 
with  them.  "Your  prophet  has  done  well  for  you  Christian 
women,"  a  Moslem  woman  once  remarked  to  Mrs.  Hawkes 
after  watching  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hawkes  together  on  one  of  their 
itinerating  trips  to  the  villages  and  noting  the  courtesy  and 
thoughtfulness  of  a  Christian  man  towards  his  wife.  "Khanim, 
your  Prophet,  did  well  for  you  Christian  women.  Our  Prophet 
did  not  do  so  well  for  us.    I  shall  have  words  with  our  Prophet 

400 


when  I  meet  him  in  the  next  world.    And  I  am  going  to  stand 
by  the  open  gate  of  Hell  and  watch  the  men  of  Islam  march 
in  first."    One  day  on  the  road  near  Turkomanchi,  where  the 
treaty  of  peace  was  signed  between  Russia  and  Persia  in 
1828  which  took  away  from  Persia  its  territories  between  the 
Caucasus  Mountains  and  the  Aras  river,  we  met  a  Moham- 
medan farmer  and  his  twelve  year  old  boy  on  their  way  to 
the  village.     He  was  a  kindly,  friendly  soul,  intelligent  but 
simple  minded,  and  he  walked  along  beside  the  horses  almost 
the  whole  farsakh  to  Turkomanchi.    It  was  a  nice  village,  he 
said,  of  about  five  hundred  houses.     There  had  been  seven 
hundred,  but  the  famine  of  two  years  ago  which  wiped  out 
many  villages  of  western  Persia  had  destroyed  not  less  than 
two  hundred  households  here.    As  to  politics,  he  thought  the 
Shah  was  a  good  man  trying  to  help  his  country.     Had  he 
not  organized  an  army  and  sent  it  to  fight  against  that  terrible 
Kurdish  bandit,  Ismael  Agha,  who  had  turned  the  Urumia 
plain  into  a  desolation  and  from  whom  the  ragged,  penniless 
refugees  were  fleeing  whom  we  were  even  then  passing  upon 
the  highway?    Yes,  it  was  a  very  bad  highway,  he  admitted, 
as  the  horses  struggled  through  the  deep  mud,  very  bad  in- 
deed, to  be  the  one  highway  between  the  two  most  important 
cities  in  Persia.    But  as  soon  as  Ismael  Agha  was  repressed, 
America  was  coming  to  build  roads  for  Persia.    As  to  religion, 
yes,  he  prayed  and  his  son.     For  what?     For  the  peace  and 
prosperity  of  the  country,  for  happiness  and  for  health.  There 
were  four  mosques  and  five  mollahs  in  Turkomanchi,  and,  oh 
yes,  they  were  good  men.     "Was  there  polygamy  in  Turko- 
manchi, and  how  many  wives  did  Islam  allow?"     "Five  or 
ten,"  he  replied,  "or  forty  or  fifty,  as  many  as  a  man  might 
want,  but  our  village  is  a  poor  village,  and  no  one  has  many 
wives  there."    But  on  further  testing  he  hedged  in  his  num- 
bers, and  he  did  not  know  what  the  Koran  had  to  say.     But 
no  one  could  have  all  these  wives  at  once;  only  five  at  one 
time  perhaps,  and  the  others  in  succession.     Was  divorce  so 
easy  as  this,  we  inquired,  and  were  these  rights  and  obliga- 
tions mutual.    "Yes  and  no,"  said  he.    "A  man  can  divorce  his 
wife  when  he  will,  but  not  a  wife  her  husband;  and  a  man 
can  beat  his  wife,  if  necessary,  but  no  wife  might  beat  her 
husband."     Well,  how  many  men  were  accustomed  to  beat 
their  wives  in  Turkomanchi.    "Oh,"  he  said,  "there  were  sev- 
eral good  women  whom  it  was  never  necessary  to  beat."    How 
many  wives  beat  their  husbands?  we  inquired.     Were  there 
not  many  men  in  Turkomanchi  who  deserved  a  good  beating, 
and  was  there  any  adequate  reason  why  if  the  husband  might 

401 


beat  his  wife,  when  it  was  necessary,  a  wife  should  not  also, 
when  it  was  necessary,  beat  her  husband?  He  looked  up  in 
amused  astonishment  at  this.  "That  would  never  do,"  said 
he.  Did  Mohammedanism  forbid  lies?  The  religion  said 
nothing  on  this  subject,  he  replied,  but  on  second  thought 
he  modified  this.  Liars  were  regarded  as  bad  men  in  his  vil- 
lage, and  certainly  God  did  not  approve  of  lies.  How  many 
wives  had  he?  Only  one,  he  answered.  Did  the  women  of 
Islam  prefer  polygamy,  we  asked  him,  or  would  they  rather 
live  in  homes  where  there  was  only  one  wife?  "Oh,  if  women 
were  left  to  themselves,"  said  he,  "a  man  would  have  only 
one  wife,  but  then  they  have  no  choice  in  the  matter."  Why 
shouldn't  they  have  a  choice,  we  asked,  and  more  than  that, 
if  it  was  right  for  a  man  to  have  a  number  of  wives,  why 
wasn't  it  right  for  a  woman,  if  she  desired,  to  have  a  number 
of  husbands,  and  beat  them  too,  if  it  was  necessary.  "No," 
said  he,  "that  would  be  the  end  of  society."  We  were  draw- 
ing near  the  village,  and  we  made  bold  to  ask  him  whether 
he  loved  his  wife.  "Khanim,"  said  he  to  Miss  Lamme,  who 
was  interpreting,  "those  who  tell  lies  are  not  the  friends  of 
God."  I  asked  him  as  we  parted  whether  he  had  ever  heard 
of  a  queen  of  Persia  or  a  queen  of  Turkey,  two  of  the  most 
ruined  and  wretched  nations  on  earth;  whether  he  had  ever 
reflected  on  the  fact  that  the  head  of  the  greatest  nation  in 
the  world,  during  the  nineteenth  century,  for  more  than  fifty 
years  had  been  a  woman,  and  that  there  was  no  hope  for  his 
country  or  for  any  other  country  that  kept  its  women  in  the 
position  which  falls  to  them  and  to  which  they  fall  under 
Islam.  And  when  they  rise  as  they  will  rise,  what  will  they 
do  with  Islam?  Let  those  who  have  a  word  for  this  religion 
be  adequately  mindful  of  its  most  exposed  and  effective  path- 
way of  approach. 

I  have  not  spoken  here  of  the  approach  to  Islam  through 
the  hospitals  and  schools.  I  have  meant  only  to  call  attention 
to  the  accessibility  of  Mohammedanism  in  Persia  to  imme- 
:diate  and  direct  approach.  All  the  facts  of  the  Christian 
'.ijGospel  and  the  full  offer  of  Christ  as  the  Saviour  of  men  from 
5in  unto  life  may  be  spoken  all  over  Persia  today  with  the  full 
assurance  of  welcome  and  response. 

S.  S.  George, 

Black  Sea,  April  21,  1922. 


402 


6.     TALKS   WITH   MOHAMMEDAN   CONVERTS   IN 

PERSIA 

The  first  of  them  was  Kaka.  He  was  a  grizzled  old  Kurd 
living  in  the  city  of  Hamadan.  Every  one  knew  that  he  had 
been  a  fierce  Mohammedan  believer  and  that  he  came  of  a 
long  line  of  Mohammedan  ecclesiastics,  and  everybody  knows, 
too,  that  now  he  is  a  Christian,  going  to  and  fro  in  Hamadan 
and  the  villages  round  about  and  openly  preaching  Christ 
with  no  one  able  to  answer  him  or  gainsay  his  word.  We 
asked  him  one  evening  for  his  story,  and  this  is  what  he  told 
us.  "Mirza  Saeed  and  I  were  brothers."  Mirza  Saeed  is  now 
one  of  the  leading  doctors  of  Teheran,  and  I  shall  tell  his 
story  later.  "For  seven  generations,"  Kaka  continued,  "our 
fathers  had  been  mollahs.  Our  neighbors  were  Christians. 
Being  Sunnis,  we  sometimes  ate  with  them,  but  we  never 
talked  on  the  subject  of  religion.  Forty-four  years  ago  a 
Nestorian  evangelist  named  Kasha  Yohanan  was  sent  from 
Urumia  to  the  region  of  Kurdistan  in  search  of  a  teacher  of 
Kurdish,  and  he  came  to  our  city  of  Senneh.  An  Armenian 
Christian  pointed  out  Mirza  Saeed  to  him  as  such  a  teacher 
as  he  was  seeking.  Saeed  was  only  a  boy  then,  but  very  cap- 
able. He  came  to  me  as  his  older  brother,  as  our  father  had 
died,  to  ask  permission  to  give  Kurdish  lessons  to  Yohanan. 
I  consented.  For  six  months  my  brother  taught  Yohanan, 
and  then  one  day  he  told  me  that  some  Jews  were  coming  to 
Yohanan  to  discuss  the  Scriptures.  I  3aid  that  this  was  noth- 
ing at  all  for  us  to  consider,  but  I  did  not  know  that  Yohanan 
had  given  Saeed  the  Bible  and  other  books  to  read  and  that 
he  stored  these  in  his  mind.  Before  long  he  began  to  absent 
himself  from  Moslem  prayers.  One  day  a  blind  mollah  came 
to  me  for  help.  He  knew  the  Koran  by  heart  and  was  memo- 
rizing a  book  on  the  birth  and  life  of  Mohammed.  I  was 
greatly  pleased  to  help  him.  One  day  as  the  blind  mollah 
was  reciting  this  book,  Saeed,  who  was  listening,  said  that 
if  these  things  were  true,  the  Prophet  should  have  foretold 
them.  I  reached  for  my  rifle  to  shoot  Saeed  for  reviling  the 
Prophet,  but  the  blind  mollah  seized  the  rifle.  I  certainly 
meant  to  kill  Saeed,  for  I  was  one  of  those  who  are  devoted 
to  the  Prophet,  even  the  Prophet  who  came  with  a  sword.  The 
blind  mollah  took  Saeed  away  and  warned  him  to  be  more 
careful,  bidding  him  to  reflect  what,  if  his  own  brother  had 
tried  to  shoot  him,  another  might  have  done.    I  soon  noticed 

403 


that  Saeed  was  sad  and  troubled,  and  I  asked  him  to  tell  me 
as  his  brother  the  cause  of  his  sorrow,  but  he  would  say  noth- 
ing. I  asked  him  again  one  night  later,  and  he  said  he  would 
write  it  out  for  me,  but  when  he  had  written  the  paper  he 
hesitated  to  give  it  to  me.  A  week  later  at  midnight  he  brought 
it,  saying,  'Whatever  you  intend  to  do,  do.  It  is  two  years 
now  since  I  have  left  Islam  and  accepted  Christianity  on  the 
basis  of  what  I  have  read  in  the  Koran  and  the  Bible.'  It  was 
winter  time  and  snowing,  but  I  said  to  him,  'Saeed,  there  is 
nothing  I  can  do  but  turn  you  out  as  an  apostate.'  So  I  opened 
the  door  and  he  went  out  into  the  night.  I  think  he  sat  in  a 
shop  window  until  morning,  and  the  rest  of  the  night  I  spent 
crying  to  God,  'You  have  taken  away  my  father  and  my  mother 
and  now  my  brother  is  taken  from  my  hand.' 

"In  the  morning  Saeed  went  to  the  Imam  Jum'eh  and  said, 
'I  have  been  reading  such  and  such  things  in  the  Koran  and 
the  Bible.  What  do  you  say?'  Later  I  learned  that  thirty 
men  had  bound  themselves  together  to  kill  Saeed,  so  I  too  went 
to  the  Imam  Jum'eh  and  asked  him  what  to  do,  'Do  nothing,' 
said  he,  'but  leave  the  matter  to  me.'  On  Friday,  accordingly, 
the  Imam  Jum'eh  spoke  openly  in  the  mosque  to  all  the  people, 
saying,  'Mohammed  Saeed  is  my  child.  Leave  him  to  me. 
I  will  bring  him  back  with  proofs  from  the  Koran.'  But 
Saeed  was  lost  to  Islam  forever,  and  because  I  relented  and 
protected  him,  conditions  became  so  bad  that  some  of  the 
Moslems  of  Senneh  planned  to  kill  me  as  well  as  Saeed.  One 
day  I  found  a  letter  at  the  post  for  Saeed,  which  I  read,  from 
Mr.  Hawkes,  bidding  him  to  come  to  Hamadan.  And  I  got 
a  horse  for  him  and  sent  him  off  by  night. 

"When  I  got  back,  the  neighbors  gathered  and  wept  over 
Saeed,  and  I  thought  of  what  he  had  written  in  his  statement 
and  of  all  that  he  had  told  me.  Not  long  after  I  went  to  the 
mosque  and  heard  a  man  read  from  Sirat  el  Navi,  a  book  on 
the  private  life  of  the  Prophet  and  his  relations  with  his 
wives.  I  bought  this  book,  and  as  I  read  it,  I  wondered  how 
such  things  could  be  true  of  a  Prophet.  A  little  later  I  went 
to  the  Catholic  church  in  Senneh  and  talked  with  a  Chaldean 
priest  there  and  tried  to  get  a  Bible  to  read,  but  was  unable 
to  do  so.  While  I  was  still  endeavoring  to  get  a  copy,  I  one 
day  saw  a  man  named  Ossitur  of  Hamadan  coming  through 
the  bazaar  with  a  bundle  under  his  arm.  I  asked  who  he 
was,  and  upon  learning,  introduced  myself  as  Saeed's  brother 
and  got  a  Bible.  As  I  read  it,  I  came  to  the  passage,  'I  will 
raise  up  a  prophet  like  unto  his  brethren.'  I  thought  surely 
this  meant  Mohammed,  and  I  decided  to  come  to  Hamadan 

404 


and  take  Saeed  off  to  Bagdad  or  to  some  other  place  where 
strong  influences  could  be  brought  to  bear  upon  him  to  win 
him  back  to  Islam.  So  I  sold  my  home  and  told  the  people  I 
was  going  to  get  Saeed  and  to  take  him  where  he  would  be 
turned  back  from  his  errors.  Some  of  the  people  doubted 
my  purpose  and  sought  to  detain  me  by  offering  me  the  place 
of  leader  of  the  prayers  in  the  mosque,  but  at  last  I  went, 
though  I  was  not  sure  of  myself.    My  heart  had  become  two. 

"On  reaching  Hamadan  I  found  that  Saeed  was  a  pupil  of 
Dr.  Alexander,  the  medical  missionary  there,  who  welcomed 
me  and  gave  me  some  books  to  read,  among  them  'The  Balance 
of  Truth.'  As  I  read  this  book,  I  found  in  it  the  indictment 
of  sin  and  the  message  of  Christ's  love,  and  these  began  to 
have  an  effect  on  me.  Each  day  I  went  to  the  big  mosque,  but 
I  found  nothing  in  the  preaching.  It  was  all  about  what 
Hassan  had  suffered.  And  as  I  saw  more  clearly  what  Islam 
and  its  preachers  were,  Christ's  w^ords  about  the  Pharisees 
came  home  to  me — the  upper  seats,  the  wide  borders.  But 
what  impressed  me  most  was  the  contrast  between  Moham- 
medans and  the  missionaries  and  Christian  preachers  whom 
I  had  come  to  know  and  between  their  lives.  I  began  to  go 
to  prayers  at  Dr.  Alexander's  house  and  then  sometimes, 
with  great  fear,  to  church.  So  things  continued  until  twenty- 
four  years  ago,  when  Mr.  Watson  was  going  home  to  America 
and  asked  me  to  go  on  the  journey  with  him  to  the  border  of 
Persia.  I  went,  and  on  the  journey  was  thrown  from  my 
horse  and  broke  my  knee  cap  and  was  brought  to  the  home 
of  Dr.  Holmes  in  Hamadan.  I  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  read, 
and  I  read  the  Bible  and  found  Christ. 

"As  I  was  getting  well,  Hajji  Mirza  Hassein  and  the  chief 
preacher  to  the  Shah  were  speaking  here  in  Hamadan.  I 
went  to  hear  and  got  into  debate  with  them.  They  came  for 
a  renewal  of  the  debate  to  the  mission  residence  at  the  dis- 
pensary, and  I  saw  that  the  truth  was  with  Christianity. 
Saeed  was  there,  and  they  could  not  answer  his  words.  'Be 
silent,'  they  said  to  him,  'and  let  the  Sahib  do  the  talking.' 
After  the  debate  I  called  on  these  men,  and  they  gave  me  a 
Moslem  book  to  read,  but  it  proved  nothing,  and  I  held  to 
Christ. 

"At  first  I  was  afraid  to  speak  openly  of  my  new  faith,  but 
now  I  am  not  afraid  of  anybody.  For  some  years  I  had  charge 
of  the  boys  in  the  boarding  school,  but  now  for  twelve  years, 
I  have  gone  to  and  fro  in  the  evangelistic  work  preaching  the 
Gospel  of  our  Saviour.  The  people  do  not  resent  my  message. 
'If  you  are  in  doubt,'  I  say  to  them,  'the  Koran  itself  says, 

405 


Ask  the  people  of  the  Book.  Who  are  the  people  of  the  Book 
and  what  is  the  Book?  I  have  the  Book  here.  Let  us  ask  it 
now.'  " 

The  old  man,  lame  from  the  effects  of  his  fall  and  grizzled 
like  a  veteran  of  many  wars,  whimsical,  loving,  and  unafraid, 
with  a  living  experience  of  Christ  and  an  authoritative  knowl- 
edge of  Islam,  is  one  of  the  most  faithful  and  untiring  preach- 
ers of  Christ  in  Persia,  and  his  children  are  following  in  his 
steps. 

Far  off  in  the  opposite  corner  of  Persia,  near  the  frontiers 
of  Turkistan  and  Afghanistan  in  the  city  of  Meshed  we  met 
with  a  group  of  forty-five  believers  and  inquirers,  all  of  whom 
had  been  Mohammedans  save  one  who  was  a  Russian.  We  met 
almost  under  the  shadow  of  the  great  mosque  in  the  leading 
shrine  city  of  Persia,  where  a  generation  ago  a  Christian 
would  not  have  been  tolerated  for  a  day  and  where  some 
years  since  the  whole  Jewish  community  was  forcibly  con- 
verted to  Islam.  The  little  group  asked  us  to  tell  them  of 
what  we  had  seen  in  Japan  and  China  and  India  and  other 
lands,  and  we  spoke  to  them  of  the  Christian  Church  in  these 
countries  and  the  conditions  which  surrounded  it  and  of  the 
rich  experience  which  we  had  had  in  these  and  in  many  other 
lands  of  the  universality  and  power  and  brotherly  love  of 
Christianity,  of  which  we  were  having  fresh  experiences  also 
in  this  new  Christian  community  in  Meshed.  The  morning 
after  our  arrival  I  had  met  two  of  the  Christians  who  were 
working  in  the  hospital.  I  did  not  know  that  they  were  mem- 
bers of  the  brotherhood,  but  they  knew  who  I  was,  and  their 
greeting  was  full  of  the  warm  and  simple  affection  of  new  and 
true  believers.  The  old  man  had  taken  me  in  his  arms,  and 
rubbed  his  shaggy  whiskers  first  on  one  cheek  and  then  on 
the  other,  and  the  young  woman,  in  Moslem  dress  but  with 
unveiled  face,  had  given  me  an  appropriate  but  equally  cordial 
welcome.  In  our  little  gathering  there  were  many  different 
types,  faces  from  Herat  in  Afghanistan,  characters  from 
many  different  parts  of  Persia  and  central  Asia  who  had  been 
drawn  to  Meshed,  some  on  pilgrimage  to  the  Shrine,  but  all 
of  whom  were  now  feeling  the  power  of  a  stronger  drawing. 
Some  wore  turbans,  some  sheepskin  caps,  many  were  common 
laboring  folk,  but  some  were  better  clad  in  long  brown  camels' 
hair  abbas.  We  asked  them  what  their  own  knowledge  of 
Persia  convinced  them  was  its  greatest  need.  A  tailor  made 
answer  for  them  all,  "The  salvation  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  that 
faith  and  confidence  in  one  another  which  we  do  not  possess 
and  which  can  come  only  in  and  through  Him.    It  has  never 

406 


come  and  it  never  can  come  through  Mohammed."  We  asked 
them  what  were  the  great  difficulties  and  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  the  spread  of  the  Gospel.  They  answered :  "The  want 
in  men  of  the  right  spirit,  our  fear  of  one  another,  our  dread 
of  ridicule  and  shame,  the  conviction  of  the  sincere  Moham- 
medan that  honest  comparison  shows  the  Koran  to  be  at  least 
as  good  a  book  as  the  Bible,  the  knowledge  that  if  a  man  be- 
comes a  Christian  people  will  boycott  his  shop,  economic  fear." 
We  asked  whether  any  one  had  yet  been  killed  for  leaving 
Islam  and  embracing  Christianity.  "Not  so,"  was  their  reply. 
Was  there  any  danger  of  such  result?  "Perhaps,"  they  said, 
"but  very  little.  There  was  no  danger  to  life,  but  much  an- 
noyance." What  hindered  most,  they  thought,  was  the  domi- 
nance which  Mohammedanism  exercised  over  common  life.  The 
rules  of  conduct  laid  down  by  the  Koran  operated,  they  be- 
lieved, as  a  barrier  to  life  and  progress.  When  we  asked 
them  wherein  this  was  true,  they  instanced  at  once  the  mar- 
riage customs  of  Islam,  the  uncleanness  of  thought  which 
they  declared  it  bred,  and  the  falsehood  which  everywhere 
permeated  Moslem  society.  On  the  surface,  they  said,  it  might 
appear  that  Mohammed  had  not  given  permission  to  lie,  but 
his  conduct  and  that  of  his  followers  had  thrown  a  religious 
sanction  around  hypocrisy  and  falsehood,  and  the  fact  that 
Persians  had  originally  become  Moslems  by  force,  had  laid  a 
religious  foundation  for  insincerity. 

We  asked  this  little  group  what  it  valued  most  in  Christi- 
anity. Its  first  answer  was,  "Its  love,"  to  which  they  ex- 
plained some  of  them  had  come  only  by  a  rough  road,  "I  was 
like  a  sheep  astray,"  said  one  old  man,  "guided  by  stones 
thrown  from  this  side  and  that,  by  an  unknown  and  resisted 
guidance  to  a  safe  shelter  and  a  great  love."  "The  consistency 
between  the  teaching  and  the  practice  of  Jesus  which  we  did 
not  find  in  Mohammed,"  said  another.  "Likewise,"  said  a 
third,  "the  humility  and  self-abasement  of  Christ  and  the  ab- 
sence in  Him  of  any  spirit  of  retaliation."  "In  my  heart," 
said  a  fourth,  "believing  has  seemed  like  a  light  and  a  revela- 
tion." "As  among  the  Jews,"  said  another,  "religion  was  the 
traditions  of  the  Pharisees,  so  it  always  seemed  to  me  in 
Islam.  It  was  in  Christ  that  we  first  found  truth  and  reality, 
a  True  and  Living  Comforter." 

What  arguments,  we  asked  this  group,  were  they  accus- 
tomed to  use  in  presenting  Christ  as  Lord  and  Saviour  to  Mo- 
hammedans. And  these  were  some  of  their  replies :  "All  men 
are  sinners,  a  mediator  without  sin  must  be  found,  he  cannot 
be  found  among  mankind,  he  must  be  from  God  himself." 

407 


"The  teaching  about  love  in  the  Bible  that  is  not  to  be  found 
in  any  other  book."  "The  birth  of  Jesus  Christ  supernaturally 
through  the  Holy  Spirit."  "A  dried  up  tree  gives  no  fruit ;  a 
living  tree  bears  fruit." 

Were  there  many  secret  believers  in  Persia,  we  inquired. 
Their  ansv^ers  differed.  "Many,"  said  some.  But  others,  "It 
cannot  be.  If  they  were  really  believers,  they  would  confess." 
"No,"  said  others,  "there  are  many  who  really  believe,  but 
who  are  afraid.  If  there  were  any  protecting  power  here  to 
assure  them  safety,  many  would  confess."  But  there  was  no 
such  protection  in  the  early  Church,  they  were  reminded. 
"Yes,"  said  they,  "that  is  so."  When  we  asked  what  we  should 
tell  the  Church  at  home  to  pray  for  in  connection  with  the 
cause  of  Christ  in  Persia,  their  answers  were  very  simple; 
first  for  the  progress  of  Christ's  Kingdom  and  that  the  Church 
should  be  multiplied,  second  for  freedom  of  religion,  and  third 
that  to  those  who  believe  God  might  give  the  grace  of  a  new 
faith  and  love. 

I  asked  some  of  these  Christians  to  write  down  for  us  the 
story  of  their  religious  experience,  first  as  Mohammedans  and 
then  as  Christians,  and  here  are  several  of  these  stories  just 
as  they  have  told  them: 

Testimony  of  Mirza Khan 

"I  beg  to  present  the  following  brief  statement  of  my  chief 
reason  for  leaving  both  Islam  and  Bahaism.  As  I  thought 
about  it,  an  instructor  must  first  have  acquired  knowledge 
himself  before  he  can  impart  it  to  others.  And  when  I  con- 
sidered Jesus  Christ,  I  saw  in  Him  the  very  perfection  of  per- 
sonality— and  He  was  not  involved  in  the  acquisition  of  mate- 
rial things.  He  did  not  choose  any  merely  temporal  end  as  the 
purpose  of  His  life.  And  habitually  He  conducted  himself 
with  humility.  When  I  examined  the  gospels,  I  saw  that  when 
Judas  delivered  our  Lord  into  the  hands  of  the  chief  priests, 
one  of  the  disciples  cut  off  the  ear  of  a  soldier,  and  Jesus 
commanded  him  to  sheathe  his  sword,  telling  him  that  he  who 
resorts  to  the  sword  shall  perish  by  the  sword.  As  we  think 
about  this  we  see  the  ideal  that  is  set  forth  for  His  disciples. 
At  another  time  He  said  to  them,  I  wash  your  feet  that  you 
may  learn  to  wash  one  another's  feet.  And  so  we  see  also 
in  the  conduct  of  His  disciples,  the  burdens  they  bore  and  the 
hardships  they  suffered  were  but  tokens  of  the  love  they  had 
for  mankind. 

"On  the  other  hand,  what  must  I  think  of  Mohammed,  when 
I  think  of  what  is  written  in  history  about  the  battles  he 
fought,  and  the  zeal  he  had  for  conquest.    Likewise  his  twelve 

408 


disciples  or  representatives,  whom  we  call  the  Imams — usually 
they  were  men  of  war  and  of  bloodshed.  First  there  was  Ali 
who  was  famous  for  his  valor  in  battles,  and  his  fighting  with 
the  Jews  has  been  much  celebrated.  So  also  it  is  perfectly 
evident  from  history  how  Imam  Hasan  and  Imam  Hosein 
lived  and  fought.  And  this  criticism  applies  to  Islam  in  gen- 
eral, and  every  tree  is  known  by  its  fruit.  Success  in  war  was 
the  only  proof  Mohammedans  had,  whereas  they  should  have 
considered  that  a  real  prophet  would  not  extend  his  teaching 
in  this  way. 

"I  was  a  Bahai  because  my  father  and  grandfather  and  all 
my  family  were  Bahaies.  But  I  have  found  nothing  more 
perfect  than  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ.  What  specially 
impressed  me  is  what  I  have  written  above,  though  there  are 
also  other  factors.  Whoever  has  ears  to  hear,  can  arrive  at 
real  happiness,  and  I  think  I  have  found  this  happiness  in 
Christianity." 

Testimony  of  Mirza ,  (a  carpenter) 

"I  thank  God  for  my  brethren  in  Christ. 

"1.  In  the  first  place,  I  object  to  Islam  in  that  Mohammed 
carried  on  his  propaganda  by  the  force  of  money  and  of  op- 
pression.   He  could  not  be  a  Saviour. 

"2.  Anyone  who  has  numerous  wives  can  not  have  fellow- 
ship with  God ;  of  necessity  he  must  be  a  worshiper  of  his  own 
lust.     He  could  not  be  a  Saviour. 

"3.  Anyone  who  instigates  strife  and  turmoil,  saying 
that  if  anyone  strikes  you  on  the  ear,  strike  him  in  return, 
and  saying  many  more  such  things,  even  sanctioning  retalia- 
tion in  murder, — he  could  not  be  a  Saviour. 

"4.  In  so  much  as  Mohammed  got  his  daily  food  by  theft, 
and  this  is  so  well  known  that  the  Arabs  still  justify  theft  by 
saying,  'It  is  the  work  of  Mohammed,'  and  Mohammed  says 
in  his  own  behalf,  'By  the  help  of  God  we  have  made  a  great 
conquest,'  *and  much  of  his  teaching  and  many  of  the  alleged 
miracles  are  in  the  same  strain, — he  could  not  be  a  Saviour. 

"5.  Mohammed  said  that  every  one  who  was  not  of  his 
religion  was  an  infidel  and  unclean,  and  thus  he  did  away 
with  fellowship  among  mankind,  in  so  much  as  he  was  taken 
up  with  greed,  force,  lust,  hatred,  murder  and  self-seeking. 
We  Mohammedans  came  to  understand  all  this.  He  could  not 
be  a  Saviour. 

"Why  I  became  a  Christian. 


*  A  standard  on  a  Moslem  banner.     Approximately  the  same  thing  is 
found  in  Sura  48,  verse  1. 

409 


"Now  I  thank  God  that  he  has  given  me  ears  to  hear  and  a 
heart  to  understand.  I  saw  that  in  the  Moslem  faith  all  leads  to 
destruction,  and  I  searched  for  truth,  to  find  a  Saviour,  until 
God,  of  his  grace,  showed  me  the  way.  I  searched  the  Bible 
and  I  saw  the  glory  of  God,  and  I  saw  that  the  Bible  leads 
mankind  to  God,  and  that  God  himself  has  provided  a  way 
of  salvation.  Convinced  that  Jesus  was  no  worshiper  of  lust, 
my  heart  said,  This  is  the  man  to  be  a  Saviour.' 

"I  realized  that  I  did  not  find  retaliation  taught  in  the  Gos- 
pels. But  on  the  contrary,  here  are  a  few  verses,  the  gist  of 
which  I  recall: 

"What  you  wish  men  to  do  for  you,  you  do  those  things  for  them. 
If  any  one  is  your  enemy,  you  be  his  friend. 
If  anyone  injures  you,  do  not  seek  to  injure  him  in  return. 
In  so  far  as  you  are  able,  always  act  with  love. 
Do  not  regard  anyone  with  evil  intent. 
Always  seek  grace  from  God  and  it  will  be  given  you. 

"I  appreciated  that  what  Mohammed  taught  has  been  the 
source  of  lying  and  hatred,  and  that  which  I  learned  concern- 
ing Jesus  was  that  which  I  have  stated  above.  And  I  am  con- 
vinced that  all  others  have  been  sinners,  and  that  Jesus  alone 
can  be  a  Saviour.  The  Holy  Spirit  helped  me,  and  from  the 
hand  of  my  spiritual  shepherd  I  received  baptism,  and  now  I 
seek,  by  God's  help,  to  follow  the  way  of  life.  God  knows  the 
conscience  of  his  unworthy  servant,  and  I  surely  thank  the 
God  of  all  grace  that  he  gave  his  Holy  Spirit,  that  I  might 
have  hope.  0  God,  show  me  in  my  weakness,  the  way  of  life, 
that  I  may  grow  more  perfect.  I  thank  God  that  the  brethren 
pray  for  one  another,  that  we  may  all  be  saved  and  kept." 

Testimony  of  Mirza Khan,  (a  tailor) 

"Reasons  for  leaving  Islam. 

"1.  In  the  first  place  it  is  impossible  to  be  content  with  the 
Moslem  system  of  belief  on  account  of  the  superstition  and 
credulity  involved  in  it. 

"2.  The  use  of  force  in  religious  propaganda  during  the 
time  of  Mohammed  throws  suspicion  on  the  genuineness  of 
the  teaching. 

"3.  In  subsequent  history  there  has  been  a  conspicuous  ab- 
sence of  enlightenment  and  an  attitude  of  aloofness  and  en- 
mity towards  other  people. 

"4.     My  heart  found  no  comfort  in  Islam. 

"5.  I  became  convinced  that  the  backwardness  of  Persia 
was  largely  on  account  of  bigotry  and  the  lack  of  religious 
and  intellectual  freedom. 

410 


"Reasons  for  becoming  a  Christian. 

"1.     A  new  birth  at  thirty  years  of  age. 

"2.     The  study  of  the  Bible. 

"3.  The  invitation  of  Christ,  on  the  basis  of  love,  virtue 
and  peace. 

"4.  The  increase  of  the  glory  of  the  kingdom  of  Jesus 
Christ  throughout  the  world. 

"5.  The  finding  of  assurances,  and  of  comfort  for  heart 
longings,  and  reaching  a  basis  in  belief  for  loving  all  man- 
kind. 

"6.  My  prayer  is  for  freedom  in  Christ  Jesus  for  all 
Persia." 

Testimony  of  Mirza — (a  rug  weaver) 

"Question. — Does  the  teaching  of  the  Koran  prove  that  it 
is  a  book  from  God? 

"Answer. — No. 

"Question. — These  one  hundred  and  forty  suras  of  the 
Koran,  by  the  power  of  what  person  did  Mohammed  declare 
them, — by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit? 

"Answer. — No. 

"Question. — In  regard  to  the  Koran,  what  then  is  your 
belief  and  on  what  authority? 

"Answer. — It  is  a  compendium  of  the  teachings  and  customs 
of  other  peoples,  e.  g.,  the  customs  of  the  Jews  and  other 
Semites,  Zoroastrians  and  Hindus,  of  Roman  Catholics,  of 
Arabs  of  that  time,  and  of  the  followers  of  Hanif ;  and  one  of 
its  obvious  results  has  been  the  imprisonment  of  women,  sepa- 
rating them  from  their  natural  rights  of  humanity  and  de- 
priving them  of  learning  and  progress.  For  the  preparation 
of  the  Koran  Mohammed  had  no  special  command  of  God 
and  no  singular  learning  to  qualify  him  for  this  work.  He 
obeyed  his  instincts  and  among  these  jealousy  was  prominent. 

"Question. — Thirteen  hundred  years  have  passed  since  the 
Hejira,  and  from  generation  to  generation  Islam  has  made 
progress,  and  up  until  the  present  there  has  been  no  revolt 
against  it  among  the  Persians.  They  are  divided  into  72  sects, 
but  they  have  rejected  neither  Mohammed  nor  the  Koran. 
Why  is  this? 

"Answer. — The  spread  of  Islam  and  the  persistence  of  it 
can  not  be  considered  as  a  proof  of  the  authority  and  right 
of  Mohammed,  for  idol  worshipers  are  still  numerous  and  per- 
sistent enough,  and  I  am  waiting,  according  to  the  prophets 
and  in  conformity  with  the  declaration  of  Jesus  Christ,  with 
the  expectation  that  all  will  believe  on  Jesus  Christ  and  be 
one  communion  of  the  Christian  faith. 

411 


"Isaiah  60 :6-7 ;  Isaiah  19 :23-25 ;  Isaiah  2:1-5;  Isaiah  49 :22- 
26;  John  10:16;  Matt.  24:14;  Phil.  2:10,  11. 

"Question. — What  then  is  your  faith  and  belief? 

"Answer. — I  believe  in  the  New  Testament,  and  am  a  Chris- 
tian, with  faith  according  to  the  instruction  of  Jesus  Christ. 

"Question. — Assuming  that  you  are  a  Christian,  are  you  able 
to  deny  that  the  Koran  is  from  God?  Cf.  Sura  'The  Spider' 
(29)  V.  45.  'Thus  have  we  sent  down  the  book  of  the  Koran 
to  thee :  and  they  to  whom  we  have  given  the  book  of  the  Law 
believe  in  it.' 

"Answer. — The  answer  is  in  James  2:19:  'Thou  believest 
that  God  is  one;  thou  doest  well;  the  demons  also  believe  and 
shudder.' 

"Question. — But  what  reply  have  you  to  Sura  'Women,'  vv. 
169,  170,  where  we  read:  'God  is  only  one  God!  Far  be  it 
from  His  glory  that  He  should  have  a  son !  His,  whatever  is 
in  the  heavens,  and  whatever  is  in  the  earth !  And  God  is  a 
sufficient  guardian.  The  Messiah  disdaineth  not  to  be  a  servant 
of  God,  nor  do  the  angels  who  are  nigh  unto  Him.' 

"Answer. — The  answer  is  found  in  the  Gospel  of  John, 
ch.  1:1-4:  'In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was 
with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God.  The  same  was  in  the  be- 
ginning with  God.  All  things  were  made  through  Him,  and 
without  Him  was  not  anything  made  that  hath  been  made. 
In  Him  was  life;  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men.' 

"Question. — But  we  read  about  the  creation  of  Jesus  in 
Sura  (3)  'The  Family  of  Imran,'  v.  52.  'Verily,  Jesus  is  as 
Adam  in  the  sight  of  God.  He  created  him  of  dust ;  He  then 
said  to  him,  "Be,"  and  he  was.' 

"Answer. — The  answer  is  found  in  1  Cor.  15:45-50.  'So 
also  it  is  written,  The  first  man  Adam  became  a  living  soul. 
The  last  Adam  became  a  life-giving  spirit.  Howbeit  that  is 
not  first  which  is  spiritual,  but  that  which  is  natural;  then 
that  which  is  spiritual.  The  first  man  is  of  the  earth  earthy; 
the  second  man  is  of  heaven.  As  is  the  earth,  such  are  they 
also  that  are  earthy;  and  as  is  the  heavenly,  such  are  they 
also  that  are  heavenly.  And  as  we  have  borne  the  image  of 
the  earthy,  we  shall  also  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly.  Now 
this  I  say,  brethren,  that  flesh  and  blood  can  not  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God ;  neither  doth  corruption  inherit  incorruption.' 

"Question. — But  about  Jesus'  death,  did  God  really  let  it 
happen?  cf.  Sura  (3)  Al  Imran,  v.  48.  'Remember  when  God 
said,  "0  Jesus,  verily  I  will  cause  thee  to  die,  and  will  take 
thee  up  to  myself  and  deliver  thee  from  those  who  believe 
not."  ' 

412 


"Answer. — We  find  Jesus'  death  explicitly  stated  in  Matt. 
27:50.  'And  Jesus  cried  again  with  a  loud  voice,  and  yielded 
up  his  spirit.' 

"Question. — How  do  you  interpret  Sura  (19)  'Mary'  v.  34, 
which  says:  'And  the  peace  of  God  was  upon  me  the  day  I 
was  born,  and  will  be  the  day  I  shall  die,  and  the  day  I  shall 
be  raised  to  life.' 

"Answer. — See  John  20:16,  17:  'Jesus  saith  unto  her,  Mary. 
She  turned  herself  and  saith  unto  him  in  Hebrew,  Raboni ; 
which  is  to  say.  Teacher.  Jesus  saith  to  her.  Touch  me  not ;  for 
I  am  not  yet  ascended  unto  the  Father;-  but  go  unto  my  breth- 
ren, and  say  to  them,  I  ascend  unto  my  Father  and  your 
Father,  and  my  God  and  your  God.' 

"Question. — But  did  Mohammed  consider  that  the  Jews 
really  killed  Jesus?  Of.  Sura  (4)  'Women,'  v.  156.  'Yet 
they  slew  him  not,  and  they  crucified  him  not,  but  they  had 
only  his  likeness.' 

"Answer. — In  regard  to  this  it  would  be  well  to  read  I  John 
4:1-5,  'Beloved,  believe  not  every  spirit,  but  prove  the  spirits, 
whether  they  are  of  God;  because  many  false  prophets  are 
gone  out  into  the  world.  Hereby  know  ye  the  spirit  of  God; 
every  spirit  that  confesseth  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the 
flesh  is  of  God;  and  every  spirit  that  confesseth  not  Jesus  is 
not  of  God;  and  this  is  the  spirit  of  the  anti-christ,  whereof 
ye  have  heard  that  it  cometh;  and  now  it  is  in  the  world 
already.  Ye  are  of  God,  my  little  children,  and  have  overcome 
them;  because  greater  is  He  that  is  in  you  than  he  that  is  in 
the  world.' 

"Question. — I  can  give  no  further  answer  to  this,  but  it 
would  be  well  for  you  to  consult  Moslem  scholars  and  teachers. 

"Answer. — Jesus  gave  instruction  concerning  the  scholars 
and  teachers.    We  find  it  in  Matt.  23 :30-38. 

"Question. — I  agree  that  there  is  resemblance  in  every  par- 
ticular with  the  present  scholars  and  teachers  of  Islam,  but 
I  still  thank  God  that  I  can  believe  that  Mohammed  is  my 
prophet  and  saviour,  and  that  he  was  himself  without  sin. 

"Answer. — According  to  Moslem  practice  the  witness  of 
three  persons  is  enough  in  most  cases,  and  thousands  have 
held  this  belief  from  instinct  or  tradition,  but  it  would  be  well 
to  consult  the  words  of  Mohammed,  which  are  found  in  the 
Koran  itself,  Cf.  Sura  (40)  'The  Behever,'  v.  57:  'Therefore 
be  steadfast  thou  and  patient ;  for  true  is  the  promise  of  God ; 
and  seek  pardon  for  thy  faidt,  and  celebrate  the  praise  of  thy 
Lord  at  evening  and  at  morning.'  Sura  (47)  'Mohammed,' 
V.  21 :  'Know,  then,  that  there  is  no  God  but  God ;  and  ask 

413 


pardon  for  thy  sin;  and  for  believers,  both  men  and  women.' 
Sura  (48)  'The  Victory,'  vs.  1-3:  'Verily,  we  have  won  for 
thee  an  undoubted  victory.  In  token  that  God  forgiveth  thy 
earlier  and  later  faults,  and  fulfilleth  his  goodness  to  thee, 
and  guideth  thee  on  the  right  way.' 

"Question. — This  is  obvious.  A  prophet  may  be  a  sinner, 
but  not  so  with  a  mediator  or  a  saviour  who  is  to  accomplish 
an  atonement  for  sins.    So  what  must  I  do  to  be  saved? 

"Answer. — The  answer  is  found  in  Acts  2:37-39. 

"Question. — But  where  do  we  learn  that  Jesus  was  without 
sin? 

"Answer. — In  John  8:46,  and  as  I  said,  when  you  read  the 
books  of  the  prophets,  they  will  throw  light  on  this.  Jesus 
himself  says,  in  John  5:38,  39,  'You  must  search  the  Scrip- 
tures, etc' 

"Let  us  pray  about  it. 

"O  God  Almighty,  I  thank  Thee  that  Thou  didst  set  us  free 
from  the  oppression  of  fanaticism,  and  that  the  Holy  Spirit, 
given  unto  us,  poured  forth  Thine  own  love  into  our  hearts. 
We  love  Thee  with  our  whole  souls,  and  know  certainly  that 
Thou  didst  first  love  us,  and  didst  give  of  Thine  own  life  in 
Jesus  Christ  on  behalf  of  mankind.  Thou  didst  bring  us  to 
a  knowledge  of  thee,  and  we  have  hope  that  on  this  earth 
we  may  soon  be  one  flock,  under  one  Shepherd.  This  is  our 
prayer,  in  Thine  own  name.    Amen." 

On  our  way  from  Teheran  to  Meshed  we  had  passed  through 
Omar  Khayyam's  city,  Nishapur,  at  midnight.  On  our  return, 
however,  we  stopped  for  a  day  in  Nishapur,  and  three  of  the 
six  believers  in  the  city  were  waiting  for  us,  as  our  poor 
old  broken  post  carriage  halted  in  the  snow  before  the  post 
house.  Nothing  would  do  but  that  we  must  go  with  them 
at  once  to  the  home  of  the  leader  of  the  little  company,  and 
as  we  sat  about  a  brazier  and  ate  our  frugal  meal,  he  told  us 
the  story  of  his  finding  Christ.  He  began  with  a  bit  of  Per- 
sian verse,  "When  God  wants  a  man.  He  will  draw  him  to 
Himself."  Mohammed  had  borne  testimony  to  Jesus  Christ, 
why  should  he  not  bear  testimony  too?  Then  from  Omar 
Khayyam  he  quoted  some  saying  that  all  men  are  sinners  save 
God — Father,  Son  and  Spirit.  This  was  in  the  Mesnavi  of 
Jalal-ud-din  too.  The  Prophet  and  the  poets  alike  testify  that 
Christ  is  the  only  person  who  has  come  on  earth  who  has 
not  sinned.  "The  Koran  gave  me  this  thought  long  before  I 
found  it  in  the  Bible.  From  the  Mesnavi  I  learned  also  that 
Mohammed  was  greatly  troubled  over  his  sins  and  cried  to 
God  for  forgiveness,  and  I  was  troubled,  too,  but  knew  of  no 

414 


way  of  deliverance.  About  five  years  ago  I  got  a  Bible  from  a 
long  bearded  man  who,  I  think,  was  an  Armenian,  for  five 
krans.  I  found  the  New  Testament  a  spiritual  book  and  be- 
gan to  compare  it  with  the  Koran,  and  from  that  comparison 
I  found  peace  in  the  Injil  (the  Gospel).  Then  I  learned  that 
there  were  spiritual  Christians  in  Meshed,  and  I  met  one  of 

them,  Hajji ,  but  he  gave  me  no  satisfaction.    Soon  after 

Mr.  Miller  came  to  Nishapur,  and  I  and  my  son  and  my 
friend,  the  Hajji,  here,  were  baptized."  Mr.  Miller  had  writ- 
ten to  me  at  the  time  of  this  visit,  and  his  account  of  it  may 
well  be  preserved  here.  It  was  dated  "Nishapur,  October 
25,  1920." 

"About  two  months  ago  we  began  getting  letters  in  Meshed 
from  a  Mirza  in  Nishapur  saying  that  he  had  met  one  of  the 
Meshed  Christians  who  had  told  him  of  us,  and  begging  one 
of  us  to  come  to  Nishapur  and  instruct  him.  After  seven 
letters  had  been  received  it  was  decided  that  somebody  would 
have  to  go,  so  our  Persian  associate  and  I  set  out  on  donkeys 
on  the  three  day  trip  over  the  mountains.  We  were  met  12 
miles  outside  the  city  by  our  inquirer  and  I'm  sure  no  mis- 
sionary ever  had  a  warmer  welcome  anywhere.  When  we 
were  seated  in  his  home  my  companion,  like  Peter  in  Corne- 
lius' house,  said,  'Now  we  have  come  to  you.  Will  you  kindly 
tell  us  why  you  sent  for  us?' 

"Mirza replied  by  giving  us  a  brief  account  of  his 

life.  His  grandfather  had  been  the  head  of  the  Ismailian 
sect  of  Islam  in  Herat,  and  he  himself  had  5,000  households 
of  this  sect  in  Persia  under  his  supervision.  As  a  boy  he  had 
been  in  India  and  a  medical  missionary  had  said  something 
to  him  about  Christ  which  he  had  never  forgotten.  For  some 
years,  however,  he  searched  in  vain  here  and  there  for  a  re- 
ligion that  would  satisfy  him,  till  six  years  ago  he  bought  a 
book  from  a  man  with  a  long  beard  (Dr.  Esselstyn) .  He  soon 
found  that  this  was  what  he  was  looking  for.  Three  years 
ago  he  believed  on  Christ.  But  he  did  not  know  there  were 
Christian  ministers  in  Meshed,  and  he  had  been  waiting  in 
vain  for  someone  to  baptize  him.  'So,'  he  concluded,  'I  sent 
for  you  to  baptize  me  that  I  may  be  a  complete  Christian.' 

"I  stayed  in  his  home  some  days  and  was  convinced  that 
he  was  ready  for  baptism.  The  only  thing  that  stood  in  the 
way  was  that  he  had  two  wives,  both  of  whom  he  loved,  and 
they  and  their  children  all  lived  happily  in  one  house!  At 
first  I  made  up  my  mind  that  this  ought  not  to  keep  a  man 
out  of  the  church  of  Christ  and  I  sent  to  Meshed  for  approval 
of  my  purpose  to  baptize  them  all.     But  before  the  approval 

415 


arrived  the  father  arranged  to  put  away  one  of  the  wives 
and  to  provide  for  her,  so  this  problem  was  cleared  up.  Three 
weeks  ago  I  baptized  this  man  and  his  twelve-year-old  son 
and  another  convert  from  Meshed  who  now  lives  in  Nishapur. 
It  was  a  bit  difficult  to  conduct  the  examination  on  nine 
months  of  Persian!  But  this  didn't  lessen  the  joy  of  us  all  a 
bit.  You  should  have  seen  us  all  kissing  each  other  in  good 
apostolic  fashion  afterward !  And  the  converts  drank  up  the 
water  in  the  baptismal  bowl  and  pronounced  it  very  good! 

"Mirza says  that  his  sect  does  not  accept  Mohammed 

or  the  Koran,  only  Ali ;  that  they  have  no  Bible  and  no  set 
prayers  or  rules ;  that  they  are  largely  sufi  in  theology ;  and  in 
teaching  are  not  far  from  Christianity,  polygamy  and  divorce 
being  condemned.  He  feels  it  will  not  be  hard  to  evangelize 
the  whole  sect  and  is  eager  to  make  a  tour  of  his  villages  in 
order  to  tell  his  people  of  his  discovery.  Several  days  ago 
he  received  a  formidable  document  from  his  superior  in  India 
saying  that  it  was  rumored  that  he  was  straying  away  from 
the  faith  and  calling  on  him  to  deny  the  charge.  Mirza  replied 
by  making  a  bold  confession  of  his  faith  in  Christ  and  asking 
that  his  resignation  from  his  official  position  be  accepted. 

"Two  weeks  ago  Dr.  Hoffman  came  here  too  and  he  is  now 
having  a  busy  time  in  our  'hospital.'  Saturday  he  saw  176 
patients,  did  one  major  and  seven  minor  operations  and  made 
a  house  call.  The  Bible  Society  agent  is  with  us  too,  and  we 
are  selling  a  good  many  Bibles.  Every  day  men  have  been 
coming  to  read  and  talk  with  us  about  Christianity.  I  believe 
there  are  a  number  of  men  here  who  are  not  far  from  be- 
coming Christians.  The  mollahs  of  the  city  are  considerably 
disturbed  over  it  all,  I  hear,  and  some  of  our  inquirers  have 
been  frightened  away. 

"There  is  a  sheikh  who  comes  to  see  me  every  morning 
early.  He  does  not  want  people  to  see  him  coming,  but  he 
is  evidently  gripped  by  the  power  of  the  Gospel  and  he  can't 
keep  away.  The  heart  of  the  conflict  between  Christianity 
and  Islam  is  the  old  question  of  faith  and  works.  I  have  been 
taking  this  sheikh  through  Romans  and  many  of  Paul's  argu- 
ments take  on  fresh  meaning  as  one  sees  how  they  cut  through 
the  self-righteousness  of  a  Mohammedan  Pharisee.  Matthew 
and  Romans  seem  to  be  written  for  the  special  purpose  of 
cutting  the  ground  from  under  the  feet  of  Islam.  One  can- 
not realize  the  impregnable  and  irresistible  force  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  till  he  has  seen  it  tried  out  against  another  re- 
ligious system." 

In  the  evening  of  our  stay  in  Nishapur,  with  our  friend, 

416 


Hajji,  the  merchant,  who  had  been  with  us  at  noon,  we  made 
our  way  through  the  dark  and  closed  covered  bazaars  and 
down  some  side  streets  where  the  snow  was  falHng  heavily  to 
the  leader's  house.  Our  host  was  sick,  and  reclining  on  the 
floor  against  some  pillows  with  his  body  under  the  quilts 
thrown  over  the  kursee,  a  little  wooden  stand  set  over  a  bra- 
zier and  covered  with  blankets,  which  hold  the  heat  of  the 
little  fire  and  under  which  the  whole  family  sleep.  Five 
of  us  sat  about  the  kursee,  our  host,  the  old  merchant,  a  young 
farmer,  and  two  of  us  Americans,  and  ate  our  supper  of  rice 
and  meat,  spread  upon  the  kursee,  and  talked  together  of  the 
Gospel  and  Persia.  Our  host  said  he  liked  all  the  New  Testa- 
ment eoually  even  as  he  loved  all  of  us,  but  that  the  chapters 
of  the  Gospel  according  to  Matthew  from  the  14th  to  the  19th 
were  the  best  to  use  in  presenting  the  Gospel  to  other  Moham- 
medans, because  these  were  the  chapters  which  set  up  just 
the  ideals  of  life  in  which  Islam  was  most  barren.  The  times 
were  dark  in  Persia  due  to  the  economic  ruin  of  Russia.  The 
old  merchant's  business  was  entirely  gone.  So  the  talk  ran 
on.  They  did  not  know  much  about  Russia  except  that  the 
conditions  were  worse  than  in  Persia.  Nothing  sadder  could 
be  said.  No  caravans  came  any  more  from  Askabad  into 
Khorasan  and  none  crossed  back  again.  Islam  was  very  bad. 
It  had  three  great  evils,  falsehood,  self-centeredness,  and  de- 
ception. Yes,  and  as  to  women,  Islam  did  not  teach  husbands 
to  love  their  wives,  and  it  put  woman's  religion  under  the 
husband's  control,  and  turned  mothers  into  hypocrites.  Christ 
was  of  an  order  superior  to  Mohammed,  a  spiritual  being 
with  a  spiritual  influence.  Yes,  they  had  known  persecution, 
but  they  were  suffering  far  more  from  the  general  economic 
conditions  of  want  and  destitution  from  which  all  were  suffer- 
ing. The  church  was  small  now,  but  all  seeds  are  small,  and 
the  power  of  life  and  growth  was  in  it.  Confessing  Christ 
had  meant  no  economic  gain  to  them.  All  of  them  were  poorer 
and  found  the  way  more  difficult,  and  they  knew  that  greater 
difficulties  probably  were  in  store.  "The  mollahs  and  mujta- 
hids  are  opposed  to  all  enlightenment.  Light  is  their  enemy, 
and  they  are  light's  enemies.  The  road  ahead  of  us  will  be 
hard,  no  doubt,  but  what  it  is,  it  is,  and  we  will  travel  it." 
The  old  merchant  walked  back  with  us  through  the  black 
night  and  the  gray  falling  snow  to  the  chill  post  house  where 
we  prayed  before  we  went  to  sleep  for  Christ's  little  flock, 
so  poor  and  alone,  in  Omar  Khayyam's  city.* 


*  Under  date  of  April  17,  1922,  Mr.  Miller  writes  from  Nishapur  of 
additional  baptisms  but  of  the  sori'owful  necessity  of  suspending  the  first 
Nishapur  convert. 

417 

14 — India  and  Persia 


Before  going  to  Meshed  I  had  spent  a  Sunday  afternoon 
with  some  of  the  Mohammedan  converts  in  Teheran.  Sev- 
eral earnest  Christians  from  the  Armenian  community  met 
with  us.  Indeed  the  little  group  was  made  up  from  the  com- 
mittee of  twelve  which  is  the  official  body  of  the  one  Church 
of  Christ  in  Teheran  composed  of  both  Mohammedan  and 
Armenian  converts.  I  had  asked  them  what  the  changes  were 
that  had  taken  place  in  Persia  since  I  was  here  twenty-six 
years  ago  and  also  what  they  regarded  as  the  great  difficulties 
and  needs  of  the  work.  They  said  they  would  answer  the 
questions  briefly,  but  that  they  preferred  to  meet  again  after 
our  return  from  Meshed  when  they  would  be  prepared  with 
more  careful  replies.  So  on  our  return  we  met  again  with 
the  full  committee  of  the  church.  I  will  combine  the  judg- 
ments which  they  expressed  in  these  two  conferences.  One 
of  the  men,  perhaps  the  oldest,  an  Armenian,  was  one  of  the 
most  respected  tailors  of  the  city.  "Twenty-five  years  ago," 
said  he,  "the  people  were  far  more  fanatical,  both  Moslems 
and  Armenians,  than  they  are  today.  Then  bitter  speech  and 
bitter  deeds  were  common.  I  think  it  is  the  witness  of  Chris- 
tian love,  in  part  at  least,  which  has  wrought  the  change. 
The  Moslems  considered  all  non-Moslems  as  infidels,  but  now 
they  admit  that  Christians  are  good  people.  The  love  of  God 
and  man  has  been  revealed.  With  such  changes  behind  us 
I  believe  that  if  the  laborers  are  adequately  increased  we  shall 
see  manifold  greater  changes  in  the  future.  But  though 
fanaticism  has  diminished,  it  is  still  our  greatest  hindrance, 
and  the  two  main  needs  of  Persia  are  religious  liberty  and 
teachers  of  Christ.  What  was  true  on  Christ's  lips,  I  can 
speak  with  equal  assurance  today.  The  Harvest  truly  lis 
plenteous,  but  the  laborers  are  few." 

"I  agree,"  said  a  second  member  of  the  group,  a  devoted 
Armenian  teacher,  "fanaticism  has  surely  greatly  decreased. 
Years  ago  Moslems  would  come  into  the  church  and  instead 
of  touching  books  with  their  hands  they  would  take  them  in 
their  abbas  (cloaks)  so  as  not  to  be  defiled.  Afterwards  they 
would  go  to  the  pool  in  the  mission  compound  and  wash  their 
hands.  Then  few  Mohammedans  ever  came  to  church.  Now 
the  chapel  is  crowded  with  them,  and  even  mollahs  attend. 
Then  no  Moslem  boy  could  safely  be  taken  into  the  school. 
Now  they  pay  to  be  allowed  to  come.  Then  colporteurs  had 
almost  no  liberty.  Now  they  go  about  with  freedom  and 
sell  Scriptures  even  at  the  shrine  of  Shah  Abdul  Azim.  Then 
a  convert  from  Islam  could  not  confess  Christ  openly  or  escape 
persecution,  even  if  he  believed  secretly.     Now  Moslem  con- 

418 


verts  preach  even  from  the  pulpit  when  there  are  Moham- 
medan ecclesiastics  present  and  nothing  happens  to  them.  Yet 
the  one  great  obstacle  is  still  Islam,  with  its  morality  so 
flexible  and  corruptible  to  the  level  of  low  desire.  You  must 
pray  that  Islam  may  be  broken  down." 

"I  am  only  a  young  man,"  said  one  of  the  Mohammedans, 
one  of  the  promising  young  doctors  of  the  city,  "and  I  cannot 
remember  conditions  twenty-five  years  ago.  but  I  have  heard 
how  impossible  confession  and  preaching  of  Christ  were  then, 
and  I  know  how  great  is  our  freedom  now.  Then  Moslems 
looked  on  Christians,  especially  if  they  were  wet  by  rain  or 
snow,  as  unclean.  Now  it  is  common  for  Moslems  to  eat 
with  us.  Still,  as  the  others  have  said,  Mohammedan  bigotry 
and  exclusiveness  are  our  great  hindrance.  The  Bahais  are 
a  diflficulty  too.  They  are  always  claiming  that  almost  all 
Americans  have  now  become  Bahais,  and  Persians  know  very 
little  of  the  world  and  believe  such  statements.  I  think  that 
we  need  three  things.  We  need  more  doctors  to  go  out  in 
the  towns  and  villages  to  preach  and  heal.  We  need  more 
help  from  America  to  lift  Persia  out  of  her  poverty  and  eco- 
nomic ruin.  And  we  need  a  center  for  the  hundreds  of  young 
men  in  Teheran  who  are  idle  on  Friday,  the  Mohammedan 
Sabbath,  and  who  do  not  go  to  the  mosques  and  are  very 
open  and  ready  for  any  Christian  influence  that  will  help 
them."  I  knew  how  just  these  opinions  were,  from  experi- 
ences of  which  I  shall  write  elsewhere.  This  Bahai  story  is 
a  common  tale,  and  Persians  will  hardly  believe  it  when 
they  are  assured  that  the  census  returns  show  that  there  are 
less  than  fifteen  hundred  Bahais  in  the  United  States  and  that 
many  of  them  know  nothing  of  what  Bahaism  really  is.  After 
some  others  had  spoken,  we  all  turned  to  the  two  most  influ- 
ential Mohammedan  converts,  one  a  man  with  no  regular 
education  but  very  clever  and  able  and  the  other  a  devoted 
and  capable  Mohammedan  woman,  an  open  teacher  of  Christ 
to  the  girls  of  the  city.  "Twenty-five  years  ago,"  said  the 
man,  "the  Persians  did  not  believe  that  a  Mohammedan  could 
be  converted  to  Christianity,  but  today  they  believe  it  is  pos- 
sible. Then  if  a  Mohammedan  dared  to  confess  Christ  as 
his  Saviour  and  Lord,  the  Ulema  would  have  excommunicated 
him.  His  life  would  have  been  at  the  mercy  of  the  people,  and 
his  property  would  have  been  confiscated  without  question. 
It  is  not  so  today.  At  present  the  Moslems  know  that  some 
of  their  numbers  have  been  converted  to  Christianity.  May 
be  they  think  that  Christianity  has  had  a  better  progress 
than  it  really  has.     As  to  the  present  obstacles,  they  are  first 

419 


the  Ulema,  second  the  Koran,  third  fanaticism,  fourth  the 
ignorance  of  the  people  who  do  not  know  that  Mohammed 
and  his  Koran  cannot  save  them,  fifth  the  bad  example  of 
Armenian  unbelievers.  What  are  our  great  needs?  First 
prayer,  second  hard  work  of  the  brethren,  third  more  doctors 
for  the  healing  of  the  people;  fourth,  invitation  to  Christ  by- 
means  of  trade  in  the  hands  of  the  brethren.  I  mean  that 
there  is  more  need  of  evangelists  who  will  approach  the 
people  in  the  channels  of  common  daily  intercourse  as  trades- 
men or  merchants  or  peddlers.  Fifth,  translation,  printing, 
and  publication  of  the  Koran  in  the  Persian  language.  Per- 
sian Mohammedans  read  Persian  not  Arabic.  They  are  igno- 
rant of  the  Koran,  and  therefore  they  accept  the  Mohammedan 
view  of  it.  If  they  could  only  read  it  in  their  own  language 
and  know  just  what  kind  of  a  book  it  is,  in  three  years  I 
believe  that  one-third  of  the  Persians  would  repudiate  it. 
They  are  already  beginning  to  distrust  Islam.  They  know 
that  Persia  was  an  educated  country  before  Islam  came  and 
that  it  is  an  ignorant  country  now.  Even  the  mollahs  are 
beginning  to  blame  the  wretched  plight  of  our  country  upon 
Islam.  It  is  true  that  there  is  a  Persian  translation  of  the 
Koran  already,  but  it  is  very  poor  and  costly.  A  good  and 
cheap  translation  would  destroy  the  faith  of  Persia." 

"Twenty-five  years  ago,"  said  the  Moslem  woman,  and  her 
unveiled  face  was  full  of  strength  and  character,  "Moslems 
had  wrong  notions  of  Christianity.  They  did  not  know  that 
Christians  worshiped  God,  have  careful  marriage  ceremonies, 
and  a  proper  moral  law.  I  myself  as  a  Moslem  woman  thought 
then  that  to  speak  to  a  Christian  woman  was  one  of  the  great- 
est of  sins.  Now  as  a  Christian  woman  who  was  a  Moham- 
medan, I  have  many  dear  Moslem  friends.  They  say  that 
many  Moslems,  even  sayids,  have  become  Christians,  and 
there  is  no  reason  any  longer  why  they  should  not  welcome 
Christian  acquaintances.  Yet  it  is  true  that  the  great  difficulty 
is  the  lack  of  religious  liberty.  Many  Moslems  say  that  Chris- 
tianity is  better  than  Islam,  and  that  they  would  like  to  be- 
come Christians,  but  if  they  do  they  will  be  killed.  Islam  has 
suffered  a  great  defeat,  but  still  the  old  barriers  stay."  What 
defeat?  I  asked.  "The  Christian  work  here,"  she  replied, 
"has  been  a  revelation  to  Persian  Moslems,  and  the  old  pro- 
hibition to  confession  has  been  destroyed.  I  hear  many 
people,  even  prominent  government  officials,  say  that  Christi- 
anity is  the  better  religion  and  superior  to  Islam.  If  you 
ask  me  what  are  our  great  needs,  I  think  they  are  two,  first 
a  boarding  department  for  girls  in  our  girls'  school  which 

420 


will  keep  the  Mohammedan  girls  steadily  under  Christian 
influence  instead  of  allowing  so  many  of  them  to  go  home  at 
night  where  the  school  work  of  the  day  is  undone.  Many 
Mohammedan  families  will  be  glad  to  send  their  girls  to 
such  a  boarding  department.  Second,  the  translation  of  the 
Koran  into  Persian  and  its  wide  circulation  among  the  people." 

One  of  our  most  interesting  evenings  in  Persia  was  spent 
at  dinner  in  Teheran  in  the  house  of  Dr.  Saeed  Khan,  the 
story  of  whose  conversion  has  already  been  told  in  connection 
with  his  brother  Kaka's.  Dr.  Saeed  Khan  is  one  of  the  best 
known  and  most  influential  Christians  in  Persia.  After  study- 
ing in  Hamadan  he  took  a  medical  course  in  London  and  is 
one  of  the  most  trusted  Persian  physicians.  One  of  his 
patients  is  the  last  governor  of  Kurdistan  whose  predecessor 
a  few  years  ago  would  no  doubt  have  felt  it  to  be  his  duty 
to  respond  to  the  demand  of  the  mollahs  in  Senneh  for  Dr. 
Saeed's  execution  for  apostasy.  He  is  a  great  student  both 
of  Christianity  and  Mohammedanism,  with  a  keen  eye  for 
old  Persian  books  of  which  he  has  sent  a  number  to  Prof. 
E.  G.  Browne,  and  he  gave  me  for  Mrs.  Speer,  with  whom 
he  and  Mrs.  Saeed  formed  a  great  friendship  when  we  were 
in  Hamadan  in  1896  and  1897,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  copies 
of  the  Koran  I  have  ever  seen.  It  is  a  small  book  about  two 
and  a  half  by  three  and  a  half  inches  exquisitely  done  by 
hand,  with  marginal  decorations  by  some  loving  Mohammedan 
scholar,  on  parchment  sheets  with  a  lacquered  binding  with 
soft  ornamental  flowering.  He  told  his  story  in  choice  Eng- 
lish. It  was  just  as  Kaka  had  narrated  it  to  us  but  with 
many  added  touches.  After  his  father's  death  as  a  boy  of 
sixteen  he  had  been  given  by  the  old  mollahs  a  turban  to  wear 
and  a  school  to  teach.  He  was  curious  to  learn  other  lan- 
guages, and  on  that  account,  was  willing  to  exchange  his 
knowledge  of  Kurdish  for  Kasha  Yohanan's  knowledge  of 
Syriac.  At  first  he  had  thought  that  all  the  Old  Testament 
prophecies  regarding  the  Messiah  referred  to  Mohammed, 
and  he  used  to  rejoice  in  them  and  repeat  them  to  Kaka.  But 
when  he  came,  in  Isaiah,  to  the  great  chapter  about  the  Ser- 
vant who  should  not  strive  nor  cry  nor  be  harsh  or  violent, 
he  was  halted.  That  certainly  could  not  apply  to  Mohammed. 
When  he  himself  had  become  convinced  of  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity and  Kaka  had  become  interested,  one  of  their  chief 
diflaculties  related  to  their  father.  He  had  been  a  good  and 
earnest  and  honest  man.  Once  he  had  found  a  bag  of  money 
and  though  in  great  need,  had  kept  it  intact  until  its  owner 
was  discovered.     How  could  so  good  a  man,  Kaka  asked,  be 

421 


lost  for  not  accepting  Christ?  Saeed's  reply  had  been  that  he 
and  Kaka  would  be  judged  according  to  the  light  that  had 
been  given  them,  and  that  that  light  had  never  reached  their 
father.  It  was  after  seven  years  of  Christian  teaching  that 
Saeed  had  at  last  been  baptized  by  Mr.  Hawkes.  Not  long 
afterwards  some  European  teachers  of  perfectionism  had  come 
to  Hamadan,  and,  taken  by  their  teaching,  Saeed  had  gone  to 
Sweden,  but  the  second  verse  of  the  third  chapter  of  the  first 
Epistle  of  John  corrected  for  him  any  thought  of  a  present 
sinlessness,  and  he  went  on  to  England  to  find  many  friends 
there  and  to  prepare  for  his  life  work  in  Persia.  More  than 
once  since  his  conversion  has  he  returned  to  Senneh,  at  first 
with  peril  but  at  last  with  great  honor.  Once  in  his  early 
years  in  Teheran  the  Senneh  ecclesiastics  sent  a  formidable 
communication  to  the  Turkish  legation  demanding  his  death 
as  an  apostate,  but  it  was  intercepted  by  friendly  hands  and 
destroyed.  And  no  one  now  would  think  of  lifting  a  hostile 
hand  against  the  familiar  and  honored  figure  of  this  sincere 
and  mature  Christian  who  walks  to  and  fro  wherever  he  will 
in  Persia,  by  life  and  by  word  bearing  witness  to  the  True 
Prophet  and  only  Saviour,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Many  of  the  Mohammedan  converts  in  Persia  have  been 
deeply  influenced  by  dreams.  Dreams  play  so  large  a  part 
in  the  thoughts  of  Persians  in  matters  of  duty  and  points 
of  decision  that  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  so  many  of 
the  converts  trace  their  resolution  to  follow  Christ  to  the 
guidance  which  they  believe  they  received  in  a  dream.  One 
of  the  Meshed  Christians  said:  "I  was  in  great  doubt  whether 
I  should  leave  Mohammed  and  follow  Christ  or  should  reject 
Christ  and  hold  to  Islam.  I  had  been  reading  the  Bible  and 
was  almost  convinced  that  it  was  true,  but  I  was  not  sure, 
and  I  did  not  want  to  make  a  mistake.  If  I  confessed  Christ, 
it  might  turn  out  in  the  end  that  Mohammedanism  was  true ; 
and  if  on  the  other  hand  I  held  to  Mohammed,  I  might  dis- 
cover at  last  and  too  late  that  Christianity  was  the  true  re- 
ligion. In  this  perplexity  I  asked  God  if  He  would  not  guide 
me  by  a  dream,  and  that  night  in  a  dream  I  saw  on  the  floor 
of  my  room  the  Bible  and  the  Koran,  and  the  Koran  lay  on 
top  of  the  Bible.  Suddenly,  however,  the  door  opened  and 
an  angel  entered  who  walked  across  the  room  and  without 
stooping  to  touch  it  with  his  hand  brushed  the  Koran  aside 
with  his  foot  leaving  the  Bible  alone.  So  I  awoke  and  knew 
that  the  Bible  was  the  book  of  God."  And  not  only  simple 
folk  like  this  Meshed  believer  but  some  of  the  ablest  and  most 

422 


strong-minded  Christians  in  Persia  liave  been  thus  influenced 
by  dreams. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  capable  and  influential 
Christians  in  Persia  is  the  leading  Persian  doctor  of  Tabriz, 
who  was  educated  in  part  in  Persia  and  in  part  in  Europe, 
and  who  bears  the  title  of  Fakr  ul  Ataba,  "The  Glory  of  the 
Doctors."  He  belongs  to  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  respected 
Mohammedan  families  in  Persia.  Not  knowing  who  he  was, 
I  was  at  once  impressed  by  his  face  and  bearing  in  the  con- 
gregation the  first  Sunday  we  were  in  Tabriz,  first  at  the 
Syriac  service  for  the  Urumia  Christians  and  then  at  the 
Turkish  service  held  specially  for  the  Mohammedan  converts 
and  inquirers.  The  church  was  packed  at  each  of  these  ser- 
vices. At  the  Turkish  service,  however,  there  were  a  num- 
ber of  Assyrians  and  Armenians  as  well  as  Mohammedans. 
After  the  services  I  met  the  Fakr  ul  Ataba,  and  the  last  even- 
ing of  our  stay  in  Tabriz  he  invited  us  and  all  the  men  of 
the  Mission  to  dine  with  him  in  his  home.  "Oh,  yes,"  said 
he,  as  we  sat  at  his  hospitable  table  at  a  great  banquet,  partly 
Persian  but  mostly  European,  but  without  any  wine  such  as 
is,  alas,  counted  an  essential  part  of  a  European  banquet  in 
Persia,  but  with  sour  milk  flavored  with  wild  thyme  in  its 
place,  "Oh,  yes,  there  have  been  immense  changes  in  Persia 
since  you  were  here  before.  Even  within  the  last  fifteen  years 
everything  has  changed.  The  old  fanaticism  is  gone.  When 
I  went  abroad  to  study  in  Paris  fifteen  years  ago,  the  mollahs 
and  the  muj tabids  were  supreme.  Now  their  power  is  entirely 
broken.  If  there  are  ten  leading  families  in  Tabriz,  mine 
is  one  of  them.  Formerly  they  were  all  under  the  power  of 
the  ecclesiastics.  Now  I  can  do  what  I  could  never  do  before. 
I  can  go  to  church  and  sit  down  publicly  at  the  Lord's  Supper, 
and  no  one  says  a  word.  I  can  go  about,  as  I  do,  in  all  the 
leading  homes  of  the  city  and  speak  of  my  Christian  faith 
with  freedom.  What  has  brought  about  the  change?  In 
large  part  the  Mohammedan  ecclesiastics  themselves.  They 
were  so  oppressive,  so  dishonest,  so  full  of  devilish  deeds  that 
the  people  came  to  despise  and  hate  them.  There  are  many 
secret  Christian  believers  now.  Next  to  the  influence  of  the 
ecclesiastics  in  destroying  their  own  power  I  think  nothing 
has  done  more  to  break  down  fanaticism  than  the  Mission 
hospitals  and  the  work  of  men  like  Dr.  Vanneman  and  such 
preachers  as  Mr.  Moorhatch,  who  know  both  the  Koran  and 
the  Bible,  and  who  are  able  to  present  Christianity  in  ways 
that  convince  men  and  do  not  offend.  Yes,"  said  he,  "I  would 
like  to  tell  you  the  story  of  my  conversion.    Thirty-five  years 

423 


ago  in  Teheran  I  used  to  -go  to  the  Mission  church  there  just 
after  it  had  been  built.  Then  I  moved  here  to  Tabriz,  and 
lived  in  a  garden  near  the  Girls'  School.  One  evening  I  was 
walking  up  and  down  in  the  porch  of  my  house  when  I  heard 
the  girls  singing  some  Christian  hymns.  As  I  walked  to  and 
fro  and  listened  to  the  hymns,  I  reflected  on  the  different 
religions  of  the  world  and  why  it  is  that  some  people  follow 
one  and  some  another.  Then  a  poem  of  Saadi's  came  to  my 
mind: 

"  'It  is  not  clear  where  that  which  I  ought  to  worship  is. 

I  go  about  that  I  may  find  it, 
But  every  one  according  to  his  experience, 

Goes  after  one  thing  or  another  and  worships  it.' 

I  went  on  in  my  thoughts  and  told  myself  that  even  if  there 
was  no  future  world,  a  man  ought  to  find  the  right  law  for 
this  world  by  which  to  order  his  way  and  his  relations  to 
his  fellow  men.  Then  I  lay  down  to  sleep  and  had  a  dream. 
I  saw  a  great  book,  and  written  in  the  book  on  opposite  pages 
were  the  names  of  Mohammed  and  Christ.  Then  a  hand  ap- 
peared and  dipped  a  brush  in  ink  red  as  blood,  and  with  the 
brush  blotted  out  Mohammed's  name.  With  this  dream  I 
awoke  and  rose  from  my  bed  and  took  a  drink  of  cold  water 
and  walked  up  and  down  the  room.  My  wife  awoke  and  asked 
me  what  my  trouble  was,  and  I  told  her  all.  'Perhaps  you  ate 
too  much  supper,'  she  said,  'and  the  Devil  has  awakened  you 
with  this  unpleasant  dream.'  But  when  morning  came  I  went 
to  see  the  late  Dr.  S.  G.  Wilson,  who  was  living  in  Tabriz 
then,  and  I  told  him  my  dream.  He  did  not  say  that  the  red 
ink  was  the  blood  of  Christ,  but  he  said  that  perhaps  the 
reason  why  the  red  brush  came  and  blotted  out  the  name  of 
Mohammed  was  that  it  was  by  the  shedding  of  so  much  blood 
by  massacre  and  misery  that  Mohammedanism  had  been  estab- 
lished. I  did  not  confess  Christ  at  that  time,  but  sixteen  years 
after  this  incident  when  I  was  seriously  ill  and  had  made  my 
will  and  expected  to  die,  this  dream  recurred  to  me,  and  I 
reflected  that  it  was  not  enough  to  know  the  right  law  for 
this  world,  but  that  a  man  ought  to  know  which  way  he  was 
going  into  the  world  beyond.  This  was  seven  years  ago,  and 
I  sent  for  Kasha  Moorhatch  and  was  baptized.  From  that  day 
I  have  had  only  peace  of  mind  and  health  of  body.  Yes,  surely 
a  man  must  choose  and  follow  his  religion  with  intelligence. 
How  could  I  prefer  Christianity  to  Islam  and  justifiably  fol- 
low one  rather  than  the  other,  if  I  did  not  understand  both 
religions  and  if  I  were  not  rationally  convinced  that  Christi- 
anity is  superior  to  Islam.     What  is  the  most  effective  way 

424 


of  preaching  Christianity  to  Moslems?  First  of  all 
the  practical  way,  showing  them  by  evidence  which  they 
cannot  dispute,  such  as  the  hospitals,  the  superiority  of 
Christ  and  the  fruits  of  Christ ;  second  by  the  preaching  of 
men  who  know  Islam  and  can  present  Christianity  on  the 
basis  of  a  full  knowledge  of  Mohammedanism.  Mohammedan 
literature  is  rich  in  the  material  for  such  men  to  use. 
There  are  many  Moslem  traditions  which  assign  Christ  a 
place  nearer  to  God  than  Mohammed's,  and  which  make  Jesus 
and  not  Mohammed  the  final  personality.  Yes,  the  status  of 
woman  is  a  great  matter,  but  I  do  not  urge  the  taking  away 
of  the  veils  from  the  faces  of  the  Persian  women  yet.  The 
veils  within  must  be  first  removed.  First  purify  the  hearts 
of  men,  then  drop  the  veils  of  women." 

Our  host  is  engaged  in  producing  a  Persian-English-French- 
Russian  dictionary.  He  is  both  editor  and  publisher  and 
showed  us  the  beautiful  printed  sheets  of  nearly  half  of  the 
volume  which  he  is  issuing  at  his  own  expense. 

"This  is  one  of  the  happiest  nights  that  I  have  known,"  said 
our  friend,  as  we  thanked  him  for  his  hospitality  and  rose  to 
go,  and  he  quoted  again  from  Saadi : 

'If  you  wish  to  see  the  Shah, 

Make  friends  with  his  gate  keeper. 

By  and  by  you  will  meet  the  vizier, 
And  then  the  Ameer, 

And  then  at  last  you  will  come 
Where  you  may  touch  the  Shah.' 

And  so  tonight  here  in  my  home  I  am  so  happy  with  you  who 
have  been  my  guests.    I  shall  some  day  reach  to  God." 

And  so  we  have  met  them  all  over  Persia,  these  who  are 
coming  up  out  of  trouble  and  difficulty,  "Who  climb  the  steep 
ascent  of  Heaven  through  peril,  toil  and  pain."  Already  they 
have  "reached  to  God,"  and  it  is  we  who  have  had  fellowship 
with  them  for  a  little  while,  who  have  walked  with  them  amid 
their  shadows  and  have  drunk  with  them  out  of  their  cup. 
who  have  reason  to  be  grateful  for  the  inspiration  of  their 
courage  and  their  faith. 

S.  S.  George, 

Black  Sea,  April  21,  1922. 


425 


7.  FROM  SHAH  ABDUL  AZIM  TO  THE  SHRINE  OF 
IMAM  REZA 

The  morning  sun  was  shimmering  on  the  gold  dome  of  the 
shrine  of  Shah  Abdul  Azim  as  we  rode  out  from  Teheran 
through  the  Meshed  gate  on  the  last  Monday  morning  of 
January.  It  had  snowed  the  night  before,  and  the  tall  poplars 
and  chinars  were  glistening  white  at  the  sunrise.  As  we 
passed  out  of  the  gate  the  snow  had  melted  under  the  warm 
brightness  of  the  day,  and  the  streets  were  the  characteristic 
seas  of  mud  which  one  knows  he  will  find  after  snow  or  rain 
in  any  of  these  Persian  cities. 

We  were  in  a  post  carriage,  the  strongest  we  could  discover 
in  the  motley  assortment  in  the  post  house  yard.  It  was  a 
long  journey  of  five  hundred  and  sixty  miles  upon  which  we 
were  setting  out.  We  could  change  horses  every  three  far- 
sakhs  or  twelve  miles,  but  we  would  keep  the  same  carriage  all 
the  way  through,  and  as  there  were  long  stretches  of  the  road 
where  there  would  be  no  possibility  of  help  or  repairs  in  case 
of  accident,  we  wanted  a  vehicle  which  would  last.  The  one 
which  we  got  looked  durable,  but  its  springs  were  wrapped 
with  rope,  and  the  front  and  rear  wheels  were  not  set  in  a 
straight  line,  so  that  the  body  of  the  carriage  tilted  over  and 
at  severe  jolts  leaned  against  the  left  rear  wheel.  All  the 
glass  was  gone  from  its  windows,  which  were  boarded  up  with 
strips  from  old  packing  boxes,  and,  in  one  case,  with  tin  from 
a  Russian  case  of  petroleum.  Shreds  of  the  blue  upholstering 
of  a  happier  day  still  clung  to  the  roof.  The  pole  of  the 
carriage  was  a  trimmed  but  unpainted  and  crooked  sapling. 
Our  luggage  was  hung  in  a  rope  sling  fastened  to  the  rear 
springs  and  axle.  This  conveyance  lasted  for  three  hundred 
and  fifty  miles. 

On  the  Persian  post  roads  the  stages  vary  in  length  from 
two  to  four  farsakhs,  but  our  general  average  was  three.  The 
f arsakh  is  Xenophon's  parasang.  Some  of  the  Persian  drivers 
said  that  it  was  ten  thousand  paces.  It  is  not  an  accurately 
measured  distance,  and  on  many  of  the  Persian  roads  it  seems 
to  be  a  time  and  not  a  linear  measurement,  or  both,  i.  e.,  the 
distance  which  a  man  or  a  horse  will  travel  in  an  hour  over 
the  particular  piece  of  road  under  consideration.  In  general 
the  farsakh  is  about  four  English  miles.  And  traveling  day 
and  night,  with  allowances  for  bad  roads,  and  a  delay  of  from 
anywhere  from  twenty  minutes  to  two  hours   in  changing 

426 


horses,  although  our  changes  fortunately  averaged  but  little 
more  than  half  an  hour,  we  were  able  to  make  about  eighteen 
farsakhs  a  day. 

The  first  two  stages  out  from  Teheran  carry  one  across  the 
edge  of  the  plain,  up  the  long  low  hill  on  the  side  of  which 
stands  the  white  tower  where  the  Parsis  of  Teheran  expose 
their  dead,  and  down  on  the  other  side,  with  Teheran  lost  to 
view,  but  with  the  sun  still  gleaming  on  the  mosque  of  Shah 
Abdul  Azim,  to  the  caravanserai  of  Khatanabad  on  the  north- 
ern edge  of  the  great  Veramin  plain.  It  is  Veramin  with  its 
hundreds  of  villages  from  which  Teheran  draws  a  good  part 
of  its  food  supply.  All  afternoon  we  rode  eastward.  To  the 
north  the  white  cone  of  Demavend,  the  highest  mountain  west 
of  the  Himalayas,  shone  dazzling  and  clear,  until  in  the  even- 
ing it  grew  pink  and  soft  in  the  glow  of  the  sun  setting.  To 
the  south,  here  and  there  across  wide  plains  rose  the  ancient 
mounds  of  the  fire  worshipers,  the  first  of  which  we  had  seen 
at  Yengimam,  the  little  shrine  of  one  of  the  minor  Imams, 
between  Kasvin  and  Teheran  where  a  fortnight  before  we 
had  been  warned  off  the  road  by  a  Persian  officer  in  a  sky- 
blue  uniform  on  a  fine  bay  horse,  and  had  watched  the  Shah 
roll  by  on  his  way  to  Europe,  far  off  from  the  poor  and  needy 
land  which  he  is  said  to  have  lamented  that  Allah  had  given 
him  to  govern.  With  the  glorious  light  on  Demavend  and  on 
the  little  streams  that  ran  across  our  road  to  be  lost  in  the 
wide  plain,  one  could  hardly  wonder  that  the  ancient  Persians, 
in  the  midst  of  the  shadow  and  tragedy  of  human  life,  had 
found  the  object  of  their  worship  in  the  sun  and  fire. 

Twelve  farsakhs  from  Teheran  after  five  changes  of  horses 
we  drew  into  Awan-i-Kaif ,  "Doorway  of  Delight."  The  drivers 
would  not  go  over  the  next  stage  of  the  road  at  night.  We 
had  to  wait  till  morning,  accordingly,  in  the  little  mud  room 
on  the  roof  of  the  post  house,  preferring  this,  bare  and  cold 
though  it  was,  to  the  dark  tea  room  with  its  mud  platforms 
for  beds,  unlighted  save  by  the  door  by  day  or  a  little  brazier 
fire  by  night,  and  unventilated  when  the  door  was  closed. 
The  next  morning  as  we  crossed  the  stage  between  Awan-i- 
Kaif  and  the  "Mouth  of  Khars"  we  understood  the  drivers' 
reluctance.  From  the  post  house  the  road  ran  down  through 
the  river  bed  and  then  up  through  the  village  and  across  a  wide 
plain,  by  deep  gullies  ending  at  last  in  a  mud  bog  where  a  tea 
house  had  sprung  up  beside  a  pool  in  the  bog.  Beyond  this 
lay  a  rough  broken  country  where  the  road  ran  in  and  out 
among  hills  along  a  deep  bedded  stream,  with  not  a  hand- 
breadth  of  roadway  to  spare  beyond  the  carriage  wheels.    For 

427 


two  farsakhs  or  more  this  bad-land  country  extended,  until  we 
emerged,  below  a  sentry  tower  which  guarded  the  eastern 
gateway,  upon  the  wide  fertile  plain  of  Khars.  We  changed 
horses  at  noon  at  Kishlak  where  the  road  ran  through  the  tor- 
tuous streets  of  the  little  town  and  rode  on  across  the  north- 
ern edge  of  the  plain,  dotted  with  the  ruins  of  mud  castles 
of  the  nearby  feudal  days  of  Persia,  to  Dehnamak  where  the 
housetops  in  the  streets  were  filled  by  the  small  population 
welcoming  a  wedding  party  which  rode  into  town  behind  us 
with  drums  and  a  horn  and  a  huge  blue  gramaphone  trumpet. 
The  women  friends  of  the  bride  were  gathered  expectantly 
with  trays  of  presents,  and  the  weird  band  gave  a  sombre 
tone  to  an  occasion  filled  with  life  by  the  small  boys  and  the 
horsemen  who  raced  their  horses  up  and  down  the  unkempt 
street. 

We  changed  horses  three  times  this  second  night,  and  drove 
into  the  fine  old  Shah  Abbas  caravanserai  at  Semnan  at  nine 
o'clock  on  Wednesday  morning.  Shah  Abbas  was  the  great 
caravanserai  builder  in  Persia,  and  the  substantial  buildings 
which  he  put  up  of  good  burned  brick,  with  domed  rooms  and 
little  water  pools  in  the  center  of  them,  and  stables  all  around 
the  ample  courtyard,  are  still  standing  along  the  main  high- 
ways and  stretch  from  Teheran  eastward  as  a  noble  series  of 
monuments,  to  the  memory  of  one  ruler  who  wrought  for  the 
development  and  prosperity  of  Persia.  One  marks  all  these 
Persian  towns  and  cities  from  a  distance  by  the  sight  not  of 
their  buildings  but  of  their  trees  and  gardens,  and  now  and 
then  of  the  minarets  of  their  mosque.  It  has  been  sometimes 
said  that  the  Shiah  mosoues  of  Persia  have  no  minarets  like 
the  mosques  of  the  Sunni  Mohammedans,  but  as  I  write  I  am 
looking  out  on  the  two  decorated  minarets  of  the  Jum'eh 
mosque  in  Kasvin,  and  the  traveler  sees  from  afar  the  mina- 
rets of  Sharoud  and  Damghan  and  Meshed.  We  stopped  long 
enough  at  Semnan  for  a  good  meal  of  chicken  and  rice  stewed 
in  the  polluted  water  of  the  tank  in  the  caravanserai  floor, 
but  the  chicken  had  been  orthodoxly  slain,  "In  the  name  of 
God  and  Mohammed,"  and  the  water  was  boiled.  And  we 
went  on  uneventfully  that  afternoon  and  night  over  the  high- 
est passes  on  the  road  where  we  had  very  different  experiences 
returning.  On  Thursday  about  noon  we  changed  horses  at 
the  post  house  in  Damghan.  An  old  beggar  asked  alms  be- 
cause it  was  Thursday,  the  day  before  Friday,  a  meritorious 
day  on  which  to  give  alms,  as  Saturday,  also  would  be  and 
for  other  reasons  each  other  day.  At  Mehman  Dust,  the  next 
post  house  east  of  Damghan,  it  was  not  a  beggar  who  greeted 

428 


us,  but  an  old  man  who  nine  years  ago  had  had  a  cataract 
removed  at  the  Mission  hospital.  It  was  the  American  Hos- 
pital in  Teheran  to  which  he  had  gone,  but  he  told  the  little 
group  of  wondering  bystanders  that  he  had  gone  to  America 
and  that  there  this  miracle  had  been  wrought  upon  him.  The 
interest  of  the  crowd  was  divided,  however,  between  the  old 
man's  eye  and  a  moonstone  about  the  size  of  a  robin's  egg 
which  the  driver  wished  to  sell.  He  thought  perhaps  it  was 
a  diamond,  but  a  bystander  maintained  it  was  a  pearl.  "A 
pearl,"  exclaimed  another  "why  such  a  pearl  as  that  would 
be  worth  more  than  the  whole  kingdom  of  Persia."  We  offered 
the  driver  five  krans  or  forty  cents  for  his  stone,  but  this  fell 
far  short  of  his  appraisal. 

From  Mehman  Dust  which  means  "Beloved  Guest"  it  is 
three  farsakhs,  the  last  of  them  over  a  crooked  road  up  and 
down  deep  gullies  which  seems  bound  in  any  but  the  right 
direction,  to  Deh-i-Mollah,  "The  Mollah's  Village,"  memorable 
also  on  our  return  journey.  Another  fine  old  caravanserai  of 
Shah  Abbas  stands  just  across  the  road  from  the  squalid  tea 
house  and  stables  of  the  modern  post  station.  Huge  cavernous 
rooms  for  caravans  run  round  the  court  of  the  old  caravan- 
serai. Hearing  in  one  of  them  the  deep  boom  of  camel  bells, 
as  I  supposed,  I  went  in  to  see  the  caravan  settle  for  the  night 
and  found  instead  of  the  camels  a  multitude  of  little  donkeys 
wearing  the  deep  toned  bells  of  their  big  companions  of  the 
road  and  loaded  too  with  a  consistent  irony  with  loads  which 
were  camel  burdens.  If  there  be  a  heaven  of  equalizing  recom- 
pense for  poor  beasts  which  have  suffered  here  on  earth, 
the  donkeys  of  Persia  will  be  foremost  among  its  happy  in- 
habitants. Without  complaint,  unfrightened  by  any  novelty, 
poorly  fed,  beaten  and  abused,  bearing  at  the  same  time  often 
both  his  full  burden  and  the  added  burden  of  his  master,  the 
donkey  is  the  least  resistant  and  the  most  long  suffering  of 
all  the  beasts  of  the  road.  His  only  protest  is  mutely  to  lie 
down  when  he  can  bear  no  more  and  when  he  has  borne  to 
the  last  to  die  and  be  forsaken  by  the  wayside. 

On  Friday  evening,  sixty-four  farsakhs  east  of  Teheran, 
we  rode  in  through  the  moonlight  to  the  attractive  little  city 
of  Sharoud  or  "Shah's  River."  A  clear  stream  of  water  lined 
with  trees,  poplar  and  willow,  ran  down  the  long  main  street. 
A  wall  of  hills  rose  to  the  north  of  the  city.  Wide  walled 
gardens  bound  it  on  the  south  and  west.  Here  as  everywhere 
the  medical  missionary  who  was  with  us  was  given  a  warm 
welcome.  He  had  never  been  over  this  road  before,  but  as 
soon  as  it  was  known  that  he  was  in  any  town.  Dr.  McDowell 

429 


would  be  surrounded  by  patients.  The  first  patient  he  had 
ever  treated  in  Persia  welcomed  him  here  in  Sharoud.  No 
missionary  has  ever  been  stationed  here,  but  it  is  a  center 
which  ought  to  be  visited  every  year  for  several  weeks  by  an 
evangelist  and  doctor  traveling  together.  They  would  find  a 
wide  open  door.  Many  friendly  men  greeted  us  on  the  street 
and  women  with  unveiled  faces  looked  at  us  unabashed.  If  a 
doctor  would  remain  a  few  weeks  he  would  soon  be  besieged 
by  people  coming  in  to  see  him  from  villages  far  and  near. 

A  friend  who  had  given  us  a  list  of  the  post  stations  with 
annotations  for  the  journey  had  marked  down  that  the  trav- 
eler's carriage  must  be  overhauled  at  Damghan,  Sharoud,  Sub- 
savar,  and  Nishapur.  We  assumed  that  it  was  the  post  road 
authorities  who  required  this  of  the  traveler,  but  experience 
taught  us  that  it  was  the  traveler  who  must  require  this  of 
the  post  authorities.  We  did  our  best  to  have  the  carriage 
overhauled  and  succeeded  at  Sharoud  in  getting  a  broken 
whiffle-tree  mended,  but  every  appeal  for  precautionary  re- 
pairs was  in  vain.  "It  isn't  broken,  is  it?"  the  reply  would 
run.  "It  has  come  as  far  as  this,  hasn't  it?  If  it  has  done 
that,  it  will  hold  for  the  rest  of  the  way."  We  didn't  believe 
in  this  philosophy,  and  we  didn't  like  to  continue  bumping  the 
body  of  the  carriage  against  the  rear  hind  wheel,  but  the  pre- 
cedents of  centuries  were  not  to  be  changed  for  us.  When  a 
thing  was  broken,  it  would  be  mended.  Until  then  it  did  not 
need  to  be  mended.  So  with  helpless  trustfulness  we  rode  on 
into  the  wide  waste  country  which  stretches  from  Sharoud 
for  forty-three  farsakhs  through  the  Turkoman  land  and 
across  the  upper  end  of  the  salt  desert  to  Subsavar. 

Some  seven  or  eight  farsakhs  east  of  Sharoud  just  beyond 
Farashabad,  the  most  desolate  and  forsaken  place  we  had 
seen,  we  suffered,  not  what  we  had  expected,  but  as  we  had 
expected.  At  the  next  station,  Jadona,  on  the  edge  of  a  wide 
plain  where  we  passed  four  antelopes,  the  only  wild  animals 
we  had  met,  we  found  the  nut  gone  on  a  rear  hind  wheel.  A 
search  for  miles  back  along  the  road  failed  to  find  it.  There 
was  neither  another  nut  nor  a  blacksmith  to  be  found  till  we 
reached  Subsavar,  a  hundred  and  forty  miles  away.  After 
long  delay  and  a  consideration  of  all  possible  expedients  the 
old  head  of  the  post  house  and  a  half-witted  lad  together  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  taking  one  of  the  pole  chains  and  looping  it 
over  the  hub  of  the  loose  wheel  and  around  the  iron  axle,  so 
that  it  would  revolve  with  the  wheel,  and  though  allowing  it  a 
wide  latitude  of  wobble,  would  still  keep  it,  so  long  as  the  chain 
itself  held,  from  slipping  off  altogether.     With  this  contri- 

430 


Vance  we  got  within  twenty  miles  of  Subsavar.  At  the  end 
of  the  next  stage  from  Jadona,  however,  tlie  driver  insisted 
on  taking  off  the  chain,  as  part  of  the  equipment  for  which 
he  was  responsible  and  which  he  could  not  replace,  demand- 
ing that  the  next  driver  should  use  one  of  his  chains  for  the 
stage  over  which  he  was  to  take  us.  One  cannot  wonder  at 
this  frugality  where  all  supplies  are  inadequate  and  irreplac- 
able.  We  could  buy  no  chain  even  from  camel  drivers  along 
the  way  and  went  many  miles  before  at  last  we  found  a  driver 
*who  was  willing  to  let  us  count  his  chain  a  part  of  the  perma- 
nent equipment  of  the  carriage.  He  was  the  driver  from 
Meandasht,  or  "Middle  of  the  Plain,"  the  largest  and  finest 
of  all  the  caravanserais  which  we  saw  bearing  the  great  name 
of  Shah  Abbas.  A  whole  village  had  grown  up  in  one  corner 
of  the  old  establishment,  and  a  schoolmaster  was  teaching  an 
unruly  group  of  small  boys  on  the  roof  of  a  village  house  built 
against  the  sunny  wall  of  the  caravanserai.  On  every  side 
stretched  out  a  wild  and  desolate  plain.  Different  social  and 
economic  conditions  from  those  which  prevail  today  and  which 
sustain  this  wretched  village  in  a  corner  of  the  neglected 
caravanserai  must  have  prevailed  in  the  days  of  Shah  Abbas. 
Only  two  stages  further  on  at  Abbasabad  our  new  driver  pre- 
pared our  downfall.  He  had  been  with  the  British  army  and 
in  two  months  more  he  would  have  been  a  master  mechanic ! 
Overriding  every  protest  he  bound  the  chain  on  so  fast  that 
within  a  few  miles  it  broke.  With  a  chastened  spirit  and  less 
assurance  of  his  mastery  of  mechanics  he  rearranged  it.  But 
now  not  for  long.  First  the  tire  of  the  wheel  came  off.  Then 
sections  of  the  rim,  then  spoke  after  spoke  until  only  the  hub 
was  left.  This  was  the  end.  We  tramped  mournfully  behind 
across  the  barren  country  while  our  humble  driver  dragged 
the  ruin  to  the  post  station  three  farsakhs  out  from  Subsavar. 
It  was  a  faultless  winter  day,  and  while  a  new  driver  rode 
in  for  us  with  his  horses  to  Subsavar,  the  one  point  on  the 
whole  road  where  it  was  fortunately  possible  to  get  another 
carriage,  I  filled  up  the  tilting  body  of  the  old  carriage  and 
lay  down  to  read  "Hajji  Baba  of  Ispahan"  and  to  watch  the 
sights  of  Persian  life  before  the  dirty  tea  house  door.  It  was 
the  same  road  over  which  Hajji  Baba  had  traveled,  and  before 
him  all  the  great  tides  of  human  movement  which  through  the 
centuries  passed  between  the  Mediterranean  and  central  Asia. 
How  far  gone  was  all  that  greatness !  An  old  beggar  clad  in 
rags  lay  asleep  on  the  ground  in  the  sun  with  scores  of  flies 
settled  undisturbed  on  his  lips.  A  thoughtful  father  was 
conducting  a  much  needed  and  deadly  hunting  expedition  over 

431 


the  head  of  a  small  son.  Four  little  boys  were  playing  sheep 
knuckles  and  varying  the  game  by  wallowing  barefooted  in  a 
mud  hole  where  the  ice  had  been  thawed  by  the  sun.  A  sol- 
dier rode  by  with  good  equipment,  a  modern  automatic  pistol 
in  a  wooden  case  by  his  side.  A  Persian  official  passed  in  a 
mud-stained  private  carriage  drawn  by  four  horses  like  our 
own,  with  shabby  servants  on  the  box  and  perched  on  the  bag- 
gage behind,  and  with  his  two  wives  and  children  within.  A 
peasant  and  his  wife  rode  by  on  the  same  little  donkey,  and 
a  few  pilgrims  came  and  went,  the  first  drops  of  the  great* 
stream  of  many  thousands  that  would  begin  to  flow  with  the 
opening  of  Spring,  Those  who  had  a  few  shahies  with  which 
to  buy  stopped  to  drink  tea  or  to  eat  a  bit  of  bread  and  cheese. 
It  was  a  ne'er-do-well  wastrel  life  on  which  one  was  gazing, 
with  shabbier  remnants,  grown  self-conscious,  of  what  was 
shabby  enough  but  still  deemed  itself  great  in  Hajji  Baba's 
day. 

In  four  hours  our  driver  was  back,  an  extra  toman  having 
inspired  his  extraordinary  promptitude,  and  as  the  sun  was 
setting  we  entered  Subsavar.  A  long  white  range  of  moun- 
tains to  the  south  which  had  been  gray  and  reticent  all  day 
long  turned  pink  and  soft  and  genial  like  some  human  lives 
in  the  evening  time.  The  deserts  were  replaced  by  wide,  fer- 
tile, irrigated  plains.  A  tall  pillar  of  varied  brick  work  rose 
conspicuously  from  a  field  without  the  city,  a  remnant  some 
said  of  Zoroastrian  days,  but  others  of  a  later  Mohammedan 
time.  Nearby  stood  a  neglected  shrine  with  most  of  the  blue 
tiles  gone  from  its  domed  roof.  The  bast  chains,  however, 
with  their  sanctity,  like  the  gates  of  the  cities  of  refuge  of 
the  Old  Testament,  still  hung  in  the  doorway.  The  brick 
roof  of  the  big  water  umbar  by  the  roadside  was  hung  with 
bits  of  paper  or  rag,  prayers  of  the  pilgrims  who  had  passed 
by  on  their  way  to  Meshed.  Here  and  there  pitiful  little  grave- 
yards line  the  highway  as  one  meets  them  everywhere,  many 
of  them  the  graves  of  pilgrims  who  had  died  on  the  way,  others 
the  graves  of  those  who  had  wished  to  be  buried  by  the  way- 
side that  passers  by  might  make  for  them  a  prayer.  All 
Mohammedan  graves  lie  east  and  west  that  the  dead,  when 
in  the  Resurrection  they  sit  upright,  may  look  toward  that 
which  is  to  arise  in  the  East,  There  are  some  who  say  that 
the  Moslem  graveyards  are  built  by  the  roadsides  that  in  the 
Resurrection  day  it  may  appear  that  the  feet  of  the  dead  had 
been  bent  on  a  pilgrimage,  but  two  old  Moslem  friends  scouted 
this  idea  when  I  asked  them  of  it. 

Subsavar  is  the  largest  city  between  Meshed  and  Teheran, 

432 


An  old,  decaying  mud  wall  surrounds  it,  and  its  moat  is  now 
waterless.  At  nine  o'clock  we  were  startled  to  hear  a  modern 
whistle  blow  and  learned  that  it  was  on  one  of  the  half-dozen 
cotton  presses.  In  normal  times  this  province  of  Khorasan 
raises  large  quantities  of  cotton  which  it  shipped  into  Russia 
not  by  water  but  by  these  silent  moving  orderly  fleets  of  desert 
vessels,  the  camels.  Now  the  cotton  trade,  and  indeed  all 
trades  between  Khorasan  and  Russia  are  dead,  and  what  little 
cotton  is  now  exported  goes  out  westward  to  Teheran  or  south 
through  Seistan  to  India.  A  Russian  Armenian  at  the  head 
of  the  cotton  press  in  Nishapur  told  us  that  what  little  cotton 
he  sold  now  went  to  Calcutta.  Formerly  he  paid  twenty  and 
thirty  tomans  a  kharvar  (650  lbs.)  for  unginned  cotton.  Now 
he  pays  ten  tomans  selling  it  for  double  what  he  pays.  The 
Nishapur  cotton  he  considered  better  than  the  cotton  of  Sub- 
savar,  but  less  than  half  as  good  in  quality  as  American  cot- 
ton. The  grown-up  boy  in  the  tea  house  of  Subsavar  who 
brought  us  our  food  had  never  heard  of  the  Great  War.  Of 
America  he  had  heard,  but  he  did  not  know  where  it  was  or 
what,  whether  a  city  or  a  country. 

East  of  Subsavar  there  was  a  marked  improvement  in  the 
service  on  the  post  road.  The  horses  were  better  and  were 
more  promptly  ready.  In  the  road  itself  there  was  no  im- 
provement. Indeed,  with  the  barest  touches  it  is  no  road 
at  all  all  the  way  from  Teheran  to  Meshed,  but  simply  a  cara- 
van trail  following  the  natural  line  of  travel  and  altered  only, 
here  and  there,  from  the  route  of  Alexander.  Six  farsakhs 
eastward  of  Subsavar  we  came  to  the  caravanserai  of  Zafara- 
nieh.  Here  and  at  the  next  post,  Sankaladan,  Shah  Abbas 
had  built  two  more  caravanserais,  the  equal  of  his  best.  The 
one  at  Sankaladan  is  an  octagonal  brick  building  entirely 
roofed  over,  with  no  central  court,  the  stables  running  all 
the  way  around,  with  big  niches  on  each  side  in  the  heavy 
brick  walls  for  the  chavadars,  the  muleteers,  and  the  camel 
drivers.  The  caravanserai  at  Zafaranieh  is  the  traditional 
brick  building  built  around  a  great  square,  the  brick  work 
laid  in  many  patterns  and  the  roof  of  strong  brick  tiles.  There 
were  huge  gates,  each  of  two  big  planks  six  inches  thick,  the 
product  of  no  trees  growing  now  within  many  miles  of  Zafara- 
nieh, and  the  gates  were  studded  with  heavy  steel  bosses  and 
set  in  beams.  And  all  is  now  neglect  and  decay.  Two  one- 
roomed,  mud-walled  tea  houses  stood  across  the  road  from  the 
massive  old  caravanserai.  A  long  rug  was  spread  on  a  little 
raised  bank  of  earth  before  their  doors.  A  group  of  old  men 
with  long  beards,  saffron  colored  with  henna  dye  or  dark  like 

433 


the  fabled  but  quite  real  Bluebeard's,  sat  on  their  heels  in  the 
lee  of  the  sun-bathed  wall.  A  farmer  indolently  filled  a  don- 
key's panniers  with  a  half  bushel  or  two  of  manure  which  he 
took  lazily  off  to  a  nearby  field.  The  boys  were  piling  up, 
for  fuel,  on  the  housetops,  bundles  of  the  frail  thorny  weed 
from  the  desert.  A  lad  came  up  with  both  eyes  dirty  and 
ruined  by  trachoma.  A  caravan  of  little  donkeys  passed, 
each  bearing  two  bales  of  straw  two  or  three  times  his  own 
dimension.  The  women  went  and  came  barefooted,  though  it 
was  February,  bearing  on  their  shoulders  their  water  jars, 
which  they  filled  at  the  stream  which  emerged  from  a  long 
line  of  kanaats,  wells  connected  under  ground  by  a  tunnel 
dug  from  well  to  well  and  running  far  up  the  sloping  plain 
toward  the  snow  clad  hills  to  the  north.  A  little  group  of 
black  tents  of  Turkoman  nomads,  here  today  and  gone  tomor- 
row, was  pitched  beside  the  strong  enduring  walls  which 
Shah  Abbas  had  built  three  hundred  years  ago.  A  soldier 
well  armed  and  well  dressed  untied  a  beautiful  horse  from  be- 
side the  caravanserai  door,  climbed  into  his  high  cossack 
saddle,  and  galloped  away.  A  long  line  of  camels  passed  laden 
some  with  grain,  some  with  cotton,  and  some  with  the  big  tins 
of  Russian  petroleum  which  are  beginning  again  to  come  from 
Baku.  The  whole  scene  was  a  miniature  of  the  present  day 
life  of  Persia,  and  as  we  rode  away  a  beautiful  little  wire- 
haired  terrier  ran  with  us  the  whole  twelve  miles,  whom  we 
knew  to  be  no  Persian  but  the  strayed  or  stolen  treasure  of 
some  Englishman,  and  whose  desiring  owner  we  found  in 
Meshed  in  the  head  of  the  Imperial  Bank.  He  had  asked  many 
travelers  in  vain  whether  they  had  seen  his  lost  dog  along 
the  way,  and  rejoiced  in  the  word  we  brought  him. 

The  worst  part  of  the  road,  if  one  may  risk  a  choice  among 
abysses,  the  worst  at  least  at  winter  time,  is  the  wide  alkali 
plain  of  Hassanabad  which  in  wet  weather  is  turned  into  a  six 
mile  bog  where  the  wagons  sink  to  the  hub  in  a  sticky,  gluti- 
nous swamp.  There  is  no  escaping  it,  and  the  first  stage 
through  it  is  only  four  miles,  as  many  horses  being  provided 
as  is  necessary  to  drag  the  vehicle  through.  Big  freight 
wagons  come  to  the  bog  in  groups  and  double  up  the  teams 
of  four  to  six  or  eight  horses.  Strewn  across  the  bog  on  our 
return  journey  we  met  the  stalled  wagons,  often  untended, 
while  their  drivers  were  helping  other  wagons  through,  to 
receive  help  in  their  own  turn.  Around  one  wagon  a  little 
group  of  American  turkeys  walked  at  liberty.  On  our  out- 
ward journey  the  night  came  down  upon  us  before  we  crossed 
the  bog,  and  we  changed  horses  in  the  dark  under  the  shadow 

434 


of  the  ruins  of  the  castle  of  the  robber  baron  of  Hassanabad 
who  years  ago  held  this  oasis  in  the  middle  of  the  bog  and 
levied  toll  on  every  passing  caravan. 

The  great  snow  wall  of  the  Nishapur  mountains  rises  just 
eastward  of  the  bog  of  Hassanabad,  and  it  was  midnight  as 
we  came  along  the  base  of  the  hills  and  rode  into  the  city  of 
Omar  Khayyam.  We  had  dreamed  of  going  at  once  to  his 
grave  in  the  moonlight,  but  when  we  asked  about  it  at  a 
tea  house  near  the  chappar  khanna,  although  all  knew  of  the 
poet  and  his  grave,  and  one  assured  us  it  was  at  least  a  hun- 
dred years  since  he  had  died,  we  found,  as  we  ought  to  have 
known,  that  the  shrine  of  Shah  zde  Mahmoud  where  he  is 
buried,  is  two  miles  south  of  the  city  and  off  the  post  road, 
so  we  promised  ourselves  to  visit  Omar's  tomb  upon  our  re- 
turn, and  with  fresh  horses  rode  on  past  the  walls  of  the  old 
city  and  through  the  night  until  just  as  day  was  breaking  we 
turned  up  an  avenue  of  huge  gnarled  pine  trees  and  stopped 
before  the  shrine  at  Ghadamgah,  "The  Place  of  the  Footprint" 
of  Imam  Reza,  still  preserved  in  stone  in  the  little  gaudy, 
neglected,  octagonal  shrine  with  its  blue  dome  and  its  green 
and  white  and  yellow  tiles.  The  shrine  is  set  in  the  ruins 
of  a  fine  old  terraced  Persian  garden  of  walnut  and  beach  and 
sycamore  trees.  The  terraces  are  lined  with  arched  brick  re- 
cesses for  the  accommodation  of  pilgrims.  On  either  side,  on 
little  hills  behind  the  shrine,  stood  the  walls  of  an  ancient 
Persian  village  and  the  mud  ruins  of  a  baronial  castle.  A  few 
half-naked  beggars  shivered  in  the  cold,  whistling  winter 
wind,  and  behind  the  shrine  eastward  and  looking  down  the 
wide  avenues  of  twisted  old  pine  trees  westward  one  saw  the 
glistening  white  walls  of  mountains,  brown  and  hot  enough 
in  summer  time  but  now  clad  with  snow.  At  Fakhridaood, 
"The  Glory  of  David,"  the  second  stage  beyond  Ghadamgah, 
a  fatherly  old  drives  took  us  under  his  care.  We  asked  him 
how  long  it  would  take  us  to  cover  the  forty  miles  still  re- 
maining to  Meshed.  "Why  should  I  say?"  said  he.  "I  would 
surely  only  be  lying  to  you,  for  who  can  know?  It  will  be 
as  it  shall  please  God."  The  fine  old  caravanserai  of  Gha- 
damgah with  its  long  quadrangle  open  at  one  end,  with  the 
shrine  at  the  other,  and  the  brick  dormitories  on  either  side 
bringing  vividly  to  one's  mind  Thomas  Jefferson's  noble  uni- 
versity buildings  at  Charlottesville,  was  the  last  touch  of  the 
great  hand  of  Shah  Abbas.  From  Ghadamgah  to  Meshed 
there  were  only  the  inferior  buildings  of  later  hands,  and  the 
later  the  hands  the  greater  the  inferiority. 

But  with  the  pious  pilgrims  who  flock  from  all  over  Persia 

435 


to  the  great  Meshed  shrine,  there  is  Httle  thought,  now  that 
they  have  seen  Imam  Reza's  footprint  at  Ghadamgah,  of  lodg- 
ing places.  All  their  longing  now  is  to  see  far  ahead  the 
golden  dome  of  Reza's  shrine.  It  is  many  a  weary  mile  still, 
however,  before  that  view  breaks,  and  from  Fakhridaood  on 
to  Sharifabad  there  is  a  bitter  wind  which  comes  angrily  down 
through  the  winter  months  from  the  Nishapur  hills,  and  the 
road  runs  through  a  lonely  land,  with  the  ruins  of  old  fort- 
resses here  and  there  upon  the  hills. 

At  Sharifabad  the  Teheran  road  which  has  come  south- 
ward to  turn  the  foot  of  the  Nishapur  mountains  joins  the  fine 
military  road  which  the  British  built  from  Duzdap,  the  end 
of  the  railway  across  Baluchistan  from  India.  The  road,  like 
the  other  great  military  highways  which  England  made  dur- 
ing the  war  and  then  turned  over  to  Persia,  is  neglected  now 
and  fast  falling  into  disrepair.  All  the  way  from  Teheran 
to  Meshed,  including  this  British  road  and  the  great  road 
which  the  Neir-i-Dowleh  built  as  Governor  of  Khorasan  from 
Sharifabad  to  Meshed,  we  met  not  one  man  working  on  the 
road  to  improve  it  or  keep  it  in  repair.  There  is  a  pretence 
of  upkeep  on  the  road  from  Teheran  to  Kasvin  and  from 
Kasvin  to  Resht  on  the  Caspian  Sea  and  from  Kasvin  through 
Hamadan  and  Kermanshah  to  Shahgedar  on  the  border  be- 
tween Persia  and  Irak.  Even  the  milestones  on  the  road  from 
Meshed  to  Duzdap,  marking  the  distances  at  least  as  far  as 
Turbat,  have  been  defaced.  Were  they  not  irreverent,  saying 
unequivocally  what  ought  only  to  be  said  conditionally  upon 
the  will  of  God?  A  holy  man  saluted  us  as  we  waited  for  the 
fresh  horses  at  Sharifabad.  "If  you  will  give  me  money," 
said  he,  "I  will  make  a  prayer  for  you."  "Many  thanks," 
said  we,  "but  we  would  rather  make  our  own."  Still  it  would 
have  been  interesting  to  have  heard  his  prayer  or  to  have  seen 
it  as  he  would  have  written  it  down. 

On  the  top  of  the  last  hill  beyond  Sharifabad  was  a  little 
shrine  and  below  it  the  caravanserai  of  Hauz-i-Mohammed 
Reza,  or  "Reza's  Pool,"  and  soon  thereafter  we  looked  out  over 
rough  low  lying  hills  to  a  plain  between  two  ranges  of  snow- 
covered  mountains  and  the  scene,  so  longed  for  by  pilgrim 
hearts,  of  the  domes  and  minarets  of  the  mosques  of  Meshed 
lay  before  us,  hidden,  however,  from  our  eyes  by  the  gather- 
ing storm  of  wind  and  snow  which  at  the  end  of  eight  days  of 
perfect  weather  broke  as  we  changed  horses  for  the  last  time 
at  Turuq,  a  ruined  old  place,  and  drove  in  through  the  gather- 
ing dark  and  tempest  to  the  friendly  homes  that  awaited  us  at 
Meshed.    As  we  turned  the  last  corner  the  tire  flew  off  a  front 

43(; 


wheel  of  the  carriage  we  had  got  at  Subsavar,  and  with  grate- 
ful hearts  that  it  had  held  so  long,  we  finished  our  long  ride 
to  the  most  holy  city  of  Persian  Mohannmedanism  and  its 
great  shrine. 

The  Persian  Mohammedans  are  Shiahs,  while  the  rest  of 
the  Mohammedan  world  belongs  to  the  orthodox  party  called 
the  Sunnis.  The  enmity  between  the  two  sections  of  the  Mos- 
lem world  is  implacable.  It  arose  with  the  murder  of  Ali,  the 
fourth  caliph,  and  his  two  sons,  the  Shiahs  holding  that  the 
supreme  authority  in  Islam  belongs  to  Ali  and  his  descendants, 
and  denying  the  legitimacy  of  the  succession  of  caliphs  recog- 
nized by  the  Sunnis,  and,  of  course,  denying  the  title  of  the 
Sultan  as  head  of  the  Moslem  Church.  But  in  another  direc- 
tion the  chief  point  of  difference  is  found — the  Shiah  doctrine 
of  the  Imam.  "The  Imam  is  the  successor  of  the  Prophet, 
adorned  with  all  the  qualities  which  he  possessed."  Ali  was 
the  first  Imam,  and  there  have  been,  according  to  the  Imam- 
ites,  eleven  successors.  "They  are  believed  to  be  immaculate, 
infallible  and  perfect  guides  to  m.en.  ...  As  mediums  between 
God  and  man,  they  hold  a  far  higher  position  than  the  proph- 
ets, for  'the  grace  of  God  without  their  intervention  reaches 
to  no  created  being.'  The  Isma'ilians  are  the  other  sect  of  the 
Shiahs,  who  differ  from  the  Imamites  as  to  the  number  but 
not  the  character  of  the  Imams,  and  both  sects  agree  that  there 
never  could  be  a  time  when  there  should  be  no  Imam.  'The 
earth  is  never  without  a  living  Imam  though  concealed.'  'He 
who  dies  without  knowing  the  Imam,  or  who  is  not  his  dis- 
ciple, dies  ignorant.'  " 

The  eighth  of  the  Imams  according  to  the  Shiahs  was  Abul 
Hassan  Ali,  al  Reza,  commonly  known  as  Imam  Reza,  who 
died  in  March,  819,  in  the  village  of  Sanabad  near  Tus,  a 
martyr,  as  the  Shiahs  believe,  at  the  hands  of  the  Caliph 
Mamun.  It  is  the  Iman  Reza's  shrine  which  is  the  object  of 
Shiah  pilgrimage.  Christians  are  not  allowed  to  enter  the 
shrine  now  but  Eastwick  two  generations  ago  appears  to  have 
been  in  it.  His  description  in  "A  Journal  of  a  Diplomat's 
Three  Years'  Residence  in  Persia,"  gives  one  a  rather  brighter 
picture  of  the  shrine  than  the  visitor  looking  in  from  without 
gets  today : 

"The  quadrangle  of  the  shrine  seemed  to  be  about  150  paces 
square.  It  was  paved  with  large  flagstones  and  in  the  center 
was  a  beautiful  kiosk  or  pavilion,  covered  with  gold  and  raised 
over  the  reservoir  of  water  for  ablutions.  This  pavilion  was 
built  by  Nadir  Shah.  All  round  the  northern,  western  and 
southern  sides  of  the  quadrangle  ran,  at  some  10  feet  from 

437 


the  ground,  a  row  of  alcoves,  similar  to  that  in  which  I  was 
sitting,  and  filled  with  mullas  in  white  turbans  and  dresses. 
In  each  of  the  sides  was  a  gigantic  archway,  the  wall  being 
raised  in  a  square  from  above  the  entrance.  The  height  to 
the  top  of  this  square  wall  must  have  been  90  or  100  feet. 
The  alcoves  were  white,  seemingly  of  stone  or  plaster;  but 
the  archways  were  covered  with  blue  varnish  or  blue  tiles, 
with  beautiful  inscriptions  in  white  and  gold.  Over  the  west- 
ern archway  was  a  white  cage  for  the  muazzin,  and  outside 
it  was  a  gigantic  minaret  120  feet  high,  and  as  thick  as  the 
Duke  of  York's  column  in  London.  The  beauty  of  this  mina- 
ret cannot  be  exaggerated.  It  had  an  exquisitely  carved  capi- 
tal, and  above  that  a  light  pillar,  seemingly  10  feet  high; 
and  this  and  the  shaft  below  the  capital,  or  about  20  feet,  were 
covered  with  gold.  All  this  part  of  the  mosque  (shrine)  was 
built  by  Shah  Abbas.  In  the  centre  of  the  eastern  side  of 
the  quadrangle  two  gigantic  doors  were  thrown  open  to  admit 
the  people  in  the  adytum  or  inner  mosque  (shrine)  where  is 
the  marble  tomb  of  Imam  Reza,  surrounded  by  a  silver  rail- 
ing with  knobs  of  gold.  There  was  a  flight  of  steps  ascending  to 
these  doors,  and  beyond  were  two  smaller  doors  encrusted  with 
jewels — the  rubies  were  particularly  fine.  The  inner  mosque 
would  contain  3,000  persons.  Over  it  rose  a  dome  entirely 
covered  with  gold,  with  two  minarets  at  the  sides,  likewise 
gilt  all  over.  On  the  right  of  the  Imam's  tomb  is  that  of 
Abbas  Mirza,  grandfather  of  the  reigning  Shah.  Near  him 
several  other  princes  and  chiefs  of  note  are  buried.  Beyond 
the  golden  dome,  in  striking  and  beautiful  contrast  with  it, 
was  a  smaller  dome  of  bright  blue.  Here  begins  the  mosque 
of  Gauhar  Shad.  The  quadrangle  is  larger  than  that  of  Shah 
Abbas ;  and  at  the  eastern  side  is  an  immense  blue  dome,  out 
of  which  quantities  of  grass  were  growing,  the  place  being 
too  sacred  to  be  disturbed.  In  front  of  the  dome  rose  two 
lofty  minarets  covered  with  blue  tiles." 

The  reigning  Shah  at  the  time  of  Eastwick's  visit  was  the 
great  grandfather  of  the  present  Shah.  Gauhar  Shad  whose 
mosque  stands  near  Imam  Reza's  shrine  was  a  woman,  the  wife 
of  Shah  Rukh.  She  was  murdered  by  her  husband's  successor 
in  1457. 

Tens  of  thousands  of  pilgrims  come  to  Meshed  each  year. 
There  were  but  a  few  in  the  city  in  the  midwinter  when  we 
were  there,  and  the  movement  of  life  about  the  shrine  bore 
a  commercial  rather  than  a  religious  aspect.  No  one  resented 
our  presence  and  we  spent  a  week  at  Meshed  wandering  about 
the  old  city  and  its  bazaars  stopping  always  in  the  long  covered 

438 


street  of  the  bazaar  where  the  looped  chains  hanging  from 
the  domed  arches  indicafed  that  the  shrine  area  began,  talking 
with  the  old  Meshed  folk,  with  the  attaches  of  the  shrine,  and 
with  those  to  whom  new  ideas  were  coming,  wholly  at  variance 
with  the  old  thoughts  on  which  the  veneration  of  the  shrine 
had  been  built  up.  Mr.  Donaldson  of  Meshed  gave  me  a  trans- 
lation which  he  had  made  of  the  "Ziarat  Nameh,"  or  "Order 
of  worship  round  about  the  tomb  of  the  great  Imam  Reza, 
peace  be  upon  him."  I  think  no  English  translation  of  this 
ritual  which  reveals  a  great  deal  of  the  character  of  Persian 
Mohammedanism  has  ever  been  published : 

"Permission  for  the  First  Entrance, 
(i.   e.    to   enter   the   first   building) 

"In  the  name  of  God  the  Merciful  and  Compassionate.  God 
is  great,  God  is  great,  God  is  the  greatest  of  the  great.  Praise 
be  to  God  abundantly,  praise  be  to  God  in  the  morning  and 
in  the  evening.  Praise  be  to  God  for  His  guidance  to  His  re- 
ligion, and  for  our  arrival  at  that  to  which  He  called  us,  for 
Himself,  according  to  His  way. 

"0  God,  Thou  art  more  noble  than  any  purpose  and  more 
noble  than  any  can  approach.     Truly  I  have  come  to  Thee, 

0  my  God,  drawing  near  unto  Thee  by  means  of  the  son  of  the 
daughter  of  Thy  prophet  Mohammed, — Thy  mercy  be  upon  him 
and  his  descendants.  And  0  God,  do  not  disappoint  my  effort 
and  do  not  ignore  my  hope.  Appoint  me  to  an  honorable  place 
before  Thee  in  this  world  and  the  next,  among  those  near  to 
Thee  in  Thy  mercy,  0  most  Merciful  of  the  Merciful. 

"Permission  for  the  Second  Entrance. 

"In  the  name  of  God  the  Merciful  and  Compassionate. 
Praise  be  to  God  who  has  led  us  to  this  pilgrimage,  and  we 
would  not  have  had  guidance,  except  that  God  guided  us. 
Verily  the  apostles  of  our  Creator  came  in  truth. 

"Then  say:  O  ye  who  have  believed,  do  not  enter  the  houses 
of  the  prophet  unless  permission  is  given  to  you.    And  behold 

1  am  one  who  has  sought  the  permission  of  Thine  apostle. 
Thy  mercy  be  upon  him  and  his  descendants.  Let  me  enter, 
0  God !  Let  me  enter,  0  apostle  of  God !  Let  me  enter,  0  our 
Benefactor,  King  of  the  Faithful !  Let  me  enter,  0  our  Bene- 
factress, Fatima  the  Fair,  the  most  honored  of  the  women  of 
the  two  worlds !  Let  me  enter,  0  our  Benefactor,  Hasan  the 
son  of  Ali !  Let  me  enter,  0  our  Benefactor,  Hosein  the  son 
of  Ali !  Let  me  enter,  0  our  Benefactor,  Ali  the  son  of  Hosein, 
the  ornament  of  worshippers !  Let  me  enter,  0  our  Benefac- 
tor, Mohammed,  son  of  Ali !  Let  me  enter,  0  our  leader,  Jafar, 
son  of  Mohammed !    Let  me  enter,  0  our  leader,  Musa,  son  of 

439 


Jafar!  Let  me  enter,  O  our  Benefactor,  Ali  Reza,  son  of 
Musa !  Let  me  enter,  O  our  Benefactor,  Mohammed,  son  of 
Ali!  Let  me  enter,  0  our  leader,  Ali,  son  of  Mohammed!  Let 
me  enter,  O  our  Benefactor,  Hasan,  son  of  Ali !  Let  me  enter, 
0  our  Benefactor,  Hajat,  son  of  Hasan  and  sahib-i-zaman ! 
(i.  e.,  ruler  or  possessor  of  the  present  time).  Let  me  enter, 
0  ye  angels,  ye  who  are  serving,  standing,  surrounding,  and 
guarding  this  honored  shrine,  and  the  mercy  of  God  and  His 
blessings  be  upon  you. 

"When  you  enter  the  sacred  precincts,  stand  and  say : 
"In  the  name  of  God  and  by  God  and  in  the  way  of  God  and 
unto  the  followers  of  the  apostle  of  God,  God  be  gracious  unto 
him  and  his  descendants,  I  bear  witness  that  there  is  no  God 
except  God  alone  and  no  one  is  associated  with  Him  and  I 
bear  witness  that  Mohammed  is  His  servant  and  apostle.  0 
God,  have  mercy  upon  Mohammed  and  the  descendants  of 
Mohammed. 

"The  Prayer  before  the  Face  of  the  Blessed  One. 
"In  the  name  of  God  the  Merciful  and  the  Compassionate. 
"Peace  be  unto  thee,  O  Imam,  the  Stranger ; 

Peace  be  unto  thee,  0  Imam,  the  Martyr ; 

Peace  be  unto  thee,  0  Imarr^  the  Oppressed ; 

Peace  be  unto  thee,  0  Imam,  the  Sinless ; 

Peace  be  unto  thee,  0  Imam,  the  Poisoned ; 

Peace  be  unto  thee,  0  Imam,  the  Bereaved ; 

Peace  be  unto  thee,  0  Imam,  Grieved ; 

Peace  be  unto  thee,  O  Imam,  the  Guide  and  Protector  of 
the  followers  of  the  right  way!  Before  God  on  High,  I  have 
no  sympathy  with  those  who  were  hostile  to  thee,  and  I  ap- 
proach the  most  high  God  by  those  who  helped  thee.  Peace 
be  unto  thee,  0  my  Benefactor  and  son  of  my  Benefactor  and 
the  mercy  of  God  and  His  blessing  be  upon  thee. 

"The  Prayer  at  the  Feet  of  the  Blessed  One. 
"In  the  name  of  God  the  Merciful  and  the  Compassionate. 
The  Mercy  of  God  be  upon  thee,  0  my  Benefactor,  the  mercy  of 
God  be  upon  thee,  0  my  leader!  The  mercy  of  God  be  upon 
thy  spirit,  and  upon  thy  clean  flesh  and  upon  thy  pure  body! 
Thou  didst  wait  and  thou  didst  hope,  and  thou  wast  confirmed 
as  the  speaker  of  the  truth.  God  kill  him  who  killed  thee.  And 
God  curse  those  who  oppressed  thee  by  their  hands  and  their 
tongues!  But  for  my  part,  may  the  peace  of  God  be  upon 
thee,  0  my  Benefactor,  and  the  son  of  my  Benefactor.  Thou 
art  my  intercessor  and  the  intercessor  of  my  parents  by  thine 
own  right,  and  by  the  right  of  thy  grandfather  and  of  thy 

440 


forefathers,  those  who  were  good  and  clean  and  sinless,  the 
mercy  and  blessing  of  God  be  upon  them. 

"Prayer  of  the  Heir 

to  be  read  behind  the  head  of  the  Blessed  One. 

"In  the  name  of  God  the  Merciful  and  the  Compassionate. 

Peace  unto  thee,  0  heir  of  Adam,  the  Purity  of  God ; 

Peace  unto  thee,  0  heir  of  Noah,  the  Confident  of  God ; 

Peace  unto  thee,  0  heir  of  Abraham,  the  Friend  of  God ; 

Peace  unto  thee,  0  heir  of  Moses,  the  Speaker  of  God ; 

Peace  unto  thee,  0  heir  of  Jesus,  the  Spirit  of  God ; 

Peace  unto  thee,  0  heir  of  Mohammed,  the  Lover  of  God ; 

Peace  unto  thee,  0  heir  of  the  Prince  of  the  Faithful,  the 
Appointed  One  of  God. 

"Peace  be  unto  thee,  O  son  of  Mohammed  Mustafa  ;  Peace  be 
unto  thee,  0  son  of  Ali  Murtaza;  Peace  be  unto  thee,  0  son  of 
Fatima  the  Fair,  the  noblest  of  the  women  of  the  two  worlds ; 
Peace  be  unto  thee,  0  son  of  Khadija  the  Illustrious,  the 
Mother  of  the  Faithful ;  Peace  be  unto  thee,  0  martyr  of  God 
and  son  of  a  martyr ;  thou  art  unique  among  the  distinguished, 
and  I  bear  witness  that  thou  didst  resuscitate  prayer  and  that 
thou  didst  bring  about  the  giving  of  alms.  Thou  didst  order 
religious  instruction  and  thou  didst  prohibit  that  which  is 
forbidden.  Thou  didst  obey  God  and  His  Apostle  until  thou 
didst  arrive  at  the  truth.  And  may  God  curse  the  tribes  that 
killed  you  and  the  people  who  oppressed  you,  and  may  God 
curse  the  people  who  sympathized  with  and  countenanced  this 
crime. 

"0  my  benefactor,  0  father  of  Abdullah,  (i.  e.,  Hosein),  I 
bear  witness  that  thou  wast  the  light  in  the  loins  of  noble 
lineage  and  in  purified  wombs.  Heathenism  did  not  pollute 
you  with  its  uncleanness  and  did  not  clothe  you  with  its  gar- 
ments of  darkness,  I  testify  that  thou  art  from  among  the 
supporters  of  religion  and  the  pillar  of  the  faithful.  I  testify 
that  thou  art  the  Imam,  righteous,  temperate,  kind,  pure,  and 
the  guide  who  is  rightly  guided.  And  I  testify  that  the  Imams 
are  from  thy  descendants,  thou  Word  of  Power,  Sign  of  Guid- 
ance, Hope  of  Trust,  and  Ambassador  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Earth.  Let  God  be  witness,  and  His  Angels  and  His 
Prophets  and  His  Apostle  that  I  am  faithful  to  you,  (O 
Imams)  and  true  to  your  father  in  the  laws  of  my  religion 
and  the  purposes  of  my  conduct.  My  heart  is  at  peace  with 
your  hearts  and  my  action  in  accord  with  your  commands. 
The  favor  of  God  be  upon  you  and  upon  your  spirits,  upon  the 
corpses  of  your  followers  who  are  dead,  and  upon  the  bodies 
of  your  followers  who  are  living,  upon  those  of  your  followers 

441 


who  were  associated  with  you  and  upon  those  who  did  not 
know  you,  upon  those  who  accepted  you  openly  and  upon  those 
who  accepted  you  secretly. 

"Then  consider  that  you  are  worshipping  at  the 
shrine  of  Ali  the  son  of  Hosein,  and  say: 
"Peace  be  unto  thee,  0  son  of  the  apostle  of  God,  peace  be 
upon  thee,  0  son  of  the  prophet  of  God,  peace  be  upon  thee, 
0  son  of  the  Prince  of  the  Faithful,  peace  be  upon  thee,  O 
son  of  Fatima  the  Fair,  noblest  of  the  women  of  the  two 
worlds,  peace  be  upon  thee,  0  son  of  Hosein  the  martyr,  peace 
be  upon  thee,  O  Martyr  and  son  of  a  martyr,  peace  be  upon 
thee,  0  Oppressed  One  and  son  of  the  Oppressed,  and  may  God 
curse  the  tribes  that  killed  thee,  and  may  God  curse  the  people 
who  oppressed  thee,  and  may  God  curse  the  people  who  gave 
ear  to  this  crime  and  countenanced  it. 

"Then  consider  that  you  are  worshipping  at  the  tombs 
of  all  the  martyrs,  peace  be  upon  them,  and  say : 
"Peace  be  unto  you  who  are  near  unto  God  and  loved  of  Him, 
and  affectionate  friends  of  His;  peace  be  unto  you,  0  De- 
fenders of  the  religion  of  God ;  peace  be  unto  you,  0  defenders 
of  the  apostle  of  God;  peace  be  unto  you,  0  defenders  of  the 
Prince  of  the  Faithful;  peace  be  unto  you,  0  defenders  of 
Fatima  the  Fair,  the  noblest  of  the  women  of  the  two  worlds ; 
peace  be  unto  thee,  0  defenders  of  Ab-i-Mohammed  al  Hasan, 
son  of  Ali,  pure,  sincere,  and  faithful;  peace  be  thine  and 
my  mother  thy  delight, — and  may  your  graves  be  pleasant, 
having  perished  in  the  great  slaughter.     Would  that  I  were 
with  you  in  the  garden  of  Paradise,  with  the  Prophets  and 
the  Truthful  and  the  Martyrs  and  the  Sincere.    What  a  happy 
privilege  to  be  friendly  with  you!     Peace  be  unto  you,  those 
of  you  who  were  white  and  those  of  you  who  were  black,  unto 
the  dead  who  were  with  you  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  unto 
those  who  were  not  with  you  on  the  battlefield, — especially 
upon  my  Sayed  arid  Benefactor,  Abu  Fazal  Abbas,  and  Ghasim 
the  son  of  Hasan,  and  Muslin  the  son  of  Aegil,  and  Hani,  the 
son  of  Urvat,  and  Haoi,  the  son  of  Muzahir,  and  Al  Hur,  the 
martyr  of  Reahi  (a  town  in  Arabia).    Peace  be  unto  you,  my 
Sayeds  and  my  masters,  all  of  you,  and  the  mercy  of  God 
and  His  blessing  upon  you. 

"Prayer  above  the  Head  of  the  Blessed  One 

"In  the  name  of  God  the  Merciful  and  the  Compassionate. 

Peace  be  unto  thee,  0  my  benefactor  and  son  of  my  benefactor, 

and  the  mercy  of  God  and  His  blessing  upon  thee;  I  witness 

before  God  that  thou  dost  know  my  standing  here,  dost  hear 

442 


my  word,  and  dost  answer  my  salaam,  and  thou  art  living, 
and  that  prosperously,  in  the  presence  of  thy  Preserver.  I 
ask  God,  my  Preserver  and  Thy  Preserver,  to  bring  about  my 
salvation  in  the  world  and  at  the  last.  0  Confident  of  God,  O 
Representative  of  God,  between  me  and  God,  mighty  and  glo- 
rious, I  declare  there  are  sins,  and  this  burden  of  sin  weighs 
upon  my  back  and  prevents  me  from  sleeping,  and  the  very 
mention  of  it  stirs  my  soul  with  commotion.  And  truly  I 
flee  unto  God  most  high,  mighty  and  glorious,  and  unto  thee, 
and  by  thy  right,  and  by  the  right  of  the  one  who  instructed 
thee  with  his  mysteries,  and  made  thee  a  shepherd  in  the  ser- 
vice of  His  people.  Verily  the  worship  of  thee  is  near  to  the 
worship  of  Him  and  following  thee  is  near  to  following  Him. 
So  be  for  me  a  mediator  before  God  on  high,  a  saviour  from 
hell  fire,  on  earth  a  support,  and  on  the  road  of  life  an  assur- 
ance, and  in  the  grave  a  most  intimate  friend  and  companion, 
and  the  mercy  of  God  and  his  blessing  be  upon  you. 

"A  special  Prayer  for  Imam  Reza,  to  be  read  above 
the  head  of  the  Blessed  One. 
"0  God,  bless  Ali  b  Musa  r  Reza,  al  Murtaza,  leader  of  the 
self-controlled  and  pure,  a  sign  of  Thee  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  and  under  the  earth,  a  sincere  martyr.  Let  there  be 
upon  him  many  blessings,  sufficient,  increasing,  righteous,  con- 
sistent, general  and  well-ordered, — and  of  such  excellence  as 
Thou  would'st  grant  to  one  of  thine  own  trusted  friends. 

"Prayer  in  the  name  of  the  Sahib  i  Zaman, 
may  God  hasten  his  appearance. 
(The  Sahib  i  Zaman,  or  pastor  of  the  present 
age,  refers  to  the  twelfth  Imam,  now  believed  to 
exist  but  not  as  yet  to  have  appeared.) 
"Peace  be  unto  Thee,  0  representative  of  God  the  Merciful! 
Peace  be  unto  Thee,  0  Col-laborator  in  the  Koran ! 
Peace  be  unto  Thee,  0  Leader  of  Men  and  Jins ! 
Peace  be  unto  Thee  and  unto  your  pure  fathers,  and  unto 
your  cleansed  ancestry,  and  the  mercy  and  blessing  of 
God  be  upon  thee. 
"Prayer  above  the  Head  of  the  Blessed  One 
"0  God,  answer  my  prayer,  O  Allah ! 
Accept  my  praise,  0  Allah ! 
Unite  me  with  my  friends,  O  Allah ! 

I  ask  for  the  sake  of  my  mediators,  Mohammed  and  Ali  and 
Fatima  and  Hasan  and  Hosein  and  the  sinless  Imams 
descended  from  Hosein,  peace  be  upon  them." 

Meshed  is  a  far  away  place,  but  not  so  far  that  adventurous 
spirits  do  not  come  there  on  their  way  to  still  remoter  places. 

443 


On  several  occasions  we  met  Professor  Foucher  and  his  wife, 
of  the  Sorbonne,  who  were  in  Meshed  on  their  way  to  Afghan- 
istan for  archaeological  work  after  many  months  in  India 
studying  the  old  frescoes  of  Ajanta.  Most  of  all,  of  course, 
we  were  minding  our  primary  business  in  connection  with 
Christian  Missions  in  Meshed,  for  which  twenty-five  years  ago 
we  would  not  have  been  allowed  to  come  to  Imam  Reza's 
shrine. 

The  snow  storms  of  the  week  were  over  as  we  drove  out  of 
Meshed  on  our  return  journey.  All  the  way  to  Nishapur 
mountain  and  plain  were  white  with  the  new  fallen  snow.  We 
had  started  from  Meshed  with  a  fresh  carriage.  It  developed 
a  broken  spring  before  we  had  reached  Turuq,  the  first  post 
house  eight  miles  out  from  Meshed.  The  post  driver  bound 
up  the  spring  with  rope  and  a  wooden  block  with  the  assur- 
ance that  we  need  not  fear.  It  would  now  hold  all  the  way 
to  Teheran.  It  was  broken  once  for  all,  however,  and  beyond 
repair  before  we  reached  Nishapur  at  noon  the  following  day. 
Here  a  blacksmith  undertook  to  make  a  new  spring  which 
would  be  ready,  "Inshallah,"  in  twenty-four  hours.  With  the 
aid  of  a  little  backshish,  however,  it  was  ready  in  eight.  The 
afternoon  and  evening  we  spent  with  Ghulam  Ali  and  some 
friends  of  his  who  had  lost  interest  in  Islam  and  who  were 
studying  the  Christian  view  with  a  freshness  and  interest 
that  gave  that  view  a  new  vitality  to  us.  We  had  counted 
surely  on  some  such  delay  as  this  for  the  visit  to  Omar's  grave, 
but  there  was  no  way  of  reaching  it  except  on  foot,  and  though 
we  set  out  bravely  for  it  through  the  snow  and  mud,  a  new 
storm  settled  down  which  blotted  all  the  landscape  out  of 
sight,  and  we  had  to  turn  back  with  the  consolation  that  the 
poet's  resting  place  is  the  simplest  sort  of  Persian  grave  and 
that  he  lies  in  no  shrine  of  his  own,  but  in  the  corner  of  the 
tomb  of  some  inferior  Shiah  saint. 

The  following  morning,  after  a  fresh  snow  fall,  with  the 
sunlight  glistening  upon  the  hills,  we  set  out  with  our  new 
spring  and  new  confidence  for  Subsaver,  crossed  the  Hassana- 
bad  Bog  in  safety  and  soon  left  behind  the  white  slopes  of 
the  Nishapur  hills.  All  that  night  the  camel  caravans  glided 
silently  past  laden  with  cotton  or  oil  or  grain  or  bales  of  the 
scanty  merchandise  which  is  at  present  passing  in  or  out  of 
Persia.  Hundreds  of  camels  would  go  by  us  these  nights,  tied 
each  camel  to  the  one  before  in  detachments  of  from  five  to 
ten  camels  each.  Often  we  passed  the  long  caravans  in  the 
day,  but  usually  the  camel  fleets  made  their  short  stage  by 
night,  and  in  the  morning  would  be  settled  on  their  camping 

444 


grounds  in  the  open  desert  or  by  the  edge  of  some  village, 
the  loads  standing  in  orderly  disorder  on  the  ground,  the 
camels  squatting  in  long  parallel  rows  facing  each  other  or 
in  little  circular  clusters,  each  detachment  of  camels  with 
their  heads  together,  around  the  fodder  in  the  center  of  their 
circle,  and  the  camel  drivers  somewhere  in  the  midst  on  the 
ground  about  their  fire.  Now  and  then  on  the  road  we  would 
meet  som.e  sick  camel  left  behind,  squatting  by  the  side  of 
the  trail  or  directly  across  the  way,  with  a  driver  lying  close 
against  its  leeward  side  for  warmth  and  shelter,  with  his 
square  shouldered  felt  coat  drawn  over  him. 

Our  fresh  Meshed  carriage  lasted  five  f arsakhs  beyond  Sub- 
savar  and  then  a  stupid  driver,  doped  with  opium,  smashed 
a  front  wheel  beyond  all  repair  in  a  little  gully  on  a  bank, 
a  few  miles  east  of  the  post  station  at  Mehr,  which  is  Persian 
for  "mercy."  We  tramped  in  behind  our  shattered  hopes  and 
sat  down  in  the  squalid  little  tea  house  beside  the  road.  This 
was  the  third  carriage  to  go  to  pieces  with  us.  We  could  not 
get  another  except  by  sending  back  to  Subsavar.  Any  fresh 
one  that  we  could  get  would  be  sure  to  go  to  pieces  as  its  prede- 
cessors had  done,  and  there  was  no  telling  how  long  it  would 
be  before  we  could  get  word  of  our  plight  into  Subsavar. 
"Why  do  you  fret  so?"  asked  our  Persian  friends  in  the  tea 
house.  "If  you  will  just  sit  down,  somebody  will  be  coming 
by  within  a  few  days  on  his  way  to  Subsavar,  and  he  can 
take  word  for  you,  and  then  maybe  they  will  send  some  help 
to  you."  Whatever  deterioration  we  had  suffered  from  Per- 
sian travel,  however,  the  full  torpor  of  Persia  had  not  yet 
settled  upon  us.  What  causes  this  torpor?  I  suppose  it  has 
a  dozen  causes,  climatic,  social,  and  economic.  It  is  unmis- 
takably associated  with  religion,  but  it  is  hard  to  say  how 
much  the  fatalism  of  Islam  is  the  cause  of  indolence  and  petri- 
faction of  national  character  and  how  much  it  is  these  quali- 
ties of  character  that  find  shelter  and  defend  themselves  under 
the  fatalism  of  Islam.  And,  likewise,  with  opium  one  is  in 
doubt  how  much  stupidity  and  inaction  are  its  results  and 
how  much  the  wretchedness  of  life  and  the  futility  of  effort 
in  Persia  are  the  cause  of  its  use.  All  night  long  in  the  tea 
house  at  Mehr  I  watched  the  opium  smokers  come  and  go. 
It  was  but  a  little  of  the  drug  that  they  could  afford.  They 
would  come  in  ragged  and  weary  from  the  road  dragging 
their  clumsy  heavy  foot  gear,  would  lie  down  for  a  little  delu- 
sion of  rest,  and  then  go  out  into  the  night  again. 

Twenty-four  hours  after  our  breakdown  a  post  wagon  came 
by.     It   was   a   rough,   springless,   uncovered    wagon   like   a 

446 


farmer's  wood  wagon  or  a  topless  prairie  schooner  of  the  old 
days,  but  it  was  strong  and  durable,  and  it  had  first  claim 
on  the  horses  at  each  post  station,  and  it  was  due  to  go 
through,  traveling  day  and  night,  to  Teheran  within  seven 
days.  It  was  the  only  absolutely  sure  way  we  saw  to  escape 
leaving  our  bones  to  bleach  at  Mehr  or  somewhere  along  the 
edge  of  the  great  salt  desert  of  central  Persia,  and  we  climbed 
on  board  for  as  rough  a  journey  as  one  could  find  perhaps 
anywhere  in  the  world,  but  we  went  through  in  six  days  with- 
out delay  and  without  mishap,  through  storm  and  sunshine, 
snow  and  rain  and  mud,  by  day  and  by  night,  safely  to  our 
journey's  end. 

Horses  and  drivers  change  on  the  post  wagons  at  each 
station,  but  a  post  courier  goes  straight  through  in  charge 
of  the  mails  to  their  destination.  On  this  long  run  from 
Meshed  to  Teheran  one  courier  brought  the  post  as  far  as 
Sharoud  where  he  turned  it  over  to  a  second  man  to  take  it 
the  rest  of  the  way.  Our  first  man  had  the  look  of  a  pirate, 
and  he  never  prayed,  but  our  second  man  was  a  pious  and 
prayerful  Moslem.  They  were  both  as  warmhearted  and 
solicitous  for  our  comfort  as  though  they  were  old  friends, 
and  we  parted  from  them  with  real  affection.  Neither  one 
of  them  lacked  in  energy  or  sense  of  responsibility  for  his 
trust.  As  we  drove  up  to  each  post  station,  our  first  man 
was  already  calling  out  for  new  horses,  and  our  second  courier 
would  allow  no  hardship  or  diflficulty  to  delay  him.  Beside 
the  two  couriers  and  an  occasional  local  passenger  we  had 
one  through  companion  to  Teheran,  a  Mohammedan  merchant 
from  Meshed  who  had  heard  that  an  importation  of  goods 
from  India  had  reached  Teheran  and  was  on  his  way  thither 
to  buy. 

The  fact  that  we  were  not  Russians,  as  was  every  one's  first 
supposition,  nor  Englishmen,  who  are  just  now  suffering 
what  one  hopes  is  only  a  temporary  though  a  very  great  un- 
popularity in  Persia,  but  Americans,  was  an  occasion  of  un- 
failing interest.  "What  is  America?"  some  one  would  ask, 
as  we  changed  horses  before  the  post  house  or  drank  tea  with- 
in. "Oh,"  some  one  would  reply,  "that  is  the  country  of  which 
no  one  knew  where  it  was  until  lately."  "Yes,"  said  another, 
"the  Americans  are  the  people  whom  the  English  discovered 
just  a  little  while  ago,  and  they  taught  them  their  civiliza- 
tion, and  now  the  Americans  have  gone  far  ahead  of  them 
and  know  more  than  the  English  do,  and  can  do  everything 
better  than  the  English  can."  Once  on  the  wagon  the  courier 
and  the  merchant  and  the  driver  had  a  discussion  as  to  what 

446 


language  Americans  spoke,  and  the  three  of  them  made  a 
wager.  At  the  next  tea  house  they  called  on  us  to  decide  as 
to  whether  Americans  spoke  Russian,  or  English  or  French. 
We  were  tempted  to  tell  them  that  many  of  us  could  speak 
neither  one. 

One  long  night  as  we  rode  on  under  the  stars  wrapped  up 
warmly  from  the  cool  winter  air  we  asked  our  friends,  the 
courier  and  the  merchant,  about  the  opium  habit.  It  was  their 
opinion  that  almost  every  one  used  it.  A  good  part  of  the 
large  land  holdings  of  the  Meshed  shrine  was  devoted  to  its 
production.  There  ensued  a  long  discussion  as  to  the  reasons 
for  its  use.  These  they  at  length  agreed  might  be  classified 
as,  first  the  erotic  value  of  opium  smoking,  second  the  thoughts 
that  it  allayed  and  the  other  thoughts  that  it  evoked,  third 
its  alleviation  of  pain,  softening  or  for  a  little  while  at  least 
banishing,  the  weariness,  the  cold,  the  hunger,  and  the  misery 
of  life,  fourth  custom,  and  fifth  companionship.  They  were 
not  defending  opium  smoking.  Indeed  they  were  not  thinking 
of  its  moral  aspects  at  all.  It  was  simply  a  universal  fact  in 
Persian  life,  as  they  regarded  it,  thai  they  were  seeking  to 
explain.  The  practice  of  opium  smoking  is  not  equally  preva- 
lent, in  all  parts  of  Persia,  but  we  met  it  everywhere  in  the 
misery  of  life  in  these  tea  houses  along  the  great  pilgrim  road. 

The  old  grizzly  courier  who  took  charge  of  us  and  of  the 
through  mail  at  Sharoud  had  good  stuff  in  him.  It  was  his 
business  to  get  the  post  through  from  Sharoud  to  Teheran 
in  five  days,  and  he  was  resolved  upon  doing  it.  Persian 
character  shows  itself  in  some  of  its  best  qualities  on  the 
caravan  road.  There  through  all  kinds  of  weather  against 
all  kinds  of  difficulties  post  drivers,  camel  men,  muleteers, 
donkey  drivers,  and  chavadars  go  about  their  hard  task  with 
patience,  endurance,  and,  for  the  most  part,  with  uncomplain- 
ing good  cheer.  It  is  as  rough  and  hard  a  life  as  men  lead 
anywhere  in  the  world.  One  does  not  despair  of  a  race  which 
for  so  many  centuries  has  suffered  and  achieved  as  the  Per- 
sians have  done  on  the  great  caravan  roads  that  run  east 
and  west  and  north  and  south  across  the  mountains  and 
the  deserts  of  their  broad  plateau.  Our  old  man  had  two 
tough  testings.  The  first  of  them  came  the  night  after  we 
left  Sharoud.  An  hour  or  so  before  we  reached  Deh-i-Mollah 
it  began  to  rain,  a  drizzle  at  first  and  then  a  steady  downpour. 
The  courier  got  from  under  the  load  a  heavy  canvass  just  big 
enough  to  spread  flat  over  the  wagon,  but  not  enough  to  set 
up  as  a  roof  allowing  breathing  space  between.  We  all  tried 
at  first  the  plan  of  lying  flat  on  the  load  under  the  canvass, 

447 


but  this  became  unbearable.  The  canvass  was  soon  water- 
soaked  and  as  heavy  as  lead  and  to  lie  under  it  meant  botli 
drenching  and  suffocation.  A  couple  of  hours  after  leaving 
Deh-i-Mollah  the  rain  turned  to  sleet  driven  by  a  wind  so 
cold  and  bitter  that  the  horses  refused  to  face  it  longer  or  to 
go  on  through  the  black  night,  where  in  any  case,  as  it  seemed 
to  us,  only  a  miracle  could  keep  us  in  the  narrow  track.  Just 
as  it  seemed  impossible  to  endure  the  misery  longer,  the  old 
man  got  the  horses  forward  to  a  dark  building  which  loomed 
ahead  and  which  proved  to  be  the  post  station  of  Mehman 
Dust.  It  was  an  old  caravanserai  with  a  big  covered  entrance, 
and  as  the  wagon  turned  in  and  the  gates  closed  behind  us 
and  the  bitter  storm  roared  without,  chilled  and  soaked 
though  we  were,  the  shelter  was  blissful,  and  miserable  though 
the  caravanserai  was,  it  seemed  for  the  moment  to  deserve 
its  name,  Mehman  Dust  or  "Guest  Loving."  The  old  man 
waited  only  until  the  storm  had  gone  by,  and  long  before 
daylight,  under  the  chill  of  a  cold,  star-filled,  storm-swept 
sky,  he  pushed  on  again  across  a  country  where  the  road  was 
a  muddy,  running  stream.  The  next  night  he  met  even  greater 
difficulties.  In  the  flush  of  a  cold  winter  sunset  we  left  Ghoo- 
seh  for  the  long  climb  up  the  eastern  side  of  the  Ahuan  Pass. 
It  grew  colder  and  colder  as  we  went  on  into  deepening  snow 
to  Faizabad  where  the  worst  of  the  pass  begins  and  where 
we  stopped  at  ten  thirty  for  fresh  horses.  It  was  bitter  cold. 
The  snow  crackled  and  sang  under  the  wagon"  wheels.  The 
merchant  who  was  wrapped  up  in  all  his  own  rugs,  and  some 
that  we  had  loaned  him,  declared  that  he  was  freezing  to 
death  and  implored  the  old  courier  to  stop  for  Ihe  rest  of  the 
night.  The  new  drivers  refused  to  bring  out  their  horses. 
It  was  madness  to  go  on,  they  said.  There  had  just  been 
fresh  falls  of  snow.  In  the  morning  with  eight  horses  and 
shovelers  to  go  ahead,  it  might  be  possible  to  get  through. 
The  old  man  was  in  dire  perplexity.  He  did  not  want  to  do 
what  would  turn  out  to  be  foolish  and  to  frustrate  his  own 
purpose.  On  the  other  hand,  he  did  not  want  to  yield  to  timid 
counsels.  He  did  what  he  could,  and  then  in  the  cold,  dark 
tea  room,  lighted  and  heated  only  by  a  little  fire  of  crackling 
camel  thorns,  while  we  lay  on  the  mud  sleeping  platform  and 
waited,  the  old  man  stood  up  to  say  his  midnight  prayers. 
They  were  the  customary  sentences  until  suddenly  the  old 
fellow  stopped  and  sent  up  a  living  cry.  "Oh,  Allah,"  said 
he,  "Thou  seest  in  what  a  sort  strait  I  am."  It  was  from  his 
heart  and  it  was  as  far  as  he  could  go.  No  child's  request 
for  help  from  a  father,  and  yet  an  earnest  cry  out  of  need 

448 


to  an  all-seeing  God.  When  he  had  done  all  he  could,  and  no 
one  would  move  for  him,  he  let  us  sleep  till  the  first  flush  be- 
fore the  dawn  and  then  at  four  we  drove  off  with  six  horses 
over  the  high  mountains,  asparkle  as  though  strewn  waist- 
deep  with  diamonds  in  the  unclouded  brilliance  of  the  dawn, 
and  down  into  the  huge  cup  of  the  valley  set  deep  in  the 
hills  with  the  Ahuan  caravanserai  in  the  middle  of  it,  close 
beside  the  noble  ruins  of  the  old  castle  v/hich  is  said  to  date 
back  to  the  time  of  Anushirvan,  fourteen  centuries  ago.  Still 
a  third  test  the  old  man  met  when  the  last  night  before  reach- 
ing Teheran  he  would  listen  to  no  protest  from  the  drivers, 
whom  he  compelled,  though  they  prayed  aloud  to  God  to  for- 
give the  religion  of  his  father,  to  drive  straight  through  the 
dark  along  the  gulleys  and  hillsides  between  the  plain  of  Khars 
and  Awan-i-Kaif,  he  himself  walking  ahead  with  the  lantern 
in  the  worst  places  or  holding  the  reins  while  the  driver 
walked  backwards  at  the  horses'  heads  to  keep  them  steady 
on  the  steep  inclines. 

With  sincere  regret  and  affection  we  said  good-bye  to  our 
old  friend  when  we  left  him  on  the  road  where  the  motors 
came  out  to  meet  us  within  sight  of  Teheran.  Some  weeks 
afterward  standing  on  the  balcony  of  the  Grand  Hotel,  so 
called,  in  Kasvin,  miles  away  on  the  other  side  of  Teheran,  I 
saw  a  post  wagon  go  by  westward  with  our  old  friend  in 
charge.  Looking  up  he  recognized  me  at  once,  and  his  face 
was  all  aglow  with  pleasure,  and  he  looked  back  and  waved 
his  arms  as  long  as  the  wagon  was  in  sight.  This  is  the  life 
he  will  be  living,  he  told  us,  all  his  days.  He  had  held  some 
office  position  in  Teheran,  but  he  loved  the  country  and  the 
open  air  and  he  could  not  stand  the  imprisonment  of  city  life. 
Often  at  night  I  think  of  him  wrapped  in  his  sheepskin  coat 
lying  on  top  of  his  mail  sacks  under  the  far-off  Persian  skies 
or  shielding  himself  against  the  storms  that  have  never 
daunted  his  brave  old  spirit. 

The  first  faint  whisperings  of  spring  were  in  the  air  on 
our  westward  journey.  A  surer  sign  even  than  the  soft  tints 
of  color  in  the  willow  twigs  were  the  first  groups  of  pil- 
grims. There  was  no  mistaking  them.  This  was  their  great 
life  time's  holiday.  All  that  they  had  been  able  to  save  was 
for  this.  All  the  past  of  life  had  been  preparing  for  this. 
They  would  go  back  now  to  their  homes,  unless  they  died  on 
the  way  or  were  left  penniless  at  Meshed,  to  live  in  the  glory 
of  the  pilgrimage  and  to  bear  the  honored  title  of  "Meshedi." 
One  cannot  say  that  Meshed  will  disillusion  them  or  that  they 
will  not  find  at  the  shrine  of  ImamReza  what  they  seek,  for  they 

449 

15 — India  and  Persia 


are  not  seeking  much,  and  it  is  no  great  vision  that  is  calling 
them.  They  are  of  simple  hearts  and  simple  minds,  these  pil- 
grim folk,  and  those  who  will  pillage  them  all  along  the  way 
have  not  set  out  to  be  rogues  but  are  only  following  on  with- 
out complaint  or  resistance  in  the  way  trodden  as  plain  by 
the  feet  of  the  generations  as  these  clear  wandering  tracks 
that  turn  this  way  and  that  and  yet  run  ever  eastward  till 
they  come  to  the  hill  behind  the  pool  that  bears  Mohammed 
Reza's  name  and  look  off  to  the  gold-domed  tomb  and  blue 
tiled  mosque  which  are  the  goal  of  their  dim  desire. 

We  are  glad  to  have  trodden  the  pilgrim  road  with  these 
poor  Persian  feet,  and  thank  God  that  we  have  seen  in  Persia 
the  forces  of  love  and  light  at  work  which  are  seeking  to 
guide  these  feet  into  a  better  way. 

Kasvin,  Persia,  March  13,  1922. 


450 


8.  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  WORK  FOR  MOSLEMS 

Within  the  last  few  years  the  character  of  the  Mission  work 
in  Persia  and  of  its  problems  has  undergone  a  complete  change. 
All  the  older  stations  in  Persia  were  begun  with  work  for 
Assyrians,  Armenians,  or  Jews.  There  were  three  reasons 
for  this.  In  the  first  place  these  people  were  in  want  of  mis- 
sionary help.  They  were  without  evangelical  teaching  and 
in  dire  need  of  the  enlightenment  and  the  healing  of  educa- 
tional and  medical  work.  In  the  second  place,  this  was  the 
only  way  in  which  missionary  work  could  be  begun  at  all. 
The  door  of  access  to  Mohammedans  was  not  open,  and  the 
only  ground  on  which  the  Christian  Mission  could  be  admitted 
or  be  allowed  to  continue  was  its  relationship  to  an  existing 
Christian  community.  In  the  third  place,  it  was  believed  that 
only  by  the  purification  of  these  oriental  Churches  could  a 
reproach  be  removed  which,  so  long  as  it  continued,  would 
effectually  prevent  the  presentation  of  Christianity  to  the  Mo- 
hammedan world.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  conceived  that 
if  these  churches  were  enlightened  and  warmed  by  evangeli- 
cal truth  they  would  become  the  great  agencies  for  Moslem 
evangelization. 

For  many  years  therefore  the  work  of  the  Missions  was 
primarily  for  these  Christian  communities  and  for  the  smaller 
Jewish  communities,  especially  in  Ufumia,  Teheran  and  Ra- 
madan. The  problems  of  the  work  took  form  accordingly. 
Now,  however,  the  conditions  are  entirely  changed.  Massacre 
or  persecution  or  other  decimating  influences  have  greatly  re- 
duced the  size  of  these  communities.  Evangelical  churches 
have  been  established  among  them  and  their  influences  extend 
among  these  communities  far  beyond  the  membership  of  the 
evangelical  groups,  and,  most  significant  of  all,  the  situation 
has  entirely  altered  as  regards  the  accessibility  of  the  Moham- 
medans. It  has  become  possible  at  last  for  the  Missions  to 
undertake  as  their  major  work,  and  in  many  stations  as  their 
entire  work,  the  task  of  giving  the  Gospel  to  Mohammedans. 

I  had  hardly  realized  the  greatness  of  the  change  that  has 
taken  place  until  one  day  in  Zenjan  I  read  the  report  on  Persia 
which  I  presented  to  the  Board  twenty-five  years  ago  and  a 
copy  of  which  Mr.  Pittman,  who  had  come  there  to  meet  us, 
had  brought  with  him.  A  large  part  of  that  report  deals 
with  the  problems  of  the  strong  evangelical  Church  which 

451 


had  been  built  up  in  the  Urumia  plain  and  which  is  now  scat- 
tered to  the  four  winds. 

There  are  still  problems  which  must  be  dealt  with  of  our 
relations  to  the  Armenian  and  the  Syrian  communities  and 
to  the  evangelical  and  old  Churches  among  them,  but  these 
are  no  longer  the  great  questions  of  the  work  in  Persia.  Our 
Missions  there  have  at  last  become  what  we  have  long  prayed 
for,  namely,  an  avowed,  recognized,  and  welcomed  effort  to 
make  Christ  known  to  the  Moslems  of  Persia  and  to  bring 
to  Persia  all  the  wealth  with  which  only  Christ  can  enrich 
men  and  nations. 

1.  The  foremost  of  all  our  present  problems,  accordingly, 
is  how  best  to  present  Christianity  to  Persia.  This  is  in  part 
a  problem  of  attitude  of  mind,  of  point  of  contact,  of  mode  of 
statement  and  approach,  and  in  part  a  problem  of  Mission 
method  and  policy  and  especially  of  resolute  Mission  purpose. 
These  matters  are  dealt  with  in  other  sections  of  this  report. 
The  one  point  which  I  would  emphasize  here  is  the  necessity, 
which  we  were  rejoiced  to  find  recognized  in  every  one  of  the 
stations  in  Persia,  of  setting  the  direct  evangelization  of  Mo- 
hammedans in  the  foreground  as  the  governing  purpose  of 
all  our  work  in  Persia.  The  one  point  of  solicitude  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  missionaries  in  Mesopotamia  with  regard  to 
a  union  Mission  was  whether  Moslem  evangelization  could  be 
clearly  recognized  as  the  dominating  aim  of  such  a  mission. 
We  assured  them  that  it  certainly  would  be  so  recognized  by 
us,  and  that  all  our  work  in  Persia  had  been  begun  with  the 
hope  that  the  day  which  we  now  joyfully  welcomed  would 
come.  The  Missions  in  Persia  should  be  generously  supported, 
both  with  reenforcements  and  with  appropriations,  to  enable 
them  to  carry  forward  this  direct  approach  which  is  now 
possible  for  them  in  a  measure  unequaled  in  any  other  Mo- 
hammedan land. 

2.  The  new  situation  has  raised  in  a  new  way  the  old 
question  of  the  relationship  of  the  oriental  Churches  to  the 
evangelization  of  the  Mohammedans.  It  was  long  ago  recog- 
nized that  the  unreformed  Eastern  Churches  were  a  positive 
hindrance.  No  one  ever  disputed  Sir  William  Muir's  judg- 
ment in  this  matter.  It  was  believed,  however,  that  if  these 
churches  could  be  reformed  and  the  true  fires  of  Christianity 
kindled  again  upon  their  altars,  they  would  prove  to  be  the 
great  missionary  force  for  the  evangelization  of  the  Moslem 
people.  Now,  however,  this  view  is  called  in  question,  and 
there  are  many  who  hold  that  not  even  through  reformed  East- 
ern Churches  nor  through  evangelists  drawn  from  the  ranks 

452 


of  evangelical  Eastern  Christians  is  the  Mohammedan  world 
to  be  won,  but  rather  by  Christian  converts  from  Islam  going 
out  to  their  fellow  Mohammedans.  It  is  said  that  the  evan- 
gelical Churches  have  had  their  opportunity  and  have  not  used 
it,  that  the  same  reproach  which  attaches  to  the  old  Churches 
rests  in  some  degree  also  upon  the  evangelicals,  that  recent 
years  have  seen,  for  many  reasons,  a  great  embitterment  of 
the  feelings  of  Christians  towards  Moslems  and  of  Moslems 
towards  Christians,  that  many  of  the  Eastern  Christians  have 
no  faith  in  the  conversion  of  Mohammedans  and  no  desire  to 
forward  it.  I  do  not  know  that  it  is  necessary  to  go  into 
these  matters.  Two  facts  stand  out  with  sufficient  clearness. 
One  is  that  many  of  the  most  effective  evangelists  to  Moham- 
medans at  the  present  time  are  Eastern  Christians  and  that 
we  ought  to  look  in  Persia  at  least  to  the  Assyrian  Christians 
to  continue  to  supply  men  for  this  work  like  those  who  have 
been  supplied  in  the  past.  The  second  fact  is  that  the  great 
evangelists  to  the  Mohammedans  must  be  from  among  the 
Mohammedans  themselves. 

"Did  you  ever  hear  the  fable  of  the  axes  and  the  trees?" 
a  Mohammedan  asked  me  one  day  as  we  were  talking  together. 
He  was  not  a  Christian,  but  he  was  a  very  intelligent  man 
who  had  lost  faith  in  Islam  and  who  viewed  with  favor  the 
propagation  of  Christianity  in  Persia.  "You  should  learn 
the  lesson  of  that  fable.  Once  upon  a  time  the  trees  heard 
that  men  were  coming  against  them  to  cut  them  down,  and 
in  great  fear  they  went  to  the  oldest  and  the  greatest  of  the 
trees  and  asked  for  counsel.  'Who  are  coming?'  said  the  great 
tree.  'Men,'  replied  the  trees  of  the  forest.  'What  shall  we 
do?'  The  great  tree  was  silent  for  awhile  and  then  asked 
again,  'Who  did  you  say  were  coming?'  'Men,'  replied  the 
trees.  'They  can  do  you  no  harm,'  said  the  big  tree.  'You 
need  not  fear.'  'But  they  have  sharp  irons  in  their  hands,' 
the  trees  replied,  'and  they  intend  to  cut  us  with  these.'  The 
big  tree  thought  again.  'What  did  you  say  they  had?'  at  last 
it  asked.  'Sharp  irons.'  'They  cannot  hurt  you,'  said  the  big 
tree  once  again.  'You  need  not  fear.'  'But,'  the  trees  answered, 
'they  have  parts  of  us  in  their  irons,  bits  of  our  own  selves.' 
*0h,'  said  the  great  tree,  shaking  also  with  fear,  'then  our 
fate  is  sure.    We  shall  all  fall.'  " 

But  the  Missions  in  Persia  are  facing  the  present  very  prac- 
tical problem  of  the  relationship  between  the  evangelical 
churches  made  up  of  Armenian  or  Assyrian  Christians  in 
Hamadan,  Teheran,  and  Tabriz,  and  the  new  Mohammedan 
converts.    In  Hamadan  the  problem  is  more  prospective  than 

453 


present.  The  Hamadan  station  feels  that  unless  the  Moham- 
medan work  there  is  dealt  with  distinctly  and  a  separate 
group  of  Mohammedan  converts  is  formed  who  will  work 
for  others  and  to  which  others  can  be  joined,  the  progress 
of  the  work  will  be  very  slow.  In  Teheran  and  Tabriz  there 
are  already  considerable  numbers  of  Mohammedan  converts, 
and  these  are  happily  in  the  best  relationships  with  the  other 
Christians.  But  it  is  the  strong  feeling  both  of  the  mission- 
aries and  of  the  Mohammedan  converts  and  of  some  of  the 
best  men  from  the  Syrian  and  Armenian  Churches  that  the 
work  for  the  Mohammedans  would  be  greatly  promoted,  new 
inquirers  could  be  more  readily  brought  in,  and  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  Mohammedan  converts  would  be  more  dis- 
tinctly felt  if  they  were  gathered  in  a  distinct  church  group. 
The  problem  will  be  how  to  secure  these  gains  without  sowing 
the  seeds  of  permanent  racial  division.  Perhaps  the  problem 
can  be  solved  by  the  plan  of  organization  which  Dr.  W.  R. 
Richards  held  to  be  ideal  and  which,  he  believed,  prevailed  in 
the  early  Church,  of  having  one  church  organization  in  each 
station  administered  by  a  central  body  but  with  different 
groupings  so  designed  as  to  carry  the  Gospel  most  effectively 
both  to  all  the  geographical  quarters  of  the  station  and  also 
to  all  the  different  elements  of  the  community. 

3.  The  Persian  Missions  have  always  been  agreed  in  pur- 
suing a  very  conservative  policy  in  the  term  of  probation  of 
Mohammedan  inquirers.  Some  of  them  have  been  kept  wait- 
ing five  or  ten  years.  The  old  and  tried  Mohammedan  con- 
verts are  themselves  among  the  most  cautious  in  the  admission 
of  new  inquirers.  The  general  rule  has  been  to  require  one 
or  two  years  of  instruction  and  testing,  and  undoubtedly  the 
Missions  have  been  right  in  exercising  the  greatest  care,  but 
they  recognize  also  the  possibility  of  launching  the  new  Mos- 
lem Church  in  an  atmosphere  of  suspicion  and  retarded  en- 
thusiasm. And  Mr.  Miller  of  the  Meshed  station  felt  led  of 
God  to  give  baptism  more  speedily  than  has  been  customary 
in  Persia  but  not  more  speedily  than  has  been  the  rule  in 
the  village  work  in  India  to  some  inquirers  with  whom  he  was 
dealing  in  Seistan  last  winter  when  he  was  waiting  there  to 
meet  us,  in  the  expectation  that  we  might  be  coming  to  Persia 
from  India,  as  we  had  at  first  planned  to  do,  across  Baluchis- 
tan. I  cannot  forbear  quoting  the  reports  of  these  baptisms 
which  Mr.  Miller,  who  returned  to  Meshed  just  two  days  be- 
fore our  arrival  from  Teheran,  read  to  the  station  in  our 
hearing. 

"I  had  planned  to  leave  Seistan  on  November  15,  but  as  my 

454 


camel  man  failed  me,  I  arranged  to  go  by  mule  November  17, 
and  so  on  November  16  had  leisure  to  write  the  above  report. 

On  the  evening  of  November  16th  G ,  one  of  the 

enquirers,  begged  so  earnestly  for  baptism,  and  showed  in  his 
face  and  attitude  and  conversation  such  clear  signs  of  being 
converted,  that  on  the  request  of  Mirza  Abul  Ghasim  and 
Hajji  Hasan  I  baptized  him,  the  first  fruit  of  Seistan.  It 
seemed  a  rash  thing  to  do,  but  we  felt  it  was  God's  will,  and 
we  must  leave  the  results  to  Him. 

"On  November  17th  the  mule  driver  failed  me,  promising  to 

start  next  day.    But  that  afternoon  a  man  named  A 

walked  in  to  see  me.  I  asked  him  what  he  wished,  and  he 
replied,  *I  was  sitting  in  my  house  just  now,  and  someone 
seemed  to  touch  me  and  say,  "Go  see  the  sahib.  That  book 
he  read  from  in  the  Bazaar  and  hospital  was  very  good."  So 
I  have  come  to  see  if  you  have  anything  to  say  to  me.'  Hajji 
Hasan  talked  with  him  a  little,  and  then  I  talked  with  him, 

and  then  G and  Abul  Ghasim  were  called  in,  and  he 

told  us  he  wanted  to  be  a  Christian.  He  could  not  read,  and 
he  had  heard  the  Bible  read  but  three  times,  but  his  heart 
seemed  to  grasp  everything  that  was  told  him,  and  he  ap- 
peared to  be  one  of  those  men  who  in  a  moment  of  the  Spirit's 
instruction  learn  truth  that  wiser  men  cannot  gain  from  years 
of  study.     After  several  hours  conversation   he  also  asked 

for  baptism.    G knew  the  man  well  and  had  perfect 

confidence  in  his  sincerity,  and  was  anxious  for  him  to  be 
baptized  too,  so  that  they  could  help  one  another.  He  could 
have  no  worldly  motive,  for  he  knew  we  were  to  leave  next 
day,  and  he  seemed  ready  to  face  the  persecution  he  might 
encounter  after  our  departure.  So  at  the  request  of  the  breth- 
ren I  baptized  A the  night  of  November  17th. 

"Next  day  the  animals  were  all  loaded  except  one,  when  it 
became  evident  that  two  horses  were  too  sick  to  start.  There- 
fore the  chavadar  said  he  would  have  to  give  up  taking  me 
altogether.  Accordingly  my  departure  was  delayed  till  Nov. 
23.     But  in  the  meantime  the  sister  and  younger  brother  of 

G apphed  for  baptism.    The  sister  said,  *At  first  I  was 

angry  with  my  brother  when  I  heard  he  had  become  a  Chris- 
tian, and  persecuted  him.  But  when  I  saw  how  he  had  changed 
I  wanted  to  become  a  Christian  too.  He  used  to  treat  me 
very  badly,  but  now  he  does  so  no  more.'  The  brother  was 
a  boy  of  16.  If  we  had  been  planning  to  remain  longer  all  of 
these  baptisms  would  of  course  have  been  delayed,  but  in  view 
of  our  departure  it  seemed  best  to  baptize  the  sister  and 
brother  also.     And  this  was  done   on   November   22.     The 

465 


woman's  name  is  K ,  and  the  boy's  name  is  Hajji  M . 

The  woman  says  she  is  coming  to  Meshed  to  be  taught  of  the 
Khanim  (Lady  Missionary). 

"We  had  a  final  communion  service  on  November  23d  for 
the  four  Christians,  and  the  Church  in  Seistan  being  founded, 
the  Lord  allowed  me  to  depart  that  same  day.  The  brethren  ac- 
companied us  out  of  the  city,  and  we  kneeled  down  and 
prayed,  and  there  were  tears  in  the  eyes  of  more  than  one 
of  us  as  we  waved  'good-bye.'  " 

"A  good  many  Scriptures  had  been  sold  in  Birjand  in  pre- 
vious years  by  Dr.  Esselstyn  and  Mr.  Donaldson,  and  I  was 
told  that  the  mollahs  had  forbidden  people  to  read  these  books 
and  had  ordered  them  to  be  burnt.  And  so  Mirza  Abul  Gha- 
sim  and  I  decided  that  I  should  make  no  effort  whatever  to 
sell  books  outside  of  our  house  and  should  not  go  into  the 
bazaar  to  read  or  talk  with  men,  as  such  effort  on  my  part 
would  the  sooner  stir  up  opposition  against  us.  And  so  I 
stayed  at  home  and  talked  with  the  men  who  came  to  see  me, 
while  Mirza  Abul  Ghasim  went  into  the  bazaar  and  into  the 
homes  of  the  people  and  preached  the  Gospel  to  all  who  would 
listen. 

"Of  course  it  soon  became  known  who  we  were  and  what 
our  purpose  was,  and  numbers  of  people  began  to  come  to 
me  for  books.  At  first  most  of  those  who  came  were  boys 
of  the  Madreseyi  Shokatiya,  the  large  well  conducted  school 
of  eight  grades  supported  by  the  private  funds  of  the  Gov- 
ernor. I  visited  the  school,  and  after  that  crowds  of  boys  came 
to  call  on  me,  not  only  to  buy  books  but  to  get  help  in  their 
English  lessons.  Then  all  at  once  they  stopped  coming,  and 
I  was  told  that  the  Modier  had  forbidden  any  student  of  the 
school  to  come  to  my  house,  'lest  they  trouble  me.' 

"Beside  the  school  boys  there  were  a  good  many  others  who 
came  for  books  or  for  conversation,  and  the  response  seemed 
much  more  encouraging  than  in  Seistan,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  people  seemed  to  stand  in  great  fear  of  one  another  and 
of  the  Governor.  But  by  far  the  most  effective  part  of  the 
work  was  done  by  Mirza  Abul  Ghasim.  The  last  few  weeks  of 
our  stay  in  Birjand  he  followed  the  plan  of  having  himself  in- 
vited to  some  household  for  lunch,  the  cost  of  which  he  would 
pay.  He  would  then  be  able  to  talk  for  several  hours  to  a 
group  of  people  who  were  ready  to  listen.  In  this  way  he 
made  a  large  number  of  friends,  and  his  message  was  spread 
far  and  wide.  The  whole  town  in  fact  seemed  to  have  heard 
something  at  least  of  what  we  wished  to  say. 

456 


"At  last  the  mollahs  were  stirred  to  action.  They  issued 
an  edict  that  no  one  should  come  to  our  house,  and  that  any 
one  who  read  our  books  would  become  unclean.  Just  then 
crowds  of  boys  from  the  school  of  the  mollahs  began  to  come 
to  see  me  and  to  beg  me  for  books — they  were  never  ready 
to  pay  for  them.  Their  attitude  was  most  friendly,  but  when 
I  found  that  they  were  stealing  all  the  books  they  could  get 
their  hands  on  and  were  carrying  them  away  under  their 
abbas  I  began  to  suspect  that  the  mollahs  had  sent  them  to 
spy  on  us  and  annoy  us.  Several  older  men  also  came  as  spies. 
But  I  dare  say  some  of  them  will  find  the  books  they  carried 
away  to  be  interesting  reading. 

"Soon  after  our  arrival  two  men  came  to  see  us  who  very 
soon  confessed  their  faith  in  Christ.  One  was  a  sergeant  in 
the  Gendarmes,  a  fine,  manly  fellow  named  Hajji,  with  no 
education  but  with  a  good  conscience  and  absolutely  fearless. 
He  had  exchanged  a  few  words  with  us  on  our  way  to  Seistan 
ten  months  previous,  asking  who  we  were,  etc.,  and  he  told 
us  that  from  that  day  he  had  wished  to  be  a  Christian.    The 

other  man  was  an  officer  in  the  infantry,  M .    He  too  had 

but  little  education,  but  he  bought  a  book  and  read  it  ear- 
nestly and  came  to  see  us  often,  and  his  faith  became  very 
real  and  sincere.  Toward  the  end  of  our  stay  Mirza  Abul 
Ghasim  met  a  man  in  one  of  these  house  meetings  who  had 
come  to  Birjand  on  business  from  Mud  (25  miles  south).  His 
name  was  B ,  a  carpet  weaver  and  a  man  without  edu- 
cation. He  also  believed  with  all  his  heart,  and  these  three 
men  were  baptized  and  given  the  Lord's  Supper  on  Sunday 
morning,  January  22d,  the  first  fruits  of  Birjand. 

"Two  days  later  word  came  that  we  must  leave  at  once  in 
order  to  meet  Mr.  Speer  in  Meshed.  We  did  not  want  to  leave 
just  them,  for  there  were  several  other  men  just  on  the  point 
of  believing  and  the  door  seemed  wide  open  before  us.  Our 
sudden  departure  was  also  understood  by  the  people  as  flight, 
and  it  was  rumored  that  the  Governor  had  ordered  us  to  leave. 
But 

'He  who  fights  and  runs  away 
Will  live  to  fight  another  day,' 

and  it  was  probably  best  for  the  Birjand  Christians  that  we  left 
them,  for  our  continued  presence  would  have  subjected  them  to 
more  or  less  persecution.  They  can  now  go  quietly  about  their 
work  of  talking  with  others,  learning  to  trust  not  on  the  mis- 
sionary but  on  the  ever  present  Christ  alone.  But  generally 
speaking  I  would  say  that  two  months  is  too  short  a  time  to 

457 


stay  in  a  new  field  like  Birjand.    Another  month  or  two  would 
have  brought  a  good  harvest,  I  believe." 

We  read  this  beautiful  report  to  the  missionaries  in  Te- 
heran and  Tabriz,  and  they  would  not  say  that  Mr.  Miller 
had  done  wrong.  Their  hearts  were  touched  as  ours  had  been, 
and  they  prayed  rather  for  these  new  Christians  that  they 
might  grow  in  grace  and  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  and  witness  by  their  words  and  by  their  lives  a  good 
confession. 

Missionaries  are  in  as  great  a  strait  betwixt  two  courses 
in  this  matter  as  ever  St,  Paul  was.  On  the  one  hand  there 
is  the  danger  of  chilling  the  teal  and  eagerness  of  new  be- 
lievers, of  changing  Christianity  from  an  energy  to  an  in- 
struction, of  banking  the  fires  of  a  little  church  until  they  go 
out.  On  the  other  hand,  is  the  peril  of  the  hasty  admission 
of  instability  and  insincerity,  of  bringing  ignorance  and  un- 
worthiness  into  the  Church  when  it  is  too  weak  either  to 
carry  or  to  throw  off  such  a  burden.  No  doubt  we  are  doing 
right  to  guard  as  carefully  as  we  do  the  purity  and  integrity 
of  these  little  churches,  but  one  cannot  at  times  repress  the 
feeling  that  he  would  like  to  see  the  fires  blaze  up  beyond 
our  control,  and  a  great  movement  begin,  indigenous  and  free, 
even  though  it  might  be  marked  bj''  crudity  and  might  throw 
us  and  our  just  precautions  aside  in  the  rush  of  its  eagerness 
and  power. 

4.  A  movement  inside  Persian  Mohammedanism  which  has 
been  brought  to  America  and  which  embodies  the  Sufi  dispo- 
sition of  the  Persian  mind  is  Babism.  Mirza  Ali  Mohammed, 
the  Bab,  who  founded  the  new  religion,  was  born  at  Shiraz 
on  October  9,  1920.  He  took  up  the  Shiah  doctrine  of  the 
Imams  or  prophets  of  whom  Ali  was  the  first  and  Abul  Kazim 
the  last,  Abul  Kazim  having  mysteriously  disappeared  one 
thousand  years  ago,  and  hence  called  Al  Mahdi  or  "the  con- 
cealed." Mirza  Ali  claimed  to  be  the  Bab,  a  gate  for  men  to 
the  Living  but  unseen  Imam,  Al  Mahdi,  His  religion  spread 
over  Persia.  It  had  at  first  its  martyrs  and  its  missionaries, 
and  is  still  spreading  but  has  lost  its  first  vigor  and  has  ceased 
to  oppose  orthodox  Shiahism,  its  adherents  believing  that  it 
is  legitimate  to  conceal  their  opinions  and  dissemble.  They 
now  accordingly  appear  as  regular  Moslems  outwardly, 
though  privately  abandoning  the  limitations  and  prescriptions 
of  Islam.  Their  doctrine  "enjoins  few  prayers,  and  those 
only  on  fixed  occasions;  enjoins  hospitality  and  charity;  pro- 
hibits polygamy,  concubinage  and  divorce;  discourages  asce- 
tism  and  mendicancy;  and  directs  women  to  discard  the  veil 

458 


and  share  as  equals  in  the  intercourse  of  social  life."  (Beach: 
Geography  and  Atlas  of  Protestant  Missions,"  Vol.  I,  p.  398.) 
The  Bab  was  succeeded  after  his  death  by  Baha  who  carried 
his  claims  further,  calling  himself  the  incarnation  of  God 
the  Father  and  most  of  the  Persian  Babis  are  Bahais  or  fol- 
lowers of  Baha,  to  whom  the  Bab  was  only  a  sort  of  John  the 
Baptist.  There  are  different  opinions  in  Persia  as  to  whether 
this  movement  with  many  secret  adherents  is  favorable  to 
Christian  missions  or  not.  "This  movement  has  not  only 
weakened  Mohammedism  in  Persia,"  says  Bishop  Stileman, 
"but  the  followers  of  the  Bab  and  Baha  are  friendly  to  Chris- 
tians, accept  our  Scriptures  as  the  Word  of  God,  admit  the 
Divinity  of  Christ,  long  for  religious  liberty,  and  seem  to 
be  in  many  ways  helping  to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord. 
But  there  is  also  much  error  in  their  system,  and  what  is 
needed  is  the  breath  of  the  Spirit  of  God  to  convince  them 
of  sin  and  reveal  to  them  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the  only 
Saviour  and  Redeemer.  However,  the  people  are  no  longer 
Mohammedans,  and  we  now  have  in  Persia,  'a  house  divided 
against  itself,'  which  we  know  cannot  long  stand  against  the 
power  of  the  Gospel."     ("The  Subjects  of  the  Shah,"  p.  78f.) 

On  the  other  hand,  the  late  Dr.  Potter  wrote  of  Kasvin: 
"At  one  time,  there  seemed  a  bright  prospect  of  reaching  the 
Babis,  but  the  expectation  was  not  realized.  They  seemed 
in  some  respects  to  present  a  more  hopeful  field  for  mission 
labor  than  the  Moslems,  because  of  their  ready  acceptance 
of  the  Scriptures  and  certain  Christian  doctrines  rejected  by 
Mohammedans.  On  the  other  hand,  however,  their  fanciful 
interpretation  of  plain  Scripture  declarations  renders  it  very 
difficult  to  make  any  impression  on  them  by  proof  texts  from 
the  Bible  whose  authority  they  readily  admit.  They  reply, 
'Yes,  but  we  must  break  open  the  word  and  extract  its  mean- 
ing.' Their  hospitality,  zeal  and  earnestness  in  the  propaga- 
tion of  their  belief  are  worthy  of  praise  and  emulation;  but 
their  easy  dissimulation  of  their  faith,  even  to  openly  curs- 
ing Babis,  and  the  unreliability  of  their  promises,  are  dis- 
couraging," 

5.  A  very  real  present  difficulty  which  it  is  to  be  hoped 
will  disappear  as  the  number  of  Mohammedan  Christians  in- 
creases is  the  question  of  the  support  of  new  converts.  It  is 
only  natural  that  many  of  these  new  Christians  should  be 
rejected  by  the  society  whose  fundamental  religious  views 
they  have  repudiated.  One  ought  to  be  able  to  take  a  dis- 
passionate view  of  the  perfectly  natural  grounds  on  which 
new  converts  are  sociallj^  and  economically  ostracized.     The 

^     459 


difficulty  is  much  less  in  Persia  now  than  it  would  have  been 
if  as  many  converts  as  are  coming  today  were  coming  a  gen- 
eration ago.  Many  of  these  Christians  are  able  to  hold  their 
own  either  in  their  old  economic  relationship  or  in  new  ones 
which  they  establish.  The  difficulties  are  still  great  enough, 
however,  especially  for  the  poor,  and  if  only  political  protec- 
tion or  industrial  employment  could  be  provided,  it  may 
well  be,  as  some  of  the  converts  declare,  that  thousands  would 
come  and  that  they  would  not  come  insincerely.  Perhaps  it 
is  better  that  we  should  have  the  difficulties  than  the  political 
and  economic  protection,  but  they  produce  many  a  painful 
situation  for  the  missionaries  and  the  Church.  When  urged 
to  enable  the  Mission  to  provide  some  means  of  industry  or 
employment  for  the  people,  our  answer  was  that  this  was 
a  problem  for  the  new  Church  itself  to  deal  with  just  as  it 
was  dealt  with  by  the  Christian  Church  at  the  beginning,  and 
we  were  glad  to  see  that  the  new  Church  was  dealing  with 
it  sensibly  and  sturdily,  though  at  times  almost  despairingly 
by  means  of  its  poor  fund  and  by  such  a  bearing  of  common 
burdens  as  was  binding  the  new  converts  together  in  the 
brotherly  unity  of  the  first  believers. 

S.  S.  Constantinople, 

Aegean  Sea,  April  26,  1922. 


460 


9.     THE  RE-OCCUPATION  OF  URUMIA  AND  OUR 

RELATIONS  TO  THE  ASSYRIAN  PEOPLE 

AND  CHURCH 

As  set  forth  in  the  historical  sketch  of  the  Missions  in 
Persia  which  is  prefixed  to  this  report,  Urumia  is  the  oldest 
of  our  Persian  stations.  It  was  here  that  the  first  mission- 
aries sent  out  by  the  American  Board  in  1829  and  1833  were 
welcomed  with  open  arms  by  the  Nestorian  Church.  For 
nearly  thirty  years  the  early  missionaries  did  their  work 
within  the  old  Church.  Gradually,  however,  a  separation 
grew  up  between  the  element  in  the  Church  which  responded 
to  the  evangelical  life  and  teachings  of  the  missionaries  on 
the  one  hand,  and  those  priests  and  bishops  who  were  either 
unresponsive  or  resistant  on  the  other,  and  this  separation 
came  to  expression  in  the  organization  of  a  distinct  evan- 
gelical Church.  There  was  some  divergence  of  opinion  at 
the  time  as  to  whether  the  new  organization  was  necessary 
or  desirable,  and  there  have  been  differences  of  view  on  the 
subject  since,  although  the  general  sentiment  and  policy  of 
the  Mission,  with  qualifications  of  which  I  shall  speak,  have 
always  firmly  supported  the  policy  which  was  finally  adopted 
in  1862. 

When  I  visited  Persia  in  1896-7,  the  evangelical  Church 
had  grown  into  a  strong  and  active  body  with  136  congrega- 
tions, of  which  25  were  organized  churches ;  64  ministers  and 
evangelists,  82  schools  with  1,846  scholars.  It  comprised 
the  best  educated  and  the  most  active  and  prosperous  element 
of  the  nation.  The  chief  problems  of  our  Mission  work  in 
Persia  at  that  time  were  related  to  this  church.  It  seemed 
not  improbable  that,  but  for  the  policies  at  that  time  pursued 
by  the  Roman  Catholic  Mission  and  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury's  Mission,  the  evangelical  influence  represented 
by  our  own  Mission  might  come  either  through  the  evangelical 
Church  or  through  a  complete  readjustment  of  relationships 
with  the  old  Church  to  inspire  the  life  of  the  whole  nation.  In 
the  summer  of  1897,  however,  the  situation  was  entirely 
changed  by  the  advent  of  the  Russian  Greek  Church.  The 
Russian  Government  was  just  beginning  to  exercise  an  in- 
fluence in  northwestern  Persia  which  soon  became  so  domi- 
nating that  the  Russian  consulate  in  Tabriz  was  recognized 
as  the  real  seat  of  government,  and  a  few  years  later  the  chief 
political  and  religious  authority  in  the  Urumia  region  passed 

461 


into  the  hands  of  the  Russian  consul  and  the  Russian  mission- 
aries in  Urumia  City.  With  the  exception  of  the  evangelical 
Church  the  whole  Assyrian  Church  organization  in  Persia 
went  over  to  the  Greek  Church.  The  work  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  and  Anglican  missionaries  among  the  Assyrians  in 
Persia  almost  entirely  disappeared.  The  Anglicans  retained 
some  influence  in  the  larger  section  of  the  Assyrians  living  in 
the  mountains  in  eastern  Turkey,  especially  through  the  high 
character  and  personality  of  Mr.  Brown  who  had  lived  for 
many  years  in  association  with  the  Patriarch's  family  in 
Kochanis. 

Shortly  after  the  coming  of  the  Greek  Church  missionaries 
another  event  occurred  which  deeply  shadowed  the  work  of 
the  station.  A  band  of  Kurdish  outlaws  committed  depreda- 
tions which  included  the  cold  blooded  murder  in  his  vineyard 
of  Mooshe  Dooman,  a  young  Assyrian,  who  had  been  natural- 
ized as  a  British  subject  in  Canada.  Dr.  Cochran  was  active  in 
his  efforts  to  have  these  depredations  checked  and  this  murder 
punished,  and  his  activity  aroused  the  hostility  of  this  band 
with  the  result  that,  intending  to  avenge  themselves  on  him, 
they  murdered  the  Rev.  B.  W.  Labaree  on  the  road  between 
Salmas  and  Urumia  on  March  9,  1904.  I  have  set  forth  the 
history  of  these  times  fully  in  the  Biography  of  Dr.  Cochran 
and  have  explained  there  the  immensely  complicated  political 
situation  at  that  time  in  northwestern  Persia.  Dr.  Cochran 
did  his  utmost  to  clear  away  these  complications  and  to  bring 
about  an  order  of  peace  and  good-will  among  the  confused 
and  mingled  elements  of  the  population,  Mohammedan,  Kurd, 
Assyrian  Christian  and  Russian.  After  his  death  in  1905 
Dr.  Shedd,  with  great  judgment  and  devotion,  carried  on  the 
task,  seeking  to  reconcile  the  conflicting  elements,  to  separate 
the  Mission  from  all  political  entanglements,  and  to  guide  the 
evangelical  Church  into  its  full  spiritual  duty. 

When  the  world  war  began  in  1914,  the  condition  of  the 
evangelical  Church  and  the  economic  situation  of  the  As- 
syrians as  a  whole  were  probably  better  than  they  had  ever 
been.  The  evangelical  Church  had  a  communicant  member- 
ship of  about  three  thousand  with  about  an  equal  number  of 
adherents.  There  were  more  wholly  self-supporting  churches 
than  we  have  in  all  our  Missions  in  India,  and  the  Evangelistic 
Board,  the  native  board  which  administered  the  evangelistic 
work  of  the  Church,  had  establshed  the  principle  that  help 
could  be  given  to  those  churches  which  were  not  wholly  self- 
supporting  only  if  the  people  themselves  contributed  at  least 
one-fourth.     The  Church  had  sent  forth  a  large  number  of 

462 


strong  and  efficient  Christian  ministers  wiio  were  preaching 
in  America  and  Russia  and  Turkey  and  in  almost  all  our  sta- 
tions in  Persia.  There  was  a  good  school  system,  beginning 
with  a  well  organized  body  of  village  schools,  supervised  by 
John  Mooshie,  an  Assyrian  graduate  of  Colgate  University, 
whose  murder  by  the  Turks  and  Kurds  on  July  31,  1918, 
while  he  was  lying  ill  in  bed  was  one  of  the  direst  losses 
suffered  by  the  Mission  during  the  war.  Higher  education 
was  cared  for  in  the  Urumia  College  and  Fiske  Seminary, 
two  of  the  best  known  and  most  fruitful  institutions  of  modern 
Missions.  The  Mission  hospital  which  Dr.  Cochran  had  found- 
ed and  which  had  been  developed  under  Dr.  Packard's  care  was 
influencing  the  whole  of  western  Persia  and  eastern  Kurdistan. 
Many  of  the  young  Assyrian  men  had  gone  to  Russia  and 
America,  and  while  this  exodus  was  in  some  regards  a  grievous 
loss  to  the  Church  and  the  nation,  it  was  at  the  same  time  a 
source  of  economic  prosperity.  The  young  men  were  constantly 
sending  back  their  earnings  to  their  old  homes,  and  some 
of  them  were  returning  to  buy  vineyards  and  gardens  or  to 
engage  in  prosperous  trade.  I  spoke  to  a  group  of  the  refu- 
gees in  Bagdad  of  the  beauty  and  fruitfulness  of  Urumia  as 
I  had  seen  it  twenty-six  years  ago.  "Yes,"  they  replied,  "but 
that  was  as  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  Urumia  of  the 
days  just  before  the  war." 

And  now  all  this  is  gone.  Nowhere  and  among  no  people 
has  the  war  left  behind  a  darker  trail  of  ruin  and  of  anguish. 
The  sympathies  of  the  Assyrian  people  would  inevitably  and 
in  any  case  have  been  with  the  Allies,  but  the  course  of  events 
in  northwestern  Persia  prior  to  the  war  had  forced  their 
political  identification  with  the  interests  and  the  protection 
of  Russia.  When  the  American  missionaries  came  in  1833,  it 
was  no  doubt  in  part  the  hope  of  political  protection  against 
Mohammedan  oppression  which  led  to  the  hearty  welcome 
which  they  received.  Later  when  the  French  and  Anglican 
missionaries  came,  it  was  the  hope  of  relief  from  France  or 
Great  Britain  more  than  any  religious  zeal  that  prompted 
their  welcome  also.  In  all  these  cases  the  Assyrians  had  been 
disappointed.  The  three  missions  were  religious  missions  and 
they  brought  with  them  no  intervention  from  the  govern- 
ments which  they  were  supposed  to  represent.  The  Russian 
missionaries,  however,  were  followed  at  once  by  the  Russian 
Government,  and  the  settlement  of  Russian  military  power 
in  Urumia  in  1912  seemed  to  promise  the  permanent  political 
control  of  the  country,  and  one  cannot  wonder  that  the  political 
policy  of  the  bishop.  Mar  Sergis,  and  the  instincts  of  the  great 

463 


body  of  the  nation  which  had  gone  over  to  the  Orthodox  Greek 
Church  should  have  associated  the  people  beyond  recall  with 
the  cause  of  Russia  and  consequently  of  the  Allies. 

The  exigencies  of  the  war  led  to  the  withdrawal  of  the 
Russian  army  from  Urumia  on  January  1,  1915.  As  a  result 
some  twenty  thousand  of  the  Assyrian  Christians  from  the 
Urumia  region  fled  after  the  army,  thousands  dying  from  dis- 
ease and  exposure,  among  those  who  fled,  and  thousands  more 
dying  from  massacre  and  disease  among  those  who  remained 
to  meet  the  invasion  of  the  Turks  and  the  Kurds.  On  May 
24,  1915,  the  Russian  army  returned.  Those  who  had  fled 
soon  followed,  and  there  was  a  general  re-establishment  of 
the  people  in  their  old  homes.  In  1917  Russia  broke  up,  and 
her  military  forces  faded  out  of  Persia  little  by  little.  Up  to 
this  time  Ismael  Agha,  or  Simko,  with  his  Kurds  had  co- 
quetted with  the  cause  of  the  Allies.  Some  hold  that  it  was 
to  square  himself  with  the  Turks  that  on  March  16,  1918, 
Simko  treacherously  murdered  the  Patriarch,  Mar  Shimon, 
just  after  he  had  embraced  and  kissed  him  at  his  castle  door. 
With  Russia  gone,  with  the  Turk  and  Kurd  openly  bent  upon 
their  extermination,  with  the  knowledge  that  in  Persia  itself 
there  were  hostile  Mohammedan  forces  that  would  welcome 
the  opportunity  to  pillage  and  destroy  them,  the  Assyrians 
were  forced  to  choose  between  certain  annihilation  and  taking 
up  arms  in  their  own  defense  and  in  the  cause  of  the  Allies. 
It  was  true  that  they  were  in  a  neutral  land,  but  it  was  a 
land  whose  neutrality  the  Allies  did  not  recognize  and  the 
land  itself  could  not  defend.  The  official  agents  of  the  AUies, 
moreover,  constrained  the  Assyrians  to  do  what  their  own 
self-preservation  also  necessitated.  In  the  winters  of  1917 
and  1918,  in  one  of  the  darkest  hours  of  the  war,  they  called 
upon  the  Assyrians  to  stand  in  the  breach  between  the  Cas- 
pian Sea  and  Mesopotamia  and  to  bar  the  way  of  Germany 
and  Turkey  across  Persia  to  India.  If  they  would  hold  out 
for  a  few  months,  the  Allies  promised  them  sure  relief,  and 
relying  upon  this  promise  and  knowing  that  in  a  real  sense 
the  issues  of  the  great  war  as  well  as  their  own  existence  as 
a  people  hung  upon  their  courage  and  faithfulness,  this  little 
nation  took  up  arms  and  stood  in  the  way  of  the  eastward 
rolling  tide.  For  seven  months  they  held  their  ground.  In 
one  of  the  blackest  times  a  British  aeroplane  landed  near 
Urumia  City  and  assured  them  that  the  long  promised  help 
was  at  hand.  It  was  indeed  not  far  away,  but  it  never  came, 
and  unable  to  hold  out  longer  the  people  fled  in  despair  before 
the  incoming  armies  of  the  Turks  and  the  Kurds  on  July  31, 

464 


1918,  southward  over  the  mountains  to  Hamadan.  There  were 
seventy  thousand  of  them,  men,  women  and  little  children. 
Their  enemies  pursued  and  shot  them  down  from  the 
flank  and  from  the  rear.  Thousands  of  them  died  of  hunger 
and  cholera  and  weariness.  Dr.  Shedd,  who  went  with  them, 
to  give  them  such  comfort  and  assistance  as  he  could,  died 
himself  of  cholera  and  fatigue  three  days'  journey  south  of 
Urumia.  After  weeks  of  hardship  the  survivors  reached 
Hamadan  and  thence  traveled  on  three  hundred  and  twenty 
miles  more  to  Bagdad. 

The  Assyrian  people  numbered  before  the  war  perhaps  100,- 
000,  of  whom  approximately  40,000  lived  in  the  Urumia  plain 
and  60,000  in  the  mountains  of  Turkish  Kurdistan.  Fifty  per 
cent  of  the  Urumia  people  and  forty  per  cent  of  the  people 
of  the  mountains  have  been  wiped  out  during  the  war.  Of  the 
seventy  thousand  who  fled  from  Urumia  several  thousand 
remained  in  Hamadan,  and  of  the  other  survivors  thirty  thou- 
sand or  more  reached  Bagdad  and  were  cared  for  by  the 
British  in  the  relief  camp  at  Bakuba  thirty  miles  north  of 
Bagdad.  From  the  fall  of  1918  until  August,  1920,  they  re- 
mained in  Bakuba  and  were  then  removed  by  the  British  to 
Mindan,  a  camp  thirty  miles  northeast  of  Mosul.  From  Min- 
dan  the  British,  who  had  spent  not  less  than  two  million 
pounds  on  the  care  of  the  refugees,  and  who  recognized  their 
grave  obligations  to  the  Assyrians,  in  view  of  the  failure,  for 
reasons  which  need  not  be  set  forth  here,  to  fulfill  the  pledges 
which  would  have  saved  the  nation  from  its  great  disaster, 
undertook  to  return  the  Assyrians  to  their  homes.  The  moun- 
tain tribes,  who  were  the  fighting  element  of  the  nation  and 
who  had  been  driven  down  to  Urumia  by  the  Turks  and  the 
Kurds  in  1915,  and  who  had  been  part  of  the  great  flight  from 
Urumia  to  Hamadan  and  Bagdad,  were  to  be  restored  to  their 
mountain  valleys,  and  the  Urumia  people  to  their  villages 
on  the  Urumia  plain.  The  women  and  children  were  to  wait 
in  the  camp  at  Mindan  while  the  men  crossed  to  make  all 
preparations  in  Urumia,  the  mountain  warriors  going  with 
the  Urumia  folk.  The  project  was  postponed,  however,  until 
the  fall  of  1920,  when  it  should  have  been  undertaken  in  the 
spring  time  either  of  that  or  the  following  year.  I  do  not  know 
whose  wrong  judgment  or  wrong  will  was  at  fault,  but  both 
the  time  and  the  management  of  the  expedition  doomed  it  to 
failure,  and  no  doubt  the  people  themselves  have  their  own 
share  of  responsibility  for  the  failure.  In  any  case,  long  before 
they  reached  Urumia  the  mountains  were  blocked  with  snow, 
and  the  expedition  ended  in  discord  and  disaster.    The  British 

465 


officers  in  cliarge  abandoned  any  furtlier  attempt,  and  the 
people  were  left  to  drift  back,  the  mountaineers  to  Mosul  and 
the  villages  to  the  north  of  Mosul,  and  the  Urumia  people, 
first  to  Bagdad,  and  then  across  the  border  into  Persia  again. 

When  the  Assyrians  fled  from  Urumia  on  July  31,  1918,  it 
was  decided,  as  I  have  said,  that  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Shedd  should 
go  with  them,  but  that  the  other  missionaries  should  remain. 
Six  thousand  of  the  Christians  had  not  gone  in  the  flight, 
and  they  needed  protection.     The  Mission,  moreover,  was  a 
neutral  body  and,  throughout  the  war,  had  served  all  who 
were  in  need,  striving  to  protect  the   Christians  from  the 
Turks  and  the  Kurds,  and  to  protect  the  Kurds  and  the  Per- 
sian   Mohammedans   from   the    lawless   and   cruel   elements 
among  the  Assyrians  when  the  latter  were  in  the  ascendancy 
and  v/ere  tempted  to  make  reprisals  for  all  the  suffering  and 
outrage  which  they  had  endured.     On  October  8,  1918,  how- 
ever, the  Turks  deported  all  the  remaining  missionaries  and 
many  of  the  Christians  to  Tabriz,  and  the  900   Christians 
who  remained  were  heroically  shepherded  by  Judith  David, 
the  daughter  of  Kasha  Moorhatch,  with  the  aid  of  a  friendly 
Mohammedan  of  whom  I  have  spoken  elsewhere  in  this  report, 
until  May  2,  1919,  when  Dr.   Packard  after  twice  visiting 
Urumia  from  Tabriz,  in  February  and  April,  1919,  returned 
with  Mrs.  Packard  and  his  family  and  Dr.  Ellis  for  the  pur- 
pose of  remaining.     Dr.  Ellis  shortly  returned  to  Tabriz,  but 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Packard  stayed,  witnessing  one  final  shameful 
massacre  of  the  Assyrians  on  May  24th  and  were  then  brought 
back  to  Tabriz  with  the  Assyrians  who  survived  by  a  rescue 
party  in  June,  headed  by  the  American  consul  in  Tabriz,  Mr. 
Paddock,  who  throughout  the  entire  war  had  shown  himself 
the  wise  advisor  and  the  steadfast  friend  both  of  the  Ameri- 
can missionaries  and  of  the  Assyrian  Christians.     Beside  the 
visit  of  the  rescue  party,  three  missionary  visits  have  been 
made.    Dr.  Packard  accompanied  General  Beach  of  the  British 
army  in  July,  1919;  Dr.  Ellis  and  Mr.  Muller  of  our  mission 
and  Mons.  Franssen  of  the  French  Roman  Catholic  Lazarist 
Mission  visited  the  place  in  September,  1919;  Mr.  Wilson  and 
Mr.  Muller  in  February,  1920;  and  Mr.  Muller  in  October, 
1920.     The  break  up  of  the  station  and  of  the  hopeful  plans 
for  the  re-establishment  of  the  work  in  May,  1919,  was  due 
to  the  imprudence  of  a  new  governor  who  tactlessly  precipi- 
tated a  conflict  between  the  Kurds  and  the  Persian  Moham- 
medans, which  released  the  base   Persian  elements  for  the 
massacre  of  the  24th,  and  which,  though  for  a  time  the  Per- 
sians held  Urumia  against  the  Kurds,  ended  at  last  in  the  com- 

4G6 


plete  overthrow  of  Persian  authority  and  the  complete  spolia- 
tion of  the  Shiali  Mohammedans  of  Urumia  by  the  Sunni 
Kurds  of  Ismael  Agha. 

It  is  a  year  and  a  half  since  the  last  missionary  visit  to 
Urumia  in  October,  1920.  The  conditions  at  that  time  seemed 
to  indicate  that  the  immediate  re-establishment  of  the  station 
was  impracticable,  and  the  situation  has  grown  steadily  worse. 
I  have  described  the  present  conditions  in  the  station  letter 
with  regard  to  Urumia,  but  it  may  be  well  to  set  forth  the 
facts  as  we  found  them  at  the  time  of  our  visit,  although 
before  this  report  can  be  printed  it  is  certain  that  the  present 
conditions  will  have  greatly  altered  either  for  better  or  for 
worse.  In  view  of  these  conditions  and  the  military  opera- 
tions which  were  going  on  it  was  not  possible  for  any  for- 
eigners to  go  to  Urumia  at  the  time  of  our  visit,  but  we  met 
with  several  groups  of  influential  Urumia  Mohammedans  who 
were  refugees  in  Tabriz  and  with  one  of  the  best  Mohammedan 
men  remaining  in  the  city  who  had  succeeded  in  making  a 
visit  to  Tabriz  while  we  were  there.  I  would  report  these 
three  interviews  for  the  light  that  they  throw  on  the  Urumia 
situation  and  also  on  the  attitude  of  the  best  Urumia  Moslems 
with  regard  to  our  return. 

The  first  deputation  was  made  up  of  Hajji  Shuab-i-Dowleh, 
Muazam-i-Sultaneh,  Hajji  Arslan  Khan,  and  Mirza  Mustapha 
Khan.  They  said  that  from  the  first  coming  of  the  American 
missionaries  to  Urumia  they  and  their  families  had  been  their 
friends.  Some  of  them  owned  villages  in  which  the  Christians 
were  the  chief  tenants.  Their  interest  and  the  interests  of 
the  Christian  people,  they  declared,  were  all  bound  up  together. 
They  had  prospered  together,  and  they  were  now  suffering  to- 
gether. Only  ten  thousand  Persian  Moslems,  they  said,  were 
left  in  Urumia  at  the  mercy  of  about  eight  thousand  Kurds, 
half  of  them  armed  men,  against  whom  the  Persian  Govern- 
ment had  in  the  field,  as  they  understood,  about  four  thousand 
troops  at  Sharifkhana,  to  the  north  of  the  Urumia  Lake,  and 
two  thousand  troops  to  the  south,  with  twenty-five  hundred 
more  on  their  way  from  Teheran.  All  the  best  Moslem  people 
had  been  driven  out  of  Urumia  and  the  villages  to  Maragha, 
Tabriz,  and  elsewhere.  There  used  to  be  two  hundred  thou- 
sand people  in  the  Urumia  region,  where  now  there  were  not 
half  this  number.  There  was  no  money  in  Urumia  City,  and 
the  bazaars  were  pillaged  and  empty.  The  villages  and  vine- 
yards were  in  ruins,  and  there  was  no  cultivation  of  the  fields, 
except  in  the  vicinity  of  Urumia.  The  price  of  wheat  was 
twice  as  much  as  in  Tabriz.     The  country  was  a  desolation. 

467 


This  was  their  report.  There  would  be  no  opposition  on  their 
part,  they  declared,  to  the  return  of  the  Christians.  The 
Christians  and  the  Mohammedans  were  all  in  the  same  situa- 
tion, and  must  all  go  back  together.  The  oldest  man  of  the 
group,  who  afterwards  wrote  me  a  touching  letter,  declared 
that  his  one  purpose  was  to  strengthen  the  friendly  relations 
between  the  Christians  and  the  Mohammedans  and  to  get 
them  back  together.  He  was  from  one  of  the  oldest  and  best 
Moslem  families  of  the  Afshar  tribe  which,  he  said,  for  six 
hundred  years  had  been  friendly  to  Christians.  He  hoped  that 
peace  might  soon  come,  for  unless  it  did  the  Moslem  people 
who  still  remained  in  Urumia  would  starve.  "In  my  villages," 
he  said,  "the  very  houses  are  burned  down.  Relief  must  come 
within  two  months  or  our  people  will  die.  Many  of  those  who 
were  once  rich  are  starving  now  either  in  Urumia  or  here  in 
Tabriz." 

The  second  deputation  was  made  up  of  Mirza  Hussain, 
Mujtahid  Zadeh,  son  of  the  leading  mujtahid  of  Urumia,  Sadik 
ul  Memalik,  the  acting  kargazar  who  took  charge  of  such  mis- 
sion property  as  was  left  by  the  Turks,  Mutamad  ul  Vizerah, 
one  of  the  leading  customs  officials  and  a  great  chess  player, 
and  Hossein  Khan.  They  said  that  they  had  heard  that  I 
had  once  been  in  Urumia  and  that  it  was  well  that  I  could 
not  look  upon  its  sorrow  now.  I  replied  that  all  this  should 
teach  us  a  lesson  that  we  should  never  forget  as  to  the  sure 
and  bitter  fruitage  of  racial  strife  and  hatred.  Yes,  they 
replied,  such  strife  and  hatred  were  bad  for  this  world  and 
for  the  world  to  come.  There  should  be  peace  among  men. 
All  intelligent  men  in  Urumia  appreciated,  they  said,  what 
in  the  eighty-five  years  and  more  of  its  history  the  Mission 
had  done,  but  the  problem  was  how  to  restrain  the  ignorant 
and  lawless  elements  of  society  who  were  at  fault  on  both 
sides,  Christian  and  Mohammedan.  As  the  people  return  to- 
gether, they  said,  each  side  would  be  bitter  in  its  resentment 
against  the  other,  in  view  of  its  past  wrongs.  One  way  to 
avoid  the  perils  of  recrimination  and  strife  would  be  to  make 
sure  that  the  people  were  not  idle  for  lack  of  employment  or 
capital  on  their  return.  Military  force  would  be  necessary 
to  expel  the  Kurds  and  to  settle  the  people  again  in  their  old 
rights,  but  only  common  industry  would  keep  the  peace.  This 
was  true,  we  told  them,  and  the  chief  responsibility  would  rest 
with  the  Moslems  who  were  the  dominant  race.  There  would 
have  to  be  a  righteous  recognition  on  their  part  of  the  equal 
rights  of  Christians.  No  peaceful  society  could  be  built  on 
race  oppression  and  injustice.     Yes,  they  replied,  but  Dr. 

.468 


Packard  would  remember  how  fairly  Christians  had  been 
treated,  often  better  than  the  Moslems.  Dr.  Packard  admitted 
that  this  had  been  true  in  the  case  of  a  few  outstanding  men 
like  the  Assyrian  physicians,  but  we  recalled  to  them  the 
facts  regarding  the  past,  and  the  inferiority  and  subjection 
of  the  Christian  people,  and  pointed  out  to  them  that  we  must 
learn  in  these  Moslem  lands  as  everywhere  the  lesson  of 
democracy  and  brotherhood  and  equal  rights,  and  of  no  sub- 
jection and  oppression  of  races  or  men.  They  answered  that 
in  the  Urumia  region  the  Persian  Shiah  Mohammedans  had 
not  been  fanatical,  and  they  pointed  out  that,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  in  Persia  Christians  had  been  given  a  disproportionate 
recognition.  They  cited  the  internal  tax  department  in  Azer- 
baijan which  was  wholly  under  Christian  officials,  as  we  knew 
to  be  the  case.  "You  must  not  despair,"  they  added,  "Persia 
has  progressed  in  freedom,  and  we  must  look  forward  to  bet- 
ter days  in  Urumia,  for  which  we  ought  now  to  be  preparing 
the  prescription."  And  the  prescription,  we  added,  is  justice, 
equality  and  industry.  "Yes,"  they  said,  "it  is  with  these 
principles  that  we  must  all  go  back  together.  Dr.  Packard 
is  a  physician  and  he  knows  our  needs."  "You,  too,"  they 
said  to  him,  "are  a  son  of  Urumia  and  you,  too,  must  come 
back.  There  are  blind  eyes  to  be  opened,  and  there  are  sick 
folk  to  be  healed."  "And  I  have  a  lump  back  of  my  ear," 
said  the  spokesman,  "and  you  must  take  it  off  for  me." 

The  Moslem  visitor  from  Urumia  to  whom  I  have  referred 
who  came  over  to  Tabriz  during  our  stay  there  brought  with 
him  a  most  dismal  report.  Simko  had  just  made  a  fresh 
levy  on  the  city,  unearthing  what  buried  treasures  any  of 
the  people  had  hidden.  We  had  several  talks  also  with  a  very 
kindly  Shiah  mollah  from  Urumia,  who  told  of  the  havoc 
wrought  in  their  mosques  and  among  the  people  by  the  plund- 
ering Sunni  ecclesiastics  whom  the  Kurds  had  brought  in. 

The  question  of  the  reoccupation  of  Urumia  and  the  asso- 
ciated problems  were  considered  at  length  in  our  conference 
with  the  West  Persia  Mission  in  Tabriz.  Mr.  Muller  pre- 
sented a  careful  paper  on  the  subject  which  he  began  with 
the  following  assumptions : 

1.  Ismael  Agha's  present  attitude  toward  our  Mission  is 
not  friendly. 

2.  It  is  unwise  to  make  another  attempt  to  reopen  work 
in  Urumia  so  long  as  the  Persian  war  against  Ismael  Agha 
centers  about  Urumia. 

3.  The  Persian  Government  will  willingly  tolerate  us  in 

469 


Urumia  when  it  is  again  in  control,  especially  if  that  time 
comes  while  our  relief  activities  are  fresh  in  their  minds. 

4.  The  Persian  Government  will  in  its  own  way  probably 
regain  control  of  Urumia  within  the  next  two  or  three  years. 

5.  The  Persian  Government  and  the  local  Persians  will 
not,  in  general,  interfere  with  the  return  of  Christians  whose 
homes  were  formerly  in  Urumia. 

6.  The  return  of  Christians  will  give  rise  to  many. com- 
plicated legal  questions  of  property  ownerships,  old  debts,  in- 
heritances, etc.,  both  among  Christians  and  between  Moslems 
and  Christians ;  and  possibly  troublesome  criminal  cases  may 
also  arise. 

7.  If  Christians  re-enter  Urumia  at  all  and  are  granted 
moderate  justice  there  will  be  a  gradual  return  of  Assyrians 
to  their  ancestral  home. 

8.  It  is  not  possible  for  us  to  relinquish  our  responsibility 
for  the  Kurdish  field  to  the  Lutheran  Mission  in  Soujbulak. 

9.  Urumia  is  not  necessarily  the  best  center,  but  a  good 
center  from  which  to  do  Kurdish  work. 

There  was  a  tenth  assumption  underlying  Mr.  Muller's  paper 
which  was  so  fundamental  that  he  did  not  even  put  it  .in 
words,  namely,  that  it  is  the  purpose  of  the  Board  and  the 
Mission  to  reoccupy  Urumia  at  the  earliest  possible  day.  The 
needs  of  the  work  and  of  the  field,  our  obligation  alike  to  the 
Mohammedans  and  the  Assyrians,  and  our  solemn  duty  to 
the  past  make  it  binding  upon  us  to  go  back  to  Urumia  the 
instant  that  the  way  is  open. 

1.  It  is  our  missionary  duty  to  reoccupy  Urumia  in  the 
interest  of  the  Mohammedan  people  and  in  the  fulfillment  of 
our  primary  missionary  aim  in  Persia,  which  is  to  bring  the 
Gospel  to  the  Mohammedans.  At  the  same  time  it  is  our  duty 
to  render  every  assistance  in  our  power  to  the  Assyrian  Chris- 
tians in  their  effort  to  return  to  their  old  home.  Their  longing 
to  return  is  natural  and  right,  and  one  does  not  wonder  at 
the  intensity  of  the  feeling  of  the  people  wherever  he  meets 
them  in  their  places  of  exile.  Powerful  influences  were  brought 
to  bear  upon  them  to  keep  them  in  Mesopotamia,  but  they 
poured  back  in  a  resistless  stream  in  large  companies  or  in 
small  groups  or  alone,  if  need  be,  penniless  and  ragged  and 
afoot,  striving  to  get  back  as  near  to  Urumia  as  possible.  At 
the  time  of  our  visit  the  Urumia  people  with  the  exception  of 
those  who  had  gone  to  America  and  Russia  were  distributed 
as  follows:  Approximately  2,000  in  Bagdad,  1,000  in  Ker- 
manshah,  5,000  in  Hamadan,  and  4,000  in  Tabriz  and  Ma- 
ragha.     Their  hearts  were  all  set  upon  their  repatriation  in 

470 


Urumia.     The  letter  which  they  addressed  to  me  in  Tabriz 
represents  the  indestructible  longing  of  the  nation : 

"Sir:— 

"Your  visit  to  these  parts,  we  Assyrians  take  as  one  of 
the  greatest  and  most  timely  events  that  Providence  has 
granted  us  during  the  blackest  days  of  our  flight.  It  is  a  pity 
that  this  welcome  which  we  extend  to  you  now,  does  not 
take  place  in  our  native  land  and  our  own  homes  where  big 
receptions  and  sweet  meetings  could  be  held,  to  prove  to  you 
our  love  and  respect,  worthy  of  your  station.  But,  unfortu- 
nately, during  the  last  four  years  of  our  flight  we  have  lost 
all  our  property,  land,  and  money,  wandering  aimlessly  and 
getting  lost  on  the  roads  of  Persia,  Russia,  Beth-Nahrin, 
India,  clear  to  America.  Our  environment  and  our  situation 
make  us  feel  awkward  in  trying  to  fulfill  our  duties  towards 
you  as  befits  your  honor.  But  we  wish  to  make  it  clear  to 
you,  that,  although  we  are  bereft  of  all  our  property  and  be- 
longings, still  we  we  can  say  gladly  and  truthfully  that  our 
love  and  respect  are  growing  greater  and  greater  towards 
you  every  day.  Your  sympathy,  your  great  efforts  in  the  past 
and  at  present  to  help  our  nation,  are  plain  facts  which  have 
left  deep  marks  on  our  hearts.  .  .  .  We  hope  to  God  that  we 
might  reach  the  day  of  our  clear  sky,  when  our  words,  our 
writings  to  our  friends  and  loved  ones,  should  not  be  marred 
by  the  clouds  of  our  trials  and  tribulations.  But  the  circum- 
stances in  which  we  are,  and  knowing  your  friendly  attitude 
toward  us,  encourage  us  to  put  before  you  the  following 
requests : 

"1.  Since  it  is  evident  to  us  that  the  greatest  part  of  our 
men  and  women  are  real  lovers  of  their  tongue  and  nation, 
and  are  ready  to  put  down  their  lives  in  its  behalf;  since  it 
has  been  proved  to  us  from  the  words  uttered  from  trembling 
lips  of  our  dying  ones  in  exile,  'Only  Home,  Native  Land, 
and  Nation,'  and  because  we  do  not  wish  to  see  the  funeral 
of  our  nation  and  language :  since  we  hold  ourselves  respon- 
sible to  the  souls  of  our  forefathers  who  through  tribulations 
and  repeated  massacres  kept  their  nationalism,  whose  bones 
and  the  dust  of  their  bodies,  the  stones  and  monuments  of 
their  graves,  today  cry  out  to  us  with  a  low  but  thrilling  voice, 
'Keep  national  existence' :  since  we  believe  that  the  existence 
of  this  ancient  nation  and  tongue  depends  on  the  opening  of 
our  beloved  native  place,  which  we  hope  will  be  the  nucleus 
to  gather  all  our  people  around  it  in  the  future,  therefore  we 
beg  you  to  exert  your  influence  to  secure  the  opening  of  our 
land,  and  the  altars  of  our  nationalism,  and  preserve  the  foun- 

471 


dations  of  character  by  re-establishing  Christian  schools  and 
rebuilding  our  destroyed  churches. 

"2.  But  before  we  beg  of  you  this  request  we  wish  to  make 
clear  to  you  this  one  point.  It  was  not  coincidence  or  luck 
which  brought  us  these  hard  days,  thus  driven  from  our  homes, 
scattered  and  dying  in  exile,  fallen  under  the  curse  of  beg- 
gary; it  was  our  political  smallness  and  diplomatic  infancy; 
as  we  were  lured  by  false  promises  of  representatives  of  the 
Allies,  who,  we  believed,  would  stand  by  their  promises  and 
repay  us  for  our  good  service;  but,  we  are  sorry  to  say  that, 
at  the  end  of  the  war  each  one  went  his  way  working  for  the 
personal  benefit  of  his  own  country  and  government,  careless, 
thoughtless  of  the  unfortunate  small  nation  which  was  sacri- 
ficed in  the  way  of  their  respective  interests. 

"During  all  the  time  of  our  exile  we  have  had  only  one 
friend  who  has  been  in  sympathy  with  us  in  our  trials.  That 
friend  is  the  American  Relief,  to  whom  we  extend  our  hearty 
thanks,  who  for  four  years  has  helped  and  supported  part  of 
our  people.  But  we  are  sorry  to  say  that  of  late  this  friend 
too  is  getting  tired  and  turns  away  his  face  from  us.  It  is 
true,  every  prolonged  work  becomes  tedious  and  wearisome. 
We,  too,  feel  ashamed  to  be  a  burden  to  others,  but  what  shall 
we  do ;  driven  from  our  homes  with  nothing  to  live  on ;  seek- 
ing employment,  but  there  is  no  work;  Russia  the  house  of 
refuge  for  our  people  is  in  misery ;  America,  the  land  of  free- 
dom, has  closed  its  gates  on  us.  Our  last  hope  lies  in  the 
efforts  of  the  Persian  Government  to  open  Urumia.  We  hope 
that  God,  for  the  sake  of  this  nation,  will  bring  success  to 
her  efforts  and  preserve  this  nation.  On  this  basis  and  with 
this  hope  we  beg  you  to  use  your  influence  with  the  Relief 
Committee  to  extend  an  immediate  help  and  security  to  our 
people  who  are  on  the  point  of  starvation. 

"3.  Since  we  have  some  hope  in  respect  to  the  opening  of 
our  old  home,  therefore  we  beg  you  to  take  into  consideration 
the  help  and  support  needed  for  our  people  at  Urumia  and 
Salmas,  till  they  stand  on  their  own  feet  and  become  self- 
supporting,        uy^^y  respectfully  yours. 

Representatives  of  the  Assyrian  Refugees  in  Tabriz, 
MAR  ELIA,  Bishop  of  Urmia, 
A.  MOORHATCH, 
A.  B.  DOOMAN,  M.  D. 
E.  E.  SAYAD,  M.  D. 
LAZAR  ELIA, 

ASKANDAR  S.  KHOSHABA,  M.  D. 
and  others." 

472 


We  did  everything  in  our  power  in  conferences  with  the 
Persian  authorities  and  with  the  American  and  British  Lega- 
tions in  Teheran  to  support  the  claims  of  the  people  for  re- 
patriation in  their  homes,  pointing  out  to  the  Persian  offi- 
cials not  only  the  moral  grounds  of  the  cause  of  the  Assyrians 
but  also  the  economic  advantage  to  Persia  of  restoring  them  to 
the  region  which  they  had  made  so  prosperous  and  which 
they  would  soon  redeem  from  its  present  waste.  We  were 
glad  to  receive  assurances  from  every  one  of  the  Persian  of- 
ficials with  whom  we  talked,  and  who  included  the  men  most 
directly  responsible  for  dealing  with  the  problem,  that  just 
as  soon  as  peace  and  order  were  re-established  and  the  author- 
ity of  Persia  set  up,  the  Christians  would  be  heartily  encour- 
aged to  go  back.  The  Legations  felt  that  there  was  nothing 
they  could  do  at  present,  but  they  were  ready  to  lend  every 
good  office  toward  the  repatriation  of  the  people  as  soon  as 
it  was  politically  possible  for  them  to  return.  One  of  the 
Persian  officials  most  closely  related  to  the  whole  matter  inti- 
mated that  there  were  some  Assyrians,  probably  no  longer 
Persian  subjects,  whose  political  activities  in  advocating  an 
Assyrian  republic  detached  from  Persia  and  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Allies  had  made  them  unacceptable  to  Persia 
and  who  might  be  discouraged  from  returning;  but  when  I 
asked  some  of  the  other  Persian  officials  whether  it  was  in- 
tended that  any  discrimination  should  be  made,  they  replied 
that  they  knew  of  none.  We  are  not  deceived  into  thinking 
that,  either  economically  or  politically,  the  return  of  the  Assy- 
rians to  their  old  homes  will  be  simple  or  easy.  It  is  certain 
on  the  other  hand  to  be  a  very  difficult  process,  but  one  be- 
lieves, as  one  certainly  hopes,  that  before  many  years  have 
passed  a  good  nucleus  of  the  Assyrian  people  will  have  settled 
once  again  in  their  old  villages.  As  soon  as  this  has  been 
accomplished,  others  of  the  people  will  be  sure  to  filter  back 
until  as  much  of  the  nation  as  has  not  been  able  to  go  to 
America  will  be  re-established  in  its  ancient  seat. 

2.  Among  the  questions  considered  at  the  conference  at 
Tabriz  were  two  which  we  had  already  considered  at  home 
with  the  Urumia  missionaries  who  were  on  furlough,  namely, 
the  staff  which  the  station  would  need  on  re-occupation  and 
the  expediency  of  sending  back  the  older  missionaries,  who 
had  been  through  the  tragedies  of  the  station's  recent  history, 
or  sending  instead  a  force  of  new  missionaries  or  of  mission- 
aries transferred  from  other  stations,  who  would  be  disasso- 
ciated from  the  entangled  relationships  of  the  past.  A  few  of 
the  missionaries  whose  return  would  remind  them  always  of 

473 


painful  experiences  are  desirous  of  being  stationed  elsewhere, 
but  others  are  equally  desirous  of  returning  and  our  con- 
ferences with  Moslems  and  Christians  alike  convinced  us  that 
it  would  be  an  immeasurable  loss  not  to  constitute  the  older 
Urumia  missionaries  the  re-occupying  force.  After  a  very 
full  discussion  it  was  voted  at  the  Mission  conference  in  Tabriz 
that 

(1)  "It  is  our  policy  to  reoccupy  Urumia  as  a  full  station  of 
the  Mission  as  soon  as  practicable.  (2)  The  older  Urumia 
missionaries  desiring  to  return  to  Urumia  should  be  among 
those  who  return.  (3)  It  is  not  necessary  at  present  to  plan 
a  complete  reduplication  of  the  old  work.  (4)  That  we  contem- 
plate a  Mission  force  in  Urumia  embracing  four  ordained 
men  and  three  women  for  evangelistic  and  educational  work 
and  two  doctors  (men)  and  one  nurse  for  medical  work.  (5) 
While  recognizing  our  responsibility  to  the  Assyrian  Chris- 
tians we  believe  that  upon  re-occupation,  the  primary  and 
direct  purpose  of  the  station  should  be  the  evangelization  of 
the  Moslems.  (6)  For  the  present  and  pending  the  re-occu- 
pation of  the  station,  we  should  use  the  Urumia  force  and 
funds  in  the  best  possible  way  for  work  looking  towards 
the  evangelizing  of  Moslems  and  Syrians.  (7)  The  force  and 
funds  should  be  used  in  ways  that  will  permit  such  part  of 
them  as  are  to  be  transferred  back  to  the  Urumia  field  to  be 
so  transferred  with  least  embarrassment  to  the  present  work. 
(8)  The  Urumia  staff  and  appropriations  that  would  not  re- 
turn to  Urumia  when  the  station  would  be  fully  occupied 
should  be  placed  to  the  best  advantage  in  other  parts  of  the 
field." 

3.  Friendly  Mohammedans  have  done  what  they  could  to 
protect  the  Mission  property  in  Urumia,  but  many  of  the 
buildings  have  been  dem^olished  and  it  is  probable  that  every- 
thing needed  by  the  re-established  station  will  have  to  be  re- 
built. It  is  hoped  that  the  Westminster  Church  of  Buffalo 
which  has  for  years  carried  the  medical  work  in  Urumia  will 
provide  whatever  is  needed  for  the  hospital  which  ought  cer- 
tainly to  be  one  of  the  first  enterprises  to  be  re-established. 
Residences  also  will  be  needed,  and  both  Fiske  Seminary  and 
the  school  for  boys  should  be  re-established.  A  special  effort 
should  be  made  to  have  in  hand  a  special  re-establishment 
fund  available  for  use  immediately  upon  re-occupation. 
$100,000  ought  to  be  more  than  enough  for  this  purpose.  The 
amount  now  in  the  Board's  Treasury  for  Urumia  rebuilding 
is  $8,871.48. 

4.  No  one  can  think  of  the  situation  in  Urumia  today 

474 


without  reflecting  upon  our  missionary  responsibility  to  help 
and  befriend  the  Kurds.  No  other  missionary  agency  either 
in  Persia  or  in  Turkey  has  ever  influenced  the  Kurds  as  deeply 
as  the  Urumia  hospital  and  medical  work.  To  the  extent  that 
the  Kurds  are  accessible  from  Urumia,  the  hospital  will  un- 
doubtedly serve  them  in  the  future  as  in  the  past,  but  there 
should  also  be  a  far  more  adequate  direct  effort  to  reach  them 
both  by  preaching  and  by  schools.  I  shall  speak  of  this  else- 
where in  connection  with  the  problem  of  the  adequate  occu- 
pation of  our  field.  It  must  suffice  to  point  out  here  the  dif- 
ficult service  which  the  station  will  have  to  render  in  healing 
the  bitterness  of  the  past  and  binding  together  the  Kurds, 
the  Persian  Mohammedans,  and  the  Assyrian  Christians  in 
common  brotherhood. 

5.  The  action  of  the  mission  conference  at  Tabriz  indi- 
cates that  in  its  judgment  the  chief  work  of  the  Urumia 
station  from  henceforth  should  be  for  Moslems.  From  this 
point  of  view  it  might  be  well  if  the  missionaries  could  return 
in  advance  of  the  Assyrians.  From  another  point  of  view 
to  which  I  shall  refer  in  a  moment  it  might  be  better  to  have 
the  Assyrians  return  first.  In  either  case  it  will  be  the  task 
of  the  station  to  establish  from  the  beginning  the  right  rela- 
tionships with  the  Moslem  people.  One  must  recognize  that 
the  views  of  the  two  deputations  of  Urumia  Moslems  which 
have  been  quoted  are  not  representative  of  all.  Monsieur 
Frannsen  of  the  French  Lazarist  Mission  told  me  that  he 
feared  the  predominant  Moslem  feeling  would  be  hostile  both 
to  the  Christians  and  to  Christianity.  It  may  be  so.  The 
wonder  is  that  anything  but  hate  and  ill  will  could  be  the 
fruitage  of  these  bitter  sowings  of  the  years  of  the  war. 
Nevertheless  we  must  go  forward  in  the  faith  that  the  forces 
which  are  at  work  everywhere  else  in  Persia,  opening  a  new 
door  of  access  to  the  Mohammedans,  will  not  be  closed  in 
Urumia,  and  the  work  there  must  be  projected  from  the  be- 
ginning with  a  policy  and  attitude  designed  to  win  the  good 
will  and  love  of  the  Moslem  people  and  to  commend  Christ 
and  His  Gospel  to  them.  Some  wise  measures  of  friendly 
assistance  and  relief,  available  for  Moslems  of  good  will,  as 
well  as  for  Christians,  would  be  of  great  help  in  promoting 
racial  good  feeling  and  in  setting  the  Mission  in  right  and 
kindly  relationships  with  the  Urumia  Moslems  from  the  out- 
set. 

6.  The  situation  will  be  altogether  different  after  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  station  as  regards  relationships  with  the 
Greek  Church  and  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Anglican  Missions. 

475 


None  of  these  Missions  has  followed  the  people  in  their  wan- 
derings or  ministered  to  them  in  their  refugee  camps  or 
worked  with  them  in  their  village  repatriations  or  in  their 
effort  to  return  to  Urumia.  Several  exceptions  should  be  made 
to  this  general  statement.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  has 
shown  the  fullest  sympathy  with  the  Assyrians  and  has  sought 
in  the  most  generous  and  high  minded  way  to  secure  the  ful- 
fillment by  the  British  Government  of  its  duty  to  the  people 
in  view  of  the  commitments  of  its  representatives  during  the 
war.  Members  of  the  Archbishop's  Mission,  in  connection 
with  the  British  Army  relief,  helped  in  the  care  of  the  people 
in  the  Bakuba  camp.  And  Monsieur  Frannsen,  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Mission,  is  striving  manfully  to  help  in  getting  the 
Tabriz  refugees  settled  in  villages.  But  at  the  time  of  our 
visit  our  Mission  was  the  only  one  at  work  for  the  Assyrians 
whether  at  Mosul,  Bagdad,  Kermanshah,  Hamadan,  or  Tabriz. 
So  far  as  its  work  is  for  Mohammedans  it  will  have  the  field 
to  itself  when  Urumia  is  reopened.  None  of  these  other  Mis- 
sions ever  worked  for  the  Mohammedans.  Indeed  it  is  stated 
that  the  Roman  Catholic  Mission  in  entering  Persia  pledged 
itself  to  abstain  from  Moslem  work.  As  to  the  Assyrians,  in 
the  event  of  their  return,  I  do  not  know  what  other  Church 
agencies  may  be  involved.  Some  of  the  Nestorian  bishops 
and  priests  will  doubtless  retain  the  Greek  Church  affiliations 
which  they  had  taken  up  before  the  war,  but  the  Orthodox 
Church  will  have  more  than  it  can  do  at  home  in  Russia  and 
will  probably  be  unable  to  do  anything  in  Persia.  The  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury's  Mission  has  had  no  missionaries  in 
Urumia  for  a  long  time,  and  if  it  resumes  work  at  all  among 
the  Assyrians  it  seems  more  probable  that  it  would  seek  to 
re-establish  its  relations  with  the  Patriarch's  family.  As  to 
the  French  Lazarist  Mission  we  have  done  everything  that 
we  could  to  promote  kindly  relations.  When  Dr.  Packard 
visited  Urumia  in  May,  1919,  he  took  with  him  one  of  the 
French  missionaries.  Monsieur  Clarice,  who  lived  with  him 
in  one  of  our  Mission  residences  in  Urumia  during  that  fateful 
month.  Monsieur  Frannsen  has  been  a  very  brotherly  worker 
in  Tabriz,  and  I  felt  a  real  attachment  to  him. 

It  would  be  a  great  thing  if,  as  was  the  case  for  so  many 
years,  this  field  and  these  problems  could  be  left  to  a  single 
missionary  agency.  If  this  may  not  be,  at  least  two  other 
things  may  be  hoped  for,  first  that  between  the  representatives 
of  the  three  great  Churches  to  which  I  have  referred  there 
may  be,  with  a  clear  recognition  of  any  divergent  Church 
principles  (some  day  surely  to  be  reconciled  in  a  richer  and 

476 


more  comprehensive  unity  than  any  of  us  now  understands) , 
nevertheless  a  full  brotherly  sympathy  and  trust,  and  second 
that  there  may  be  an  end  of  all  the  wildcat  individualistic 
undertakings  of  Assyrian  adventurers  and  of  well  meaning  but 
misled  Christians  at  home,  which  have  been  a  scandal  and  a 
shame  in  Persia  and  in  the  West. 

7.  The  reoccupation  of  Urumia  will  bring  into  still  sharper 
focus  the  question  of  the  relations  of  the  Mission  to  the  As- 
syrian people  and  to  the  evangelical  Church  and  to  what 
remains  of  the  old  Church.  (1)  Has  the  spiritual  duty  of 
the  Mission  to  the  Assyrians  been  discharged?  There  are 
some  who  say  that  it  has,  and  that  the  people  should  be  left 
alone  now  to  work  out  their  own  problems  unaided.  I  do  not 
believe  that  this  is  a  tenable  view.  I  believe  that  we  still 
owe  the  Assyrian  people  all  the  friendly  and  spiritual  help 
that  we  can  give  them.  We  should  aid  them  in  the  re-estab- 
lishment of  their  schools  and  the  reorganization  of  their 
churches  both  in  the  city  and  in  the  villages  of  Urumia.  They 
should  themselves  assume  the  leadership  and  the  full  burden 
of  responsibility  as  they  had  done  before  the  war.  But  in 
their  evangelistic  and  in  their  educational  work  they  should 
have  the  sympathy  and  the  co-operation  of  the  Urumia  sta- 
tion, and  there  ought  to  be  at  least  one  of  the  men  and  one 
of  the  women  of  the  station  who  know  Syriac  thoroughly. 
Even  if  one  has  in  mind  only  the  claims  of  the  Moslem  work 
we  should  have  in  thought  also  the  Assyrians,  from  whom 
some  of  the  best  evangelists  and  teachers  for  the  Moslem 
work  have  come  and  are  still  to  come.  "Since  mv  connection 
with  the  field,"  wrote  Dr.  Coan  in  a  paper  on  "The  Rehabili- 
tation of  the  Assyrians"  which  he  presented  to  the  Hama- 
dan  station,  "I  have  personally  known  over  one  hundred  and 
seventy  Assyrian  preachers  and  workers,  most  of  them  gradu- 
ates from  the  theological  seminary.  About  twenty  have  also 
been  graduated  in  medicine,  working  in  widely  separated 
parts  of  the  field.  Of  this  large  number  one  hundred  and  ten 
are  dead,  forty  of  them  having  entered  their  reward  during 
the  last  six  years  as  the  result  of  the  war  and  many  of  these 
have  been  honored  with  martyr  death.  Thirteen  are  in  the 
service  today  in  Persia  and  Mesopotamia.  Five  are  working 
in  the  United  States  as  pastors  of  the  Syrian  colonies  in  New 
Britain,  Yonkers,  Gary  and  Chicago,  and  in  the  Near  East 
Relief.  More  than  ten  have  worked  as  pioneers  in  distant 
places  laying  the  foundations  for  the  stations  of  Tabriz,  Te- 
heran, Hamadan,  Resht  and  Soujbulak,  the  last  of  which  hai 
been  given  over  to  the  Lutheran  Church.     One  man  as  col- 

477 


porteur  has  done  remarkable  work  in  southern  Persia  where 
he  has  often  been  beaten  and  thrown  into  prison  and  some- 
times left  for  dead.  Another  labored  faithfully  in  Russia 
for  many  years,  was  exiled  thirteen  times,  and  finally  died 
in  exile  after  winning  many  thousands  of  people  to  Christ. 
Out  of  the  one  hundred  and  seventy,  twenty-three  were 
dropped  mainly  for  inefficiency,  but  only  four  for  bad  conduct. 
Many  have  done  faithful  work  in  tours  in  the  Mountain  Field, 
and  some  have  done  splendid  work  as  evangelists  among  the 
Moslems." 

The  Assyrian  people  ought  still  to  be  regarded  as  a  great 
reservoir  of  spiritual  resources  for  the  work  among  the 
Moslems. 

(2)  At  present,  outside  the  Mountain  Field  very  little  of 
the  Urumia  appropriations  is  being  spent  for  work  or  workers 
among  the  Assyrians.  Out  of  their  deep  poverty  the  people 
are  still  doing  everything  in  their  power  for  themselves.  They 
should  continue  to  do  so,  but  I  believe  that  in  addition  to 
the  aid  that  they  ought  to  receive  toward  their  re-establish- 
ment either  from  indemnity  or  from  relief,  they  should,  if 
necessary,  be  helped  by  the  Mission  both  in  their  church  and 
in  their  school  work  until  they  can  be  self-supporting  again. 
This  need  not  be  a  great  amount  of  help,  and  it  should  not 
exceed  what  is  necessary  to  supplement  what  the  people  them- 
selves can  do,  with  the  assistance  which  they  have  a  right 
to  expect  from  the  Assyrian  colonies  in  America. 

(3)  The  return  of  the  Assyrians  to  Urumia  will  involve 
many  difficult  legal  Questions  as  to  property  rights  and  boun- 
daries, relations  to  Mohammedan  creditors  and  debtors,  the 
recovery  of  property  and  of  enslaved  women  and  girls,  and 
as  to  litigation  growing  out  of  old  and  new  relationships. 
The  mere  existence  of  a  Christian  community  in  a  Moham- 
medan land  and  under  Mohammedan  law-codes,  regarding 
which  there  must  be  capitulatory  exceptions  made  for  Chris- 
tian communities,  involves  questions  of  the  greatest  difficulty. 
It  was  never  possible  for  the  station  in  former  days,  try  as 
it  would,  to  escape  some  measure  of  implication  in  these 
problems.  It  had  almost  succeeded  in  escaping  before  the 
war,  thanks  to  the  growth  in  strength  and  maturity  in  the 
Assyrian  evangelical  body.  For  many  reasons  it  will  be  hard 
for  the  station  to  hold  aloof  from  these  matters  on  its  re- 
establishment.  It  will  be  much  easier  for  it  to  do  so  if  there 
might  be  in  Urumia  American  and  British  vice-consuls  repre- 
senting their  governments  purely,  caring  for  the  legitimate 
interests  of  American  and  British  native  born  and  naturalized 

478 


citizens,  and  exerting  the  wholesome  influences  which  repre- 
sentatives of  great  Christian  nations  should  exert  in  such  a 
peculiar  situation  as  will  exist  in  Urumia  and  which  they  can 
exert  without  trespassing  upon  the  functions  of  the  Persian 
Government  and  with  untold  advantage  to  the  interests  of 
Persia.  It  will  simplify  matters  greatly  if  very  soon  after 
the  reoccupation  of  the  station  by  the  missionaries  such  con- 
sular representation  might  be  established  and  if  thereafter 
the  Assyrians  should  return. 

(4)  One  of  the  most  difficult  questions  of  all  is  the  question 
of  the  unity  of  the  Assyrians  among  themselves,  the  relations 
especially  of  the  evangelical  body  and  the  old  Church  and 
the  family  of  the  Patriarch,  and  the  relation  of  the  Mission 
to  each  of  these  two  elements.  Any  one  who  studies  the  con- 
dition of  the  Assyrian  nation  today  and  who  confers  sympa- 
thetically with  representatives  of  its  different  sections  is  led 
almost  to  despair  as  to  the  possibility  of  its  unification.  The 
geographical  division  of  the  people  is  by  itself  a  radical  divi- 
sive influence.  Part  of  the  nation  lives  in  Turkey  under 
Turkish  rule  and  part  in  Persia  under  Persian  government. 
There  was  never  any  chance  whatever  of  the  fulfillment  of 
the  hopes  of  some  of  the  Assyrians  that  they  might  be  given 
now  a  distinct  territory  of  their  own  and  be  set  up  as  an 
independent  political  nationality.  There  is  not,  and  there  is 
not  likely  to  be  in  the  near  future,  any  possibility  of  political 
unity.  If  the  whole  nation  would  see  this,  its  problem  would 
be  simplified,  but  one  element  of  difficulty  is  the  fact  that 
there  are  many  leaders  who  confuse  the  real  problem  of  the 
racial  and  religious  unity  of  the  nation  with  the  at  present 
unreal  and  delusive  problem  of  its  political  unity.  The  prob- 
lem of  racial  and  religious  unity  is  difficult  enough.  In  edu- 
cation and  many  other  features  of  their  civilization  there  is 
a  wide  difference  between  the  mountain  tribes  and  the  Urumia 
people,  and  in  military  qualities  they  can  hardly  be  regarded 
as  one  race  at  all.  As  to  their  religious  unity  there  are  ele- 
ments entirely  beyond  the  control  both  of  the  evangelical  body 
and  the  patriarchal  party  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Missions, 
and  in  the  Orthodox  Russian  Church  and  the  Anglican  Mission, 
in  case  the  two  latter  should  return.  Both  in  the  patriarchal 
body  and  in  the  evangelical  party  also  and  in  the  large  un- 
governed  group  between  them  there  are  individuals  whom  no 
one  can  control,  who  for  mercenary  reasons  or  for  motives 
of  personal  ambition  or  out  of  sincere  individual  convictions 
will  go  their  own  way.  When  one  has  examined  all  these 
various  tendencies  he  begins  to  doubt,  as  I  have  said,  whether 

479 


any  unification  of  the  nation  is  possible.  None  the  less  it 
seems  to  me  clear  that  we  should  all  work  for  such  a  true 
unity,  the  binding  of  all  the  people  together  in  a  pure  spiritual 
church  built  simply  upon  the  New  Testament  and  with  what- 
ever organization  will  best  serve  the  religious  needs  of  the 
nation  and  enable  it  best  to  fulfill  its  mission  in  the  light  both 
of  its  past  history  and  of  the  actual  facts  of  its  religious  life 
today. 

In  concrete  form  the  issue  as  it  presents  itself  to  the  Pres- 
byterian Mission  is  simply  this,  shall  the  Mission  both  in 
Persia  and  in  Turkey  pursue  a  policy  of  building  up  the  evan- 
gelical Church,  even  at  the  expense  of  the  old  Church  or  shall 
it  absorb  itself  in  the  work  for  Moslems  and  Kurds  and  give 
at  the  same  time  all  the  spiritual  aid  it  can,  both  to  the  evan- 
gelical and  the  old  Church  alike,  or  thirdly,  must  it  recognize 
the  difference  in  conditions  in  Persia  and  in  Turkey  and 
pursue  in  each  field  a  policy  adapted  to  the  actual  facts.  In 
Persia  the  old  Church  was  wiped  out  by  the  landslide  into  the 
Orthodox  Church  of  everything  but  the  evangelical  body,  so 
that  now  as  a  matter  of  fact  there  is  no  old  Church  in  any  of 
the  Assyrian  communities  into  which  the  Urumia  people  are 
divided.  The  only  church  body  that  there  is  in  Bagdad,  Ker- 
manshah,  Hamadan,  or  Tabriz  is  the  evangelical  Church. 
Whatever  has  been  done  for  the  people,  either  in  relief  or 
spiritually,  has  been  done  either  through  the  Near  East  Relief 
or  through  our  own  Mission.  When  the  people  return  to 
Urumia  if  present  religious  conditions  continue,  there  will 
be  in  reality  only  the  evangelical  Church  with  perhaps  some 
orthodox  Greek  and  Roman  Catholic  remnants,  small  and 
without  resources.  It  would  seem  to  be  the  duty  of  the  Mis- 
sion to  cooperate  with  the  evangelical  Church,  which  it  is  not 
within  the  power  of  the  Mission  to  deliver  to  the  Patriarch 
and  which  would  repudiate  any  effort  of  the  Mission  toward 
such  delivery.  In  the  interests  of  the  religious  unity  and 
the  very  life  of  the  nation  it  is  desirable  that  what  remains 
of  the  Assyrians  in  Persia  should  be  gathered  together  in 
the  loyalty  and  devotion  of  the  evangelical  body  which  has 
borne  the  brunt  of  the  storm  and  which  alone  has  been  able 
to  endure  it.  I  doubt  whether  this  is  practicable,  but  if  the 
Church  in  Persia  could  be  unified  and  made  what  it  ought 
to  be,  the  day  of  the  true  spiritual  unification  of  the  whole 
Church  with  the  preservation  of  what  is  most  worthy  in  its 
history  would  be  hastened. 

The  situation  in  the  Turkish  section  is  different,  and  it  has 
been  long  recognized  to  be  different.     The  landslide  into  the 

480 


Orthodox  Greek  Church  did  not  wipe  out  the  old  Church  in 
the  mountains  as  it  did  in  the  plains,  though  for  a  time  it 
certainly  threatened  it.  The  Mission  also  has  worked  for 
many  years,  while  Dr.  McDowell  has  had  charge  of  the  Moun- 
tain Field,  under  a  policy  which  sought,  in  full  loyalty  both 
to  the  Patriarch's  family  and  to  the  old  Church  on  the  one 
hand,  and  to  the  evangelical  Church,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
build  up  the  spiritual  life  of  each  and  to  unite  all  the  people 
in  Christ,  however  they  might  be  divided  in  their  ecclesiastical 
organization. 

In  the  year  1904  a  conference  was  held  in  Urumia  between 
representatives  of  our  Mission  and  of  the  Archbishop's  Mis- 
sion in  the  effort  to  reach  an  agreement  with  regard  to  the 
policy  of  the  two  Missions  towards  one  another  and  towards 
the  Nestorian  Church.  The  results  of  this  conference  were 
considered  both  by  our  own  Mission  and  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury's  Mission.  Dr.  McDowell  has  for  twenty  years 
worked  in  accordance  with  them,  holding  the  confidence  and 
affection  of  the  evangelical  church  in  the  mountains  on  the  one 
hand  and  slowly  winning  the  trust  and  sympathy  of  the  Patri- 
arch and  the  old  Church  leaders  on  the  other.  With  the  ap- 
proval of  the  Patriarch,  Mar  Shimon,  who  was  murdered  by 
the  Kurdish  bandit  Simko,  there  was  to  be  held  a  church  con- 
ference of  all  the  religious  forces  in  the  mountains,  the  clergy 
of  both  bodies  meeting  on  the  same  level.  Had  Mar  Shimon 
lived  and  the  whole  life  of  the  mountain  people  not  been  shat- 
tered by  the  war,  there  was  good  reason  to  believe  that  all 
that  was  true  and  most  dear  in  the  thought  and  life  of  both 
parties  might  be  conserved  in  a  new  and  comprehensive  under- 
standing. 

Barely  half  of  the  mountain  people,  however,  are  now  strug- 
gling painfully  back  to  their  mountain  homes.  Their  churches 
are  destroyed,  the  Patriarch  and  his  family  are  impoverished, 
the  schools  and  churches  which  were  the  pride  of  the  evan- 
gelical communities  are  gone,  the  new  situation  is  one  of  great 
difficulty  for  all.  We  were  glad  of  the  opportunity  to  discuss 
it  at  length  in  Mosul  with  Daoud  Effendi  and  his  wife,  the 
father  and  mother  of  the  present  Patriarch  who  is  just  a 
little  boy,  and  with  good  Kasha  Keena,  Malik  Khoshaba,  and 
other  leaders  of  the  mountain  people  representing  the  evan- 
gelical body.  A  heavy  snowfall  which  blocked  some  of  the 
mountain  roads  prevented  our  meeting  Surma  Khanim,  the 
sister  of  Daoud  Effendi,  of  whom  every  one  speaks  with  the 
greatest  respect  and  of  whom  I  have  known  for  many  years 
as  one  of  the  most  forceful  and  admirable  personalities  in 

481 

*     16 — India   and  Persia 


the  Assyrian  nation.  It  was  not  difficult  to  enter  with  living 
sympathy  into  the  problems  which  all  these  men  and  women 
are  facing.  I  believe  that  they  are  good  men  and  women 
who  are  trying  to  do  right  and  who  need  all  the  sympathy 
and  help  which  we  can  give  them  as  they  seek  to  re-establish 
the  broken  remnants  of  their  people. 

8.  In  the  past  generation  the  work  in  the  mountains  has 
been  conducted  as  part  of  the  work  of  the  Urumia  station. 
In  earlier  years  missionaries  like  Dr.  Grant  and  Mr.  Rhea 
made  their  home  in  the  mountains  or  the  mountain  work  was 
based  upon  Mosul.  For  more  than  thirty  years,  however,  it 
has  been  conducted  from  Urumia  although  Mr.  McDowell  as 
a  member  of  the  Urumia  station  has  virtually  lived  in  the 
mountain  villages.  Even  when  Urumia  is  reoccupied,  the 
separation  which  the  war  has  effected  between  the  two  sec- 
tions of  the  nation  seems  likely  to  continue,  and  it  was  the 
judgment  of  all  with  whom  we  conferred  that  the  mountain 
work  could  best  and  perhaps  only  be  conducted  from  Mosul. 
The  West  Persia  Mission  conference  in  Tabriz  voted,  accord- 
ingly, in  approving  the  plan  of  a  united  Mesopotamian  Mission 
that  as  much  of  the  Mountain  Field  as  cannot  be  better  cared 
for  from  the  re-established  Urumia  station  should  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  Mesopotamia  Mission  together  with  the  appro- 
priations therefor  which  had  hitherto  been  made  part  of  the 
Urumia  appropriations. 

I  do  not  know  of  any  more  difficult  Mission  field  in  the  world 
than  this  Mountain  Field  nor  of  any  missionary  who  has  done 
more  heroic,  perilous,  self-effacing,  and  Christlike  service 
than  Dr.  McDowell.  No  book  of  missionary  experience  which 
has  ever  been  written  surpasses  the  story  that  Dr.  McDowell 
could  tell  if  he  would.  He  is  nearing  his  three-score  years 
and  ten,  but  has  all  the  vitality  and  energy  of  a  young  man 
just  beginning  his  service,  and  he  is  looking  forward  to  one 
more  term  of  service  to  be  spent  among  the  dear  dangers  of 
these  valleys  and  hills.  All  the  difficulties  that  rise  ahead 
darker  and  greater  than  ever,  he  sees  not  as  a  warning,  but 
as  a  challenge.  Kasha  Keena,  gray  haired  under  his  years, 
but  with  ruddy  cheeks  and  robust  faith,  thinks  of  them  in 
the  same  way.  Just  as  we  were  leaving  Mosul  he  handed  me 
the  following  appealing  letter  in  English: 

"gjjj.  "Mosul,  10th  January,  1922. 

"Having  received  your  honor  most  cordially  in  this  ancient 
country,  where  you  have  come  to  look  into  the  spiritual  con- 
dition of  the  people,  and  where  I  have  been  working  for  37 
years,  including  its  neighboring  mountains  and  towns  as  far 

482 


as  Gawar,  among  the  most  savage  people,  I  take  the  Hberty 
of  offering  a  petition  to  your  honor  in  connection  with  the 
difficulties  and  hardships  of  this  country. 

"There  are  a  number  of  workers,  many  of  whom  are  not 
here  at  present.  I  on  behalf  of  them  beg  to  bring  before  your 
honor  the  fact  that  the  inhabitants  of  this  country  are  far 
from  real  salvation,  and  yet  it  is  possible  to  turn  them  by 
teaching  them  the  Commandments  of  God. 

"For  fifty  years  back  I  can  remember  the  American  mis- 
sionaries and  the  natives.  The  missionaries  worked  in  this 
land  as  evangelists  for  short  periods  only,  except  Dr.  Mc- 
Dowell, who  has  worked  for  33  years  with  his  heart  and  soul, 
sparing  no  effort.  He  has  worked  himself  as  a  missionary 
and  has  brought  four  classes  of  people  to  the  light  of  our 
Lord.  During  past  years,  however,  it  was  difficult  for  work- 
ers to  reach  their  aim,  whereas  now  on  account  of  the  pre- 
vious influences  it  is  easy. 

"1.  The  clergymen  of  the  various  tribes  were  in  the  way  of 
our  work  in  time  past,  but  at  present  they  are  very  near  to 
our  reach. 

"2.  The  uncontrollable  savages  dwelling  in  the  narrow 
valleys  of  the  mountains  who  were  the  enemies  of  mission 
workers  are  now  a  bit  enlightened  and  desire  to  learn  more 
about  the  world  and  religion. 

"3.  The  inhabitants  of  Mosul  and  round  about  including 
Yezidees,  Mohammedans  and  the  Roman  Catholics  were  in 
extreme  opposition  to  our  work,  but  now  the  door  is  open 
and  only  waits  for  the  shaking  of  water  from  the  Evangelical 
Church  like  palsy  in  the  pool  of  Siloam. 

"4,  Among  Mohammedans,  as  you  are  aware,  it  is  difficult 
to  teach  the  doctrine  to  them.  And  before  the  last  great  war 
the  missionary  workers  were  sent  among  the  Kurds,  for 
preaching,  but  the  opinion  of  the  Kurds  remained  unaltered. 
They  only  said  that  the  Americans  were  trying  to  turn  Islam 
into  Christianity.  At  present,  however,  they  have  discovered 
their  wickedness,  both  physical  and  spiritual,  and  long  to 
learn  a  religion  that  is  better  than  Islam. 

"5.  Unlike  the  past,  the  war  has  now  brought  us  an  oppor- 
tunity of  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  people  without  hindrance. 
Now  having  arrived  at  this  favorable  time,  our  aim  is  as 
follows : 

"a.  Many  of  the  religious  workers  amongst  us  have  been 
murdered  and  some  died  during  the  great  war  and  now  we 
are  only  a  handful  left  as  tools  in  hand. 

"b.     We  have  wandered  to  others'  doors  without  a  house, 

483 


a  place,  or  a  shelter  of  our  own  and  without  books,  the  few 
which  we  had  having  been  burnt  by  Mohammedans. 

"c.  We  remaining  workers  are  old  and  near  enough  to 
leave  the  world  and  our  regret  is  that  we  find  no  young  men 
coming  forward  to  occupy  our  places.  The  many  American 
missionaries  and  native  workers  who  were  at  one  time  keen 
upon  their  aim  and  were  waiting  to  conquer  the  world  in 
the  salvation  of  Christ,  have  now  shrunk  back  from  their 
work.  Therefore  our  humble  request  with  your  honor  is  to 
establish  a  running  mission  in  Mosul  (headquarters)  with 
branches  to  the  north  and  to  open  out  a  College  of  Theology 
and  Medicines  for  the  education  of  our  intelligent  young  men 
and  thus  to  conquer  the  tribes  of  Mosul  and  Kurdistan,  as  the 
Assyrians  form  good  tools  to  be  used  in  the  hands  of  mis- 
sionaries. 

"Who  knows  whether  at  this  time  of  persecution  and  exile 
when  we  are  far  from  the  worldly  hope,  God  may  call  us  near 
as  he  called  our  fathers  to  be  preachers  to  the  Eastern  world? 
"I  beg  to  remain,  Sir, 

"Yours  respectfully, 

"Kasha  Keena." 

Indeed,  who  knows? 

S.  S.  Constantinople, 

Ionian  Sea,  May  1,  1922. 


484 


10.     THE  EDUCATIONAL  WORK 

1.  Extent.  At  the  time  of  our  visit  there  were  in  the  East 
Persia  Mission  four  High  Schools  with  lower  departments, 
one  for  boys  and  one  for  girls  in  each  of  the  two  older  sta- 
tions, Teheran  and  Hamadan.  In  addition  there  were  a  day 
school  of  lower  grade  for  boys  in  Doulatabad,  a  school  in  the 
Kurdish  orphanage  in  Kermanshah,  and  two  schools  for  the 
Assyrian  refugees  in  Hamadan,  one  an  elementary  school  in 
the  orphanage  and  the  other  a  graded  school  efficiently  organ- 
ized and  administered  by  Rabi  Ester,  one  of  the  teachers  in 
Fiske  Seminary.  Not  counting  the  Assyrian  school  there  was 
a  total  enrollment  in  the  East  Persia  Mission  schools  of  1,403, 
870  boys  and  530  girls.  The  Teheran  Boys'  School  and  the 
Hamadan  Girls'  School  had  boarding  departments.  The  total 
tuition  receipts  in  East  Persia  in  the  schools  were  tomans 
10,907  and  in  the  boarding  departments  tomans  21,159,  a 
total  of  tomans  32,066,  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this 
amount  paid  on  the  field  toward  the  support  of  the  schools 
exceeds  by  many  thousands  of  tomans  the  total  appropriations 
of  the  Board  to  the  East  Persia  Mission  for  all  its  native 
work.  The  total  appropriations  of  the  Board  for  educational 
work  in  the  East  Persia  Mission  were  in  native  currency 
tomans  7,291  and  for  West  Persia  tomans  18,060. 

The  following  table  shows  the  educational  work  of  the  West 
Persia  Mission  at  the  time  of  our  visit. 


EDUCATIONAL  WORK  LOCATED  IN  WEST  PERSIA,  APRIL  15,   1922 

Xot  incluiling  W.   P.  Work  done  in  K.   Persia  or  Bagdad  area. 


<b% 


II.     Teachers 


'^)    National       p„^,°'ig„ 


.slS 


Memorial   and 
Theological    School 

Girls'    School    

Kheaban    Girls'    School... 
Armenian   and   Syrian 
Girls'    School    (Refugee) 

Armenian     Boys"     School 
(Refugee)      

Syrian  Boys'  School 

(Refugee)    

Armenian    School    

7    Armenian    Schools 

Totals Schools    14 

*  Records  not  complete 
t  Not  full  time 


Tabriz    . . 

Tabriz  . . 
Tabriz  .  . 
Tabriz    . . 

TalirU    .  . 

Tabriz 

Maragha 
Karadagh 


Kindergarten 
to    XII    Class 
Theological  CI. 
Kindergarten 
to    IX.     Class 
I-IV   Cla.S3.... 

Kindergarten 
to   IV  Class. . . 

I-IV    Classes. . 

I-IV  Classes. . 
I-IV  Classes. . 
l-rv  Classes. . 


373  335 

340  340 

219  175 

250  250 

210  210 


217  156 

340 1 

219 
250 
210 


225S|2085H526|422|   296|   5|   197|     15|     C9|46|12|15|     39|     17| 


Submitted    on    behalf    of    Kd.     Com.. 

485 


B.    S.    GIFFORD 


All  the  efficient  and  fruitful  educational  work  of  the  Urumia 
station  both  in  the  Urumia  plain  and  in  the  Turkish  mountains 
had  been  wiped  out  during  the  war,  but  the  strong  desire  of 
the  people  for  education  and  the  effort  of  the  Mission  to  help 
them  are  represented  in  the  refugee  schools  which  have  been 
mentioned  in  Hamadan  and  are  indicated  in  the  above  table 
at  Tabriz.  In  addition  there  was  a  school  for  Assyrian  chil- 
dren at  Bagdad  under  the  care  of  Mrs.  McDowell  and  Miss 
Lamme.  It  was  anticipated  that  this  school,  however,  would 
be  merged  in  the  Hamadan  schools  upon  the  removal  of  the 
refugees.  None  of  these  refugee  schools  were  a  charge  upon 
Relief  funds.  In  the  Caucasus  and  Constantinople  and  other 
portions  of  the  field  of  the  Near  East  Relief  schools  for  the 
refugees,  and  especially  the  orphan  children,  have  been  main- 
tained from  Relief  funds.  This  seems  to  me  to  be  a  legitimate 
and  necessary  charge  upon  such  funds.  It  would  be  wrong 
to  save  the  lives  of  these  children  and  to  allow  them  to  grow 
up  in  ignorance  and  helplessness.  In  Persia,  however,  our 
Missions  have  used  all  the  Relief  money  which  they  have  been 
called  upon  to  administer  in  actual  Relief  work  and  have  sup- 
ported all  schools  and  religious  work  among  the  refugees  with 
Mission  funds. 

The  statistical  facts  with  regard  to  our  educational  work 
in  Persia  twenty-five  years  ago  and  now  are  set  forth  in  the 
following  table : 

c,  1.     ,  Tj       J  T~>       Ti       1        Total  Cost  of  School 

Schools  Boarders  Day  Pupils      .     ^,      ^.        ,        ,     ^ 

•^   ^    to  the  Board,  Col.  C 

1896  1921  1896  1921  1896  1921-22 

Tabriz  Boys' 25  .  .  70  400   Ts.  1,118  4,751 

Tabriz  Girls' 25  ..  55  301  1,792  2,928 

Teheran  Boys'  ....  82  80  590  1,300  2,000 

Teheran  Girls'  .  .  40  .  .  17  334  1,550  2,000 

Hamadan  Boys'..   8  ..  73  235  724  480 

Hamadan  Girls'.   35  11  60  151  637  1,642 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  boarding  departments  in  all  the 
schools  where  they  have  been  closed,  may  soon  be  reopened 
as  the  Missions  plan. 

2.  Influence  and  Results.  From  the  moment  when  we 
presented  our  passports  before  sunrise  in  an  old  army  tent 
at  Quizil  Robat  for  endorsement  by  an  Irak  official,  who  was 
a  product  of  the  Urumia  schools,  to  the  last  hour  of  our  stay 
in  Persia  when  an  old  student  of  the  Teheran  Boys'  School, 
now  head  of  the  Persian  customs  at  Julfa,  insisted  on  our 
taking  lunch  with  him  before  crossing  the  Aras  river  into 

486 


the  Caucasus,  we  were  in  almost  constant  touch  with  the  fruit- 
age of  our  Mission  schools  in  Persia.  When  snowbound  at 
Kasvin  an  old  Teheran  school  boy  in  charge  of  the  telegraph 
office  was  our  friend  and  helper  and  supplied  us  with  English 
books  from  his  little  library.  The  Persian  Secretary  and 
Interpreter  of  the  American  Legation,  esteemed  both  for 
ability  and  for  character,  was  a  graduate  of  Teheran.  At 
Zenjan  another  old  student  who  was  in  charge  of  the  Indo- 
European  Telegraph  office  entertained  us  as  his  guests  and 
facilitated  our  journey  in  every  way.  Illustrations  of  this 
kind  we  could  multiply  indefinitely.  Whether  in  the  lega- 
tions, the  banks,  the  telegraph  offices,  the  service  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, in  business  or  medicine  or  education  or  in  the  evan- 
gelistic work  of  the  churches  and  of  the  Missions  we  met 
the  old  students  everywhere.  The  two  most  responsible  men 
in  handling  the  finances  of  the  province  of  Azerbaijan  whom 
Moslem  influence  had  tried  to  dislodge  because  they  were 
Christians,  but  whom  the  Persian  government  has  steadfastly^ 
supported  are  old  students  of  the  Teheran  and  Tabriz  schools. 
Mr.  Gifford  gave  me  the  following  statement  regarding  some 
of  the  results  of  the  Memorial  school  for  boys  in  Tabriz : 

"It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  many  of  the  valuable  records 
of  the  school  have  either  been  misplaced  or  lost  during  the 
past  few  years  of  disturbance  in  West  Persia.  Necessarily 
the  statements  relative  to  the  number  of  graduates,  etc.,  is 
incomplete  but  is  fairly  accurate  concerning  students  men- 
tioned. 

"Since  1887  there  have  been  approximately  75  graduates 
from  the  Common  and  High  School  Courses.  During  part 
of  this  time  there  was  only  a  common  school  course.  There 
is  no  attempt  made  to  register  those  who  have  dropped  out 
before  the  actual  completion  of  their  course,  although  these 
are  quite  large  numerically.  There  were  four  students  gradu- 
ated before  1887  who  had  had  special  training  in  the  Bible, 
and  of  these  two  became  preachers. 

"Of  these  79  students  just  mentioned  21  are  now  dead. 
Eleven  of  these  were  either  murdered  or  killed  or  died  as  a 
direct  result  of  disturbances  during  past  eight  years.  Some 
were  murdered  by  Kurds  and  Turks — one  killed  in  action 
against  Kurds.  Some  died  from  hunger  and  fatigue.  Amongst 
those  killed  by  Kurds  and  Turks  were  four  former  graduates 
in  Khoi ;  these  included  Br.  Stephan  Haritunian,  our  faithful 
evangelist,  who  was  cruelly  murdered  (we  understand)  by 
the  Kurds. 

"There  are  now  in  America  four  former  graduates  complet- 

487 


ing  courses  of  study  in  colleges  and  universities.  Seven  gradu- 
ates have  settled  in  the  United  States:  one  a  dentist,  one  an 
electrical  engineer,  one  a  doctor  and  captain  in  the  Army, 
one  a  manager  of  a  large  business,  one  a  preacher,  the  others 
seem  to  be  in  school  work.  Four  or  five  students  are  in  Eng- 
land and  Europe. 

"Graduates  of  the  school  are  in  the  departments  of  finance 
and  customs,  police  and  military  departments  and  bureaus. 
There  are  a  number  of  men  in  the  business  world,  some  in 
the  Imperial  Bank  of  Persia,  some  in  independent  business. 
There  are  some  former  students  who  did  not  quite  finish  their 
courses  who  occupy  positions  of  responsibility.  It  is  no  exag- 
geration to  say  that  the  Memorial  School  men  are  highly 
thought  of  for  their  character  and  ability.  Br.  Hampartsum 
Dserunian,  an  ordained  man,  is  now  head  Armenian  teacher 
in  the  school  and  is  assisted  by  Br.  Marcos,  a  man  of  warm 
evangelistic  faith.  Two  sons  of  Dr.  Hampartsum  are  teach- 
ing in  the  school.  One  of  our  best  Persian  teachers  is  Mirza 
Ali  Askyar,  whose  character  and  ability  is  recognized  by 
many  outside  of  the  school. 

"The  present  student  body,  composed  of  about  102  Persians, 
33  Syrians  and  294  Armenians  comes  from  all  ranks  of 
society,  including  some  refugees  to  sons  of  Governors.  Two 
Governor's  sons  are  in  our  dormitory  as  well  as  the  grand- 
son of  the  Amir-i-Toman  of  Ardebil.  About  40%  of  the 
Moslem  students  now  come  from  the  best  homes  in  the  city, 
and  a  few  come  from  outside  of  the  city, — Urumia  and  Sain- 
Kala  are  represented.  Twenty-five  years  ago  there  was  not 
a  Persian  in  the  school,  and  when  the  Bible  was  first  taught 
the  Book  could  not  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  pupils.  Now 
every  class  has  some  systematic  Bible  study!  Among  our 
students  this  year  are  two  boys  from  a  prominent  family  which 
was  bitterly  opposed  to  us  three  years  ago!  The  bitterness 
of  the  past  years  seems  to  be  passing  away.  Several  Mos- 
lem pupils  are  showing  a  lively  interest  in  Christian  teach- 
ings, and  at  least  one  is  reckoned  as  a  convert.  We  have 
hopes  of  our  Theological  Class  arousing  new  ambitions  for 
Christ  in  the  minds  of  the  students." 

Mrs.  Boyce  has  prepared  a  statement  regarding  the  gradu- 
ates of  the  Iran  Bethel  School  for  girls  in  Teheran.  The  list 
shows  eighty-four  graduates  of  whom  fifty-four  were  Arme- 
nians, twenty-five  Persians,  four  Jews,  and  one  German.  About 
half  the  graduates  are  married;  twenty-two  are  teaching; 
two  are  nurses ;  one  who  is  married  has  a  girls'  school  of  her 
own  in  Kurdistan;  two  came  to  America  to  study  medicine; 

488 


four  are  in  the  government  educational  service,  one  as  in- 
spector of  girls'  schools. 

The  schools  have  been  one  of  the  most  fruitful  agencies  in 
recruiting  for  the  Church.  In  an  article  written  in  1915  Miss 
Annie  Montgomery,  for  many  years  in  charge  of  the  Faith 
Hubbard  School  for  girls  in  Hamadan,  w^rote: 

"Thirty-three  years  after  Faith  Hubbard  School  was 
founded  in  Hamadan,  255  members  had  been  received  into 
St.  Stephen's  Church.  Of  these,  113  were  girls,  pupils  from 
F.  H.  S.  and  of  the  34  boys  received  from  the  Boys'  School, 
22  had  first  been  pupils  in  F.  H.  S.  Besides  these,  of  the  mem- 
bers received  into  Peniel  Church,  after  it  was  established  a 
separate  institution,  ten  were  pupils  from  F.  H.  S.  Of  the 
284  baptisms  in  St.  Stephen's  up  to  the  same  time,  108  were 
children  of  those  who  had  been  pupils  in  the  school  and  four 
others  were  pupils  baptized  as  adults  who  took  their  letters 
to  Peniel." 

The  schools  have  been  one  of  the  most  potent  agencies  of 
the  Missions  in  breaking  down  prejudice  and   winning  the 
good  will  of  the  Moslem  people.    In  Hamadan  one-fifth  of  the 
girls  and  one-half  of  the  boys  in  the  two  schools  are  now 
from  Mohammedan  homes,  in  Teheran  one-half  of  the  girls 
and  two-thirds  of  the  boys,  and  in  Tabriz  one-third  of  the 
girls  and  one-fourth  of  the  boys.    One-fifth  of  the  boys  in  the 
Teheran  Boys'  High  School  are  the  sons  of  government  offi- 
cials.   Among  the  fathers  of  sons  in  the  school  are  two  former 
prime  ministers,  the  chiefs  of  the  Bakhtiari  tribe,  governors, 
army  officers,  and  members  of  the  Parliament  and  the  Cabinet. 
Last  year  in  the  group  of  about  70  boys  living  in  the  one  dor- 
mitory there  were  two  brothers  of  the  Prime  Minister,  the 
son  of  the  Prime  Minister  who  had  just  gone  out  of  office, 
six  grandsons  of  the  three  most  noted  and  efficient  Prime 
Ministers  who  have  ruled  Persia  in  the  past-  50  years  and 
who  together  ruled  the  country  more  than  thirty  years.     A 
first  cousin  of  the  Shah  has  graduated  from  this  school  and 
there  are  now  several  more  of  his  first  cousins  studying  in  it. 
Every  year  scores,  if  not  hundreds,  of  Mohammedan  boys 
who  are  ready  to  pay  double  the  tuition  charges  of  any  other 
school  in  Persia  are  turned  away  because  of  lack  of  room. 
The  Boarding  Department  has  always  been   operated  at  a 
profit.     Nine  wealthy  boys  are  charged  enough  to  support 
ten  and  in  addition  pay  a  fair  rental  for  the  dormitory.     In 
this  way  the  school  has  helped  and  is  helping  a  number  of 
especially  promising  poor  boys  through  school.     Last  year 
this  one  school  collected  from  the  pupils  fees  totaling  26,916 

489 


tomans — which  is  more  than  the  total  amount  spent  by  the 
Board  in  the  whole  East  Persia  Mission  excepting  missionary 
salaries. 

In  a  paper  on  "Education  in  West  Persia"  presented  at 
our  conference  in  Tabriz  Mr.  Gifford  wrote: 

"There  would  be  more  students  in  our  mission  schools  if 
we  had  both  funds  and  missionary  force  as  well  as  trained 
and  trusted  national  Christian  teachers  with  which  to  found 
and  maintain  schools  in  other  centers  in  Tabriz  and  in  the 
outfield.  The  Amirghiz  District  has  had  those  who  are  anxious 
for  a  school  for  girls  to  be  established  there — a  district  that 
has  always  been  most  fanatical.  The  Kheaban  Section  of 
the  city  has  had  those  who  now  want  one  or  two  schools 
established  for  Moslem  boys;  Davachi  and  Magsoudia  have 
made  similar  requests.  A  request  has  come  from  the  Gara- 
dagh  region  and  regions  around  Marand  and  Sofian,  a  request 
from  the  Moslems  of  Khoi,  a  request  for  a  girls'  school  among 
the  Moslems  of  Maragha,  a  direct  request  through  the  Sayid- 
ul-Vizara  of  Kukargan,  brother-in-law  of  Ibrahim  Sardar-e- 
Fateh,  for  the  establishment  of  one  of  our  schools  there." 

In  many  places  we  heard  from  Mohammedans  expressions 
of  their  approval  of  the  Mission  schools  and  their  desire  to 
have  new  schools  established.  And  this  favorable  sentiment 
has  not  yet  been  purchased  by  the  Mission  through  any  ad- 
justments, beyond  the  closing  of  the  schools  on  Friday  as 
well  as  Sunday,  or  by  any  sacrifice  of  religious  teaching.  In 
one  or  two  instances  government  officials  have  endeavored  in 
a  somewhat  perfunctory  way  to  have  the  Bible  teaching  and 
chapel  attendance  given  up  or  made  optional  to  the  students. 
Recently  a  Tabriz  illustrated  paper  entitled  "Mollah  Nasr-ud- 
din"  published  a  cartoon  showing  a  stone  doorway  with  the 
word  "Chapel"  over  it,  into  which  two  fierce  school  teachers 
were  driving  .with  rods  a  terrified  company  of  school  boys. 
The  cartoon  was  accompanied  by  an  article  entitled  "The 
Mission,"  which  said: 

"There  are  yet  many  remains  of  tyranny  in  Persia  and 
one  of  them  is  the  Mission.  .  .  .  Let  us  suppose  we  are  lib- 
erals. For  this  reason  we  are  justified  in  asserting  that 
Mohammedans  should  have  the  right  to  preach  their  religion 
in  America  and  Japan  and  that  the  Christians  may  preach 
theirs  openly  in  our  free  country.  But  the  point  is  here,  the 
'  Christian  Mission  in  Persia  is  formed  under  the  obligations 
of  the  capitulations,  and  it  is  from  this  source  that  the  Per- 
sian Government  has  come  to  many  difficulties,  and  does  not 
have  the  money  to  stop  them.  .   .   .  We  are  a  weak  nation,  we 

490 


may  expect  every  kind  of  help  from  a  great  country  like 
America,  for  which  we  should  express  our  sincere  gratitude. 
Within  these  past  few  years  great  help  has  come  to  our  poor 
and  therefore  we  boast  that  there  exists  such  a  nation  on 
the  globe,  but  .  .  .  what  a  great  pity  that  America,  being 
the  center  of  all  kinds  of  arts  and  science,  instead  of  sending 
us  experts  to  help  us,  sends  gifts  of  long-dressed  and  long- 
bearded  missionaries.  But  they,  too,  for  the  sake  of  liberality 
and  the  present  conditions  of  the  world  must  consider  this 
and  stop  their  spiritual  tyranny  and  leave  off  their  religious 
preaching.  They  are  not  compelled  to  register  the  non- 
Christian  boys  in  their  schools,  but  if  they  do  not  wish  to 
leave  the  poor  illiterate,  as  they  always  have  pity  on  them, 
they  must  not  insist  upon  a  boy  of  seven  or  eight  years  being 
required  to  study  all  of  the  Christian  lessons  and  accept  their 
way  of  worshipping.  How  can  it  be  right  to  make  a  Moham- 
medan child  forget  the  religion  of  his  ancestors?  Shall  his 
brain  be  filled  with  the  lessons  of  Jesus  and  the  Bible?  Shall 
he  be  compelled  to  go  to  their  churches?  Ridiculous.  Does 
America,  a  country  of  light,  think  it  is  wise  to  do  this?  There 
has  never  been  such  force  used  as  that  which  is  being  exerted 
now  by  the  Mission  in  Persia." 

This  article  is  significant  for  its  impotence,  its  ignorance, 
and  its  understanding.  It  caused  not  the  slightest  opposition, 
but  served  only  to  advertise  widely  the  school,  which  the  Per- 
sians themselves  recognize  and  esteem  as  the  best  school  in 
Azerbaijan,  to  which  they  desire  to  commit  the  education 
and  moral  training  of  their  boys.  No  doubt  they  would  prefer 
in  some  cases^not  to  have  the  Bible  taught,  but  yet  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  Bible  is  commended  by  the  Koran  itself,  and  the 
moral  ideals  which  the  Bible  teaching  carries  are  the  very 
ideals  which  Persian  fathers  want  set  before  their  sons.  The 
article  was  ignorant  because  it  implied  that  the  boys  were 
compelled  to  go  to  churches  which  they  are  not.  And  the 
character  of  the  schools  is  made  perfectly  plain  to  parents 
when  they  send  their  sons  and  daughters,  and  it  is  clearly 
understood  that  if  they  are  not  willing  to  have  their  children 
attend  the  Bible  classes  and  services  they  must  not  leave 
them  in  the  school.  The  chief  value  of  the  article  in  "Mollah 
Nasr-ud-din"  is  in  its  clear  recognition  of  the  power  which 
the  schools  are  wielding  as  a  direct  Christian  force.  "Our 
two  schools  in  Tabriz,"  wrote  Mr.  Gifford  in  his  paper,  "have 
a  total  attendance  of  some  eight  hundred  (800)  pupils.  All 
of  these  are  brought  into  daily  contact  with  the  plain  teach- 
ings of  the  Bible  and  meet  once  a  day  in  a  chapel  service  of 

491 


song,  prayer,  Scripture  reading  and  exposition.  There  have 
been  special  services  in  the  schools  at  the  time  of  the  Week 
of  Prayer.  Each  class  in  the  Memorial  school,  from  the  third 
to  the  twelfth,  has  been  spoken  with  separately  during  the 
last  few  weeks  of  special  meetings  in  the  church  with  the 
object  of  laying  before  the  pupils  the  need  of  making  the 
decision  of  surrendering  their  lives  to  God.  Chapel  services 
in  both  schools  have  given  the  pupils  the  opportunity  of  hear- 
ing many  outside  the  school  force.  But  the  main  opportunity 
for  evangelistic  work  is  found  in  the  atmosphere  of  daily  Bible 
classes  and  in  personal  conversations  with  the  pupils  them- 
selves. .  .  .  The  results  of  the  education  of  our  schools  are 
seen  in  the  creation  of  an  atmosphere  in  which  it  is  possible 
for  the  church  to  live  and  grow,  in  the  production  among  the . 
influential  classes  of  a  feeling  more  friendly  to  Christianity, 
in  the  exhibition  of  the  relation  of  Christianity  to  learning, 
progress  and  the  higher  life  of  men.  in  the  promotion  of  re- 
ligious toleration,  and  in  the  establishment  of  a  new  spiritual 
basis  for  the  life  of  society  in  the  place  of  old  foundations 
which  are  passing  away.  In  all  these  ways  and  probably 
others  our  Christian  education  tends  both  to  the  elevation  of 
the  life  of  a  nation  and  to  preparation  for  its  ultimate  accept- 
ance of  Christianity.  A  year  ago  this  fall  Miss  Beaber  was 
requested  by  the  Alam  ul  Mulk,  the  government  director  of 
education,  to  train  teachers  for  Persian  schools ;  last  fall  re- 
quests came  to  our  Boys'  School  for  teachers  to  teach  in  Per- 
sian schools." 

3.  Aim  and  Policy.  The  aim  of  missionary  education  is 
a  theme  of  unceasing  interest.  The  Post  War  Conference  at 
Princeton  found  more  difficulty  in  devising  a  satisfactory 
statement  on  this  subject  than  on  any  other,  and  everywhere 
we  found  even  that  admirable  statement  undergoing  discus- 
sion and  rearrangement  of  emphasis.  No  subject  was  of 
greater  concern  and  drew  out  more  diverse  points  of  view  or 
different  judgments  of  proportion  and  balance  in  the  discus- 
sions on  the  "Empress  of  Asia"  held  by  the  Commission 
going  out  to  study  missionary  education  in  China.  There 
is  a  sufficiently  full  discussion  of  the  subject  in  the  Post  War 
Conference  report,  and  our  own  convictions  are  set  forth 
adequately  in  the  Reports  on  Persia  and  China  presented  to 
the  Board  in  1896  and  in  the  Report  on  the  Philippine  Islands 
and  Siam,  presented  in  1915. 

As  to  educational  program  the  East  Persia  Mission  at  its 
last  annual  meeting  adopted  the  following  recommendations 
of  its   standing  committee  on   education:     "We  recommend 

492 


(1)  the  adoption  of  the  policy  that  the  opening  of  schools 
for  the  education  of  converts  and  the  children  of  converts  take 
precedence  over  the  establishment  of  schools  for  non-Chris- 
tians; (2)  that  our  educational  undertakings  be  in  the  fol- 
lovv^ing  order:  (a)  providing  foi-  the  present  needs  of  the 
school  for  converts  and  the  children  of  converts  in  Kerman- 
shah,  (b)  establishing  of  a  school  for  the  children  of  converts 
in  Meshed  if  conditions  warrant,  (c)  reopening  of  the  schools 
in  Resht,  (d)  the  establishing  of  a  school  for  non-Christians 
in  Kermanshah,  (e)  the  establishing  of  a  school  for  non- 
Christians  in  Meshed." 

As  to  the  program  of  the  West  Persia  Mission,  Mr.  Gifford 
wrote  in  his  paper : 

"In  missionary  education  in  West  Persia  it  may  be  stated 
that  we  are  generally  agreed  upon  the  following  points : 

"First:  The  maintenance  in  Tabriz  of  a  Girls'  School  and 
a  Boys'  School  of  such  standards  educationally  as  to  command 
the  respect  of  Christians  and  Persians,  and  preserve  to  the 
Mission  the  opportunities  now  offered  the  schools  for  Chris- 
tian influence. 

"Second:  These  schools  should  be  awake  to  the  needs  of 
the  community  in  which  they  are  placed.  They  should  be 
not  only  the  schools  to  which  village  schools  or  schools  estab- 
lished in  other  centers  of  the  city  may  feed,  but  in  themselves 
should  endeavor  to  turn  out  students  fitted  for  some  position 
in  life.  Above  all  they  should  plan  to  incorporate  in  their 
courses  of  instruction  such  subjects  and  departments  as  will 
raise  up  primary,  elementary  and  possibly  secondary  school 
teachers,  and  provide  training  for  Bible  teachers  and  workers 
and  evangelists  as  well  as  preachers  of  the  Gospel  to  be  or- 
dained to  the  Gospel  ministry.  As  concerns  girls  the  courses 
should  be  adjusted  so  that  they  may  be  trained  to  become 
good  mothers  and  home  makers. 

"Third :  The  amount  of  money  and  personnel  now  assigned 
to  educational  work  should  not  be  decreased. 

"Fourth :  That  it  is  well  to  staff  these  institutions  adequately, 
for  as  the  Report  on  Education  of  the  Edinburgh  Conference 
states,  'this  is  essential,  not  only  for  the  sake  of  educational 
efficiency,  but  also  for  the  attainment  of  the  ultimate  aim  of 
missionary  work.  .  .  .  If  a  college  or  school  is  to  be  main- 
tained at  all,  it  should  be  equipped  and  staffed  in  such  a  way 
that  it  can  reach  the  highest  standard  educationally,  and  the 
number  of  Christian  teachers  should  be  sufficient  to  leave 
them  leisure  to  come  into  intimate  personal  relations  with 

493 


the  students  and  exert  a   direct  missionary  influence   upon 
them.'  " 

As  a  result  of  our  conferences  and  observations  we  would 
supplement  these  statements  on  several  points. 

(1)  It  is  clear  to  us  that  the  school  work  of  the  Kurdish 
orphanage  should  be  maintained  and  strengthened  and  that 
there  should  be  a  good  mission  school  for  boys  in  Kermanshah, 
It  ought  not  to  require  the  time  of  more  than  one  missionary. 
Perhaps  the  part  time  of  a  missionary  would  sufRce  if  a  good 
staff  of  Christian  teachers  could  be  secured.  Very  probably 
the  older  Kurdish  boys  could  be  best  taught  in  such  a  strong 
boys'  school  as  ought  to  be  developed.  In  due  time  there 
should  be  a  girls'  school  also  conducted  preferably,  if  possible, 
by  capable  native  Christian  teachers,  and  the  older  Kurdish 
girls  might  ultimately  perhaps  be  provided  for  in  such  a 
school.  The  orphanage  and  its  school  meanwhile,  it  seemed 
to  us,  might  well  be  made  the  base  of  educational  work  for 
other  Kurdish  boys  and  girls  than  orphans,  if  they  can  be 
brought  in.  As  to  the  orphanage  the  Mission  decided,  it 
seemed  wisely,  to  transfer  the  Assyrian  children  to  Hamadan. 
It  did  not  appear  to  us  that  it  would  be  a  wise  policy  to  absorb 
missionary  strength  in  building  up  a  large  orphanage  in  Ker- 
manshah. There  ought  to  be  an  educational  work  for  the 
Kurds,  but  it  ought  not  to  be  limited  to  an  orphanage  work, 
nor  should  it  take  its  character  from  an  orphanage  institution. 
And  whatever  orphanage  or  educational  work  should  be  pro- 
jected should  be  conducted  as  an  integral  part  of  the  work 
of  the  Mission  on  the  same  financial  basis  as  the  other  agen- 
cies of  the  Mission  and  not  subject  to  the  hazards  of  an 
institution  individualistically  developed  and  supported. 

(2)  Meshed.  Nowhere  in  the  Mission  field  did  we  meet 
a  situation  where  it  seemed  more  difficult  or  more  important 
to  decide  aright  as  to  educational  policy  than  in  Meshed.  Is 
it  wise  to  open  any  school  in  Meshed  ?  If  so,  shall  it  be'  a  school 
for  the  children  of  converts  or  for  non-Christians  or  for  both, 
or  shall  there  be  two  separate  schools,  and  if  so,  which  shall 
have  precedence?  We  do  not  know  what  answer  to  give  to 
these  questions,  and  the  station  was  in  great  doubt.  It  is 
a  purely  Moslem  work  which  is  going  on  in  Meshed.  Thus  far 
it  has  developed  wisely  and  fruitfully.  In  due  time  the  Chris- 
tian community  must,  of  course,  be  educated,  but  it  could 
not  at  the  present  time  afford  a  school  of  its  own,  and  the 
establishment  of  such  a  school  for  Christians  by  the  Mission 
might  militate  against  the  maintenance  of  the  principle  of 
independence  and  self-support  in  the  Christian  community. 

494 


To  establish  a  school  for  Moslems  might  interfere  with  the 
supremacy  and  success  of  the  method  of  direct  evangelism 
which  the  station  has  thus  far  used,  and  while  it  might  be 
an  agency  of  conciliation  and  good  will,  as  such  schools  have 
been  elsewhere,  it  might  also,  although  improbably,  arouse 
opposition  which  is  at  present  dormant.  The  little  group 
at  Meshed  is  feeling  its  way  prayerfully,  and  we  approve 
of  its  request  for  the  appointment  of  an  ordained  man  who 
is  also  an  educationalist  who  will  study  the  problem  with  the 
station  and  be  prepared  to  recommend  and  develop  a  wise 
educational  program  or  to  devote  himself  to  evangelistic  work 
if  it  seems  best  to  postpone  a  little  longer  the  establishment 
of  schools. 

(3)  The  Resht  station  which  was  closed  and  scattered  at 
the  time  of  the  Bolshevist  occupation  in  1920  was  reopened 
the  fall  of  1921  and  is  now  in  a  position  to  re-establish  its 
boys'  school.  This  will  be  done  without  delay.  In  due  time 
when  the  Mission  has  been  adequately  re-enforced  the  girls' 
school  also  should  be  reopened.  It  would  seem  that  both  of 
these  schools  should  some  day  have  boarding  departments  in 
order  that  they  might  bring  their  influence  to  bear  upon  the 
scattered  population  of  the  Resht  field.  Such  a  development 
should  be  based,  however,  on  reality  and  upon  the  result  of 
actual  need  brought  to  light  by  a  more  adequate  evangelistic 
visitation  of  the  entire  Resht  field. 

(4)  The  Woman's  Board  has  set  aside  from  the  Sage  be- 
quest the  sum  of  $200,000  for  the  establishment  of  a  Women's 
College  in  Persia.  This  was  one  of  the  dreams  of  Miss  Annie 
Montgomery,  whom  Mrs.  Sage  supported  for  many  years 
through  the  New  York  Women's  Board  as  her  own  missionary, 
and  which  Miss  Montgomery  urged  upon  Mrs.  Sage.  The 
obvious  location  of  such  a  college  in  Persia  is  Teheran,  and 
we  were  requested  by  the  Women's  Board  to  take  up  with 
the  missionaries  in  Teheran  the  plans  and  prospects  of  such 
an  institution.  It  is  clear  that  the  immediate  establishment 
of  such  a  college  is  not  practicable.  It  is  equally  clear  that 
in  due  time  such  a  college  is  indispensable  and  that  the  higher 
education  of  women  will  need  to  be  provided  for  and  should 
be  provided  for  first  and  best  by  the  Christian  Church.  It  is 
clear,  also,  that  the  present  Girls'  School  in  Teheran  is  the 
right  base  upon  which  the  Women's  College  should  be  built. 
The  two  practical  questions  which  we  considered  were,  first, 
what  the  Girls'  School  should  now  be  doing  in  preparation 
for  the  future  establishment  of  the  college,  and,  second,  the 
question  of  land.     After  a  full  discussion  of  these  questions 

496 


before  we  went  to  Meshed  the  station  appointed  a  committee 
to  draw  up  a  plan  to  consider  after  our  return.  The  report 
of  the  committee  which  was  later  approved  by  the  station  was 
as  follows : 

"We  are  glad  that  sometime  it  will  be  possible  to  have  a 
College  for  Women  in  Persia;  glad  there  are  indications  of 
a  demand  for  it  by  the  women  of  Persia  and  glad  that  money 
has  been  set  aside  for  this  purpose,  although  we  do  not  believe 
the  present  educational  situation  warrants  starting  college 
work  for  women  in  the  immediate  future.  We  believe,  also, 
that  before  such  work  is  undertaken  the  present  school  should 
be  strengthened  and  expanded  and  that  in  this  strengthening 
and  expanding  we  can  use  to  advantage  some  of  the  interest 
of  the  Sage  Legacy.  Therefore  we  make  the  following  re- 
quests : 

"a.  Annual  appropriation  of  not  more  than  $700  from 
the  interest  of  the  Sage  Legacy  to  CQver  current  expenses 
of  the  school  not  covered  by  the  regular  appropriation  of  the 
Board  nor  by  receipts  on  the  field.  Note — The  reason  for 
this  request  is  evident  in  the  deficit  of  the  last  two  years,  a 
deficit  due  to  increased  salaries  which  we  felt  to  be  only 
just  and  reasonable  because  of  length  of  service  and  the  in- 
creased cost  of  living.  It  would  be  understood  that  this  sum 
is  untransferable. 

"b.  We  believe  that  a  boarding  department  is  the  most 
important  step  in  expansion.  We  hope  to  get  permission  from 
the  Mission  to  open  a  boarding  school  in  the  fall  of  1923,  at 
which  time  we  expect  to  ask  for  funds  from  the  interest  of 
the  Sage  Legacy  for  equipment  (possibly  $1,000). 

"c.  Household  Economics.  We  are  requesting  the  Board 
to  send  as  the  fourth  Lady  for  Iran  Bethel  a  specialist  in 
household  economics.  After  she  has  studied  the  situation 
here  we  expect  to  ask  for  funds  from  the  interest  of  the  Sage 
Legacy  for  equipment. 

"d.  College  Site.  There  are  two  adjoining  pieces  of  prop- 
erty in  the  northwest  section  of  the  city,  opposite  the  west 
end  of  the  Russian  Legation,  near  the  French  Legation,  and 
on  the  way  from  the  central  premises  to  the  Boys'  College 
that  can  be  bought  on  the  following  terms:  one  a  corner  lot 
of  3  acres  or  11,800  sq.  zars  at  14  or  15  krans  per  sq.  zar. 
The  second  is  north  of  this  and  has  5  acres  or  18,000  sq.  zars 
at  7.50  krans  per  sq.  zar.  The  total  cost  would  be  about 
30,000  tomans  or  at  the  present  rate  of  exchange  about 
$25,000.  From  every  point  of  view  this  is  a  very  desirable 
location  and  we  are  expecting  to  ask  the  Committee  on  Higher 

496 


Education  for  Women  and  the  Mission  to  approve  this  pur- 
chase, after  which  we  shall  make  formal  request  to  the  Board. 
If  we  get  this  property  a  wall  should  be  built  at  once.  686 
zars  of  wall  will  be  necessary,  which  at  a  cost  of  4  tomans 
per  zar  would  require  2,744  tomans  or  at  the  present  rate  of 
exchange  about  $2,287.  If  in  the  judgment  of  those  familiar 
with  college  plants  in  the  East  this  is  not  sufficient  land,  there 
is  another  piece  lying  directly  west  of  these  and  separated 
by  a  small  street,  that  contains  20,000  sq.  zars  and  the  price 
is  10  krans  each  for  13,600  sq.  zars  and  7  or  8  krans  each  for 
the  remaining  7,000  sq.  zars. 

"e.  If  these  approximate  sums  of  $25,000  for  the  property 
and  $2,287  for  the  wall  are  taken  from  the  principal  of  the 
Sage  Legacy  we  request  the  Board  to  hold  the  balance,  minus 
the  amounts  asked  for  in  paragraphs  1,  2  and  3,  and  to  allow 
this  sum,  principal  and  interest,  to  accumulate  from  year  to 
year  to  provide  for  the  future  needs  of  the  College  both  for 
building  and  for  endowment." 

We  approve  of  these  requests  and  were  glad  to  receive  be- 
fore we  left  the  field  the  cablegram  authorizing  the  purchase 
of  the  property.  We  were  not  without  doubts  as  to  the  neces- 
sity of  buying  land  at  the  present  time,  but  probably  this  is 
the  wise  course,  and  the  land  which  has  been  purchased  seems 
to  be  a  very  desirable  and  appropriate  site.  It  is  a  great  thing 
that  the  Mission  is  in  a  position  to  take  the  leadership  in  the 
higher  education  of  women  in  Persia,  It  means  far  more  than 
any  one  of  us,  either  in  Persia  or  in  America,  is  able  to 
comprehend.  The  station  is  planning  to  open  a  boarding  de- 
partment in  the  Girls'  School.  It  has  the  necessary  building 
for  the  purpose  adjoining  the  school.  Such  a  department  is 
greatly  needed. 

(5)  Just  as  the  opportunity  for  the  higher  education  of 
Persian  women  should  be  provided  through  the  development 
of  the  Teheran  Girls'  School,  a  similar  opportunity  for  men 
is  to  be  provided  by  the  development  of  the  American  High 
School,  as  our  Mission  school  for  boys  in  Teheran  is  called. 
The  plans  for  this  development  were  made  long  ago,  and  a  fine 
site,  now  embracing  sixty  acres,  has  been  secured  just  outside 
the  city  gate  nearest  to  our  present  central  compound  where 
the  two  schools  and  the  church  are  located.  The  title  to  part 
of  this  property  on  which  we  have  already  built  two  residences 
and  a  dormitory  has  been  disputed.  The  question  was  to  be 
brought  to  an  issue,  and  it  was  hoped  to  a  settlement,  shortly 
after  our  visit.  The  station  had  in  hand  indisputable  evi- 
dence that  the  proceedings  were  nothing  but  blackmail.    The 

497 


school  has  been  in  actual  possession  of  the  property  for  some 
time.  Some  good  gifts  toward  the  college  project  were  re- 
ceived during  the  special  campaign  in  1916-17.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  generous  friends  will  be  found  who  will  enable 
the  Mission  to  deal  with  the  need  for  higher  education  for 
men  as  the  Sage  Bequest  has  made  possible  in  the  case  of 
women.  Meanwhile  the  Mission  should  go  forward  building 
a  staff  and  college  classes,  as  young  men  are  found  who  are 
ready  to  go  on  beyond  the  high  school  to  college  work.  It  is 
difficult  to  hold  the  students  even  through  the  full  High  School 
course,  so  strong  is  the  commercial  pressure,  but  it  cannot 
be  very  long  before  the  young  men  of  Persia  will  want  the 
work  of  at  least  junior  college  grade,  and  the  school  should 
supply  this  and  perhaps  various  courses  of  graduate  pro- 
fessional training,  certainly  at  least  in  pedagogy,  theological 
teaching,  and  business.  Dr.  Jordan,  who  was  in  America  at 
the  time  of  our  visit,  writes : 

"For  the  past  ten  years  since  the  capacity  of  the  school 
was  increased  to  360  we  have  had  an  active  enrollment  of 
about  540.  Every  year  we  have  turned  away  hundreds  for 
lack  of  room.  Every  year  we  have  refused  numerous  appli- 
cants for  the  boarding  department. 

"You  will  recall  that  the  items  which  have  been  included  in 
the  property  needs  are : 

Administration  College  Building   $80,000 

Furnishings    20,000 

One  double   dormitory    26,000 

Three   residences    24,000 


$150,000 


"We  can  expand  no  more  till  we  have  this  large  building. 
We  hope  that  it  can  be  built  in  the  summer  of  1923.  The  plans 
for  this  building  have  been  approved  by  the  station  and  the 
mission  (plans  have  been  exhibited  at  two  annual  meetings) 
and  we  have  been  authorized  to  proceed  with  buildings  as 
soon  as  funds  are  available.  As  soon  as  this  building  is  ready 
for  occupancy  we  will  move  the  junior  and  senior  high  schools 
to  it,  along  with  the  College  students,  between  300  and  400 
boys.  By  the  end  of  the  school  year  there  will  probably  be  an 
increase  of  about  100,  who  will  have  entered  the  special  pre- 
paratory class  from  the  Persian  schools.  The  places  vacated 
when  they  move  out  will  probably  be  promptly  filled  by  appli- 
cants who  otherwise  would  be  turned  away.  I  suppose  you 
know  that  the  third  day  of  school  last  September-  we  sent  out 

498 


notices  that  we  could  accept  no  more  pupils,  except  in  two 
or  three  classes. 

"The  dormitory  asked  for  would  probably  be  filled  within 
two  years  of  completion.  We  already  have  the  families  for 
the  three  residences. 

"We  think  that  within  two  years  of  completion  of  the  ad- 
ministration building  a  junior  high  school  building  to  accom- 
modate 300-400  boys  will  be  needed  as  senior  high  school  and 
college  will  fill  the  main  building.  If  American  advisers  go 
to  Persia  things  will  move  even  more  rapidly. 

"In  the  leaflet  issued  six  years  ago  you  said : 

"  *I  believe  that  no  greater  need  or  opportunity  for  a 
Christian  College  can  be  found  than  the  need  and  opportunity 
in  Teheran.  There  is  unhindered  access  to  every  element  of 
the  population.  The  Mohammedan  fathers  rich  and  poor  are 
not  only  ready  but  eager  to  have  their  sons  admitted  into  the 
institution.  The  Mission  and  the  Board  are  anxious  to  develop 
it  to  full  college  grade.  Its  Christian  character  and  influence 
are  pronounced.  Many  of  its  Mohammedan  students  have 
already  accepted  Christ  and  the  work  that  it  can  do  in  forming 
character  and  spreading  knowledge  and  supplying  leadership 
is  the  work  which  Persia  most  needs.  Having  visited  Teheran 
and  seen  the  conditions  I  endorse  this  appeal  with  earnest 
conviction.'  Why  would  it  not  be  well  to  quote  yourself  in 
your  report  with  an  added  remark  to  the  effect  that  'The  war 
test  of  the  past  six  years  has  added  emphasis  to  what  was 
then  true.'  " 

We  can  indeed  speak  now  with  new  emphasis  of  this  oppor- 
tunity and  need. 

(6)  Tabriz.  The  West  Persia  Mission  is  right  in  its  pur- 
pose to  keep  the  two  schools  in  Tabriz  in  their  present  place 
at  the  head  of  all  the  educatonal  institutions  in  Azerbaijan. 
We  agree  with  the  view  of  Mr.  Gilford  in  a  paper  on  "The 
Memorial  School,"  prepared  for  us  in  Tabriz: 

"I  am  reminded  of  one  of  the  seeming  axioms  of  Dr.  Wilson : 
'As  I  judge  the  situation  we  must  provide  a  better  education 
than  the  Persians  can  or  our  opportunity  to  teach  the  Gospel 
will  diminish  and  not  increase.'  The  moment  that  the  Memo- 
rial School  falls  behind  the  Persian  schools  in  efficiency,  that 
moment  shall  we  lose  contact  with  our  Persian  pupils.  Dr. 
Wilson  in  1906  and  1907  speaks  of  the  inspiration  he  received 
from  the  opening  up  of  numerous  schools  in  the  city.  Even 
a  cursory  survey  of  his  reports,  and  of  Mr.  Jessup's,  brings 
out  the  fact  that  our  schools — the  Memorial  and  the  Girls' 

499 


School — have  been  great  factors  in  impelling  the  Persians  to 
better  educational  standards,  and  not  only  the  Persians  but 
the  Armenians  as  well. 

"It  then  may  be  stated  that  whatever  the  educational  stand- 
ards of  the  Memorial  School  may  be  (or  for  that  matter  the 
Girls'  School)  they  must  be  higher  than  those  in  the  Persian 
schools  in  the  city.  It  is  not  necessary  at  this  time,  nor  is  it 
advisable,  to  plan  definitely  on  the  Memorial  School  becoming 
a  college.  In  a  spirit  of  co-operation  with  East  Persia,  we 
may  try  to  turn  some  of  our  graduates  to  the  American  Col- 
lege in  Teheran  although  this  is  very  doubtful:  first,  because 
of  the  distance  and  the  expense  involved;  second,  because 
the  student  who  is  ready  for  higher  education  prefers  to  go 
to  Europe  (if  not  preferably  to  America)  or  to  Robert  Col- 
lege or  to  Beirut.  It  is  encouraging  that  the  tendency  is  to- 
ward America  rather  than  Europe.  There  is  a  demand  for 
more  education  on  the  part  of  many  young  men. 

"The  Memorial  School  must  take  the  leading  place  in  Chris- 
tian education  in  Tabriz.  At  present  this  place  is  best  defined 
as  of  approximately  high  school  grade.  Time  must  decide 
the  question  of  higher  development." 

I  think  this  is  the  right  policy  for  both  the  Memorial  School 
and  the  Girls'  School,  both  of  them  admirable  institutions  of 
which  we  cannot  speak  with  too  great  praise. 

(7)  Urumia.  Whenever  the  work  in  Urumia  can  be  re- 
established, Fiske  Seminary  should  be  opened  with  a  boarding 
department  as  of  old,  and  it  should  provide  for  both  Assyrian 
and  Mohammedan  girls.  The  same  change  which  has  taken 
place  in  the  other  stations  and  which  has  brought  such  a 
large  number  of  Mohammedan  girls  into  our  schools  is  sure 
to  take  place  in  Urumia.  A  high  school  and  preparatory 
department,  with  a  boarding  department,  for  both  Moham- 
medan and  Assyrian  boys  should  also  be  re-established.  It 
cannot  now  be  determined  how  much  of  the  good  system  of 
village  day  schools  which  was  in  existence  before  the  war 
can  be  restored. 

(8)  Theological  Education.  There  is  a  very  hopeful  theo- 
logical class  in  Tabriz,  which  has  its  home  in  the  Boys'  School 
and  is  taught  by  missionaries  and  native  pastors.  It  is  com- 
posed of  two  former  Mohammedans,  one  an  ex-mollah,  and 
four  Assyrians.  All  of  the  six  are  giving  some  of  their  time 
to  teaching  in  the  mission  schools.  In  East  Persia  there  is 
no  regular  training  class,  but  Dr.  Schuler  has  a  good  plan 
for  one,  taking  the  young  men  with  him  in  itinerating  work. 

500 


And  the  plan  of  work  of  the  Meshed  station  is  giving  a  very 
efficient  practical  training  to  a  number  of  Mohammedan 
workers.  Here  as  in  every  field  it  seems  to  us  that  the  Pauline 
method  of  finding  and  preparing  young  men  for  the  service 
of  the  Church  needs  to  be  more  sedulously  studied  and  fol- 
lowed. 

4.  Some  Supplementary  Questions.  (1)  Shall  the  Koran 
be  taught  in  Mission  schools?  The  arguments  advanced  in 
favor  were  the  desirability  of  the  Mohammedan  students 
knowing  their  own  religion,  the  certainty  that  the  knowledge 
of  the  Koran  and  its  comparison  with  the  Bible  would  destroy 
its  authorit3^  the  obligation  to  Moslem  parents  incurred  in 
accepting  their  children.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  argued 
that  the  schools  are  established  to  teach  not  Mohammedanism 
but  Christianity,  that  the  Koran  could  not  honestly  be  taught , 
admiringly  or  sympathetically,  that  if  it  were  so  taught  there 
was  danger  that  to  this  extent  the  aim  of  the  school  might 
be  frustrated  and  that  if  it  was  taught  in  a  hostile  spirit,  or 
critically,  opposition  would  inevitably  result,  that  if  the  Koran 
were  introduced  there  would  no  doubt  be  a  demand  that  Mo- 
hammedan mollahs  should  be  admitted  to  teach  it,  that  all 
the  truth  there  is  in  the  Koran  is  in  the  Bible,  and  that  all 
the  strength  that  can  be  given  to  the  teaching  of  religion 
should  be  thrown  into  the  Bible  teaching  and  into  the  chapel 
exercises,  that  if  the  children  did  not  come  to  the  mission 
schools  they  would  certainly  not  be  taught  the  Koran  at  home. 
It  may  be  true,  as  almost  all  the  converts  from  Mohamme- 
danism argue,  that  the  best  way  to  destroy  faith  in  Islam  is 
to  acquaint  the  people  with  the  Koran,  but  a  still  better  way 
is  to  acquaint  them  with  Christ,  and  this  is  the  view  that  is 
held  by  all  of  our  missionaries  both  in  and  out  of  the  schools. 

(2)  Both  Missions  employ  to  a  very  limited  degree  short 
term  teachers,  and  the  Board  has  been  asked  to  assume  the 
expense  of  sending  out  and  supporting  some  of  these  teachers. 
The  arguments  for  this  type  of  worker  are  familiar,  namely, 
that  some  young  people  can  come  to  the  mission  field  for  this 
form  of  temporary  service  and  cannot  come  permanently, 
that  some  of  these  teachers  later  decide  as  a  result  of  their 
experience  to  devote  themselves  permanently  to  the  service 
who  would  never  have  done  so  but  for  the  chance  which  short 
term  service  gave  them  to  see  missionary  work  and  to  test 
their  fitness  for  it,  that  these  workers  are  able  to  give  their 
whole  time  to  the  work  of  the  school  without  language  study 
and  without  other  missionary  responsibilities,  that  they  bring 
fresh  life  into  the  school  and  can  mingle  as  older  and  regular 

501 


missionaries  cannot  in  the  student  activities,  that  they  live 
with  the  boys  as  one  of  them,  and  lastly  that  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  provide  full  missionary  salary  for  these  workers  who 
can  live  in  the  school  dormitories  and  often  share  the  student 
food,  so  that  the  plan  is  advantageous  to  the  school  finances. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  held  that  this  scheme  of  experimental 
missionary  service  substitutes  weaker  motives  for  the  old 
motives  of  missionary  duty  which  led  missionaries  to  stick 
to  hard  missionary  tasks  whether  they  liked  them  or  not,  that 
the  educational  efficiency  of  such  untrained  missionaries  is 
so  unsatisfactory  that  the  British  educational  authorities  in 
India  have  come  to  look  askance  at  such  teachers  on  the  mis- 
sionary staff,  that  there  is  no  financial  saving  in  this  plan  in- 
asmuch as  the  cost  of  travel  is  just  as  great  as  in  the  case  of 
all  unmarried  missionaries  and  comes  so  much  more  fre- 
quently that  any  small  saving  in  salary  if  such  there  be  is  more 
than  offset,  that  experience  has  shown  that  the  plan  of  getting 
these  short  term  teachers  specially  financed  by  special  gifts, 
supposedly  outside  the  appropriations,  soon  breaks  down  and 
that  as  a  result  the  presence  of  the  teachers  on  the  field  sim- 
ply becomes  the  basis  for  pressure  for  the  preferential  in- 
crease of  appropriations  for  educational  work  which  ought 
to  be  dealt  with  upon  their  merits,  and  lastly,  that  it  is  better 
to  use  the  inadequate  funds  available  either  for  the  employ- 
ment at  much  less  expense  of  efficient  native  teachers  or  for 
the  appointment  at  no  greater  expense  of  single  missionaries 
who  will  learn  the  language  and  the  people  and  will  give  their 
whole  lives  to  the  service. 

(3)  Continued  study  should  be  given  by  the  Missions  in 
Persia  to  the  type  of  education  which  our  schools  should  sup- 
ply, having  in  mind  especially  the  great  majority  of  the  pupils, 
who  never  finish  the  course  and  who  ought  to  be  given  during 
the  time  they  are  in  the  school  the  sort  of  preparation  best 
suited  for  the  lives  they  are  actually  going  to  live  and  the  work 
they  are  actually  going  to  do.  And  the  problem  of  industrial 
work  and  self-help  needs  careful  study  also  elsewhere  than  in 
the  orphanage  in  Kermanshah.  Experience  in  America  seems 
to  indicate  that  industrial  training  is  one  of  the  most  expen- 
sive forms  of  educational  work,  and  our  experience  in  Urumia 
many  years  ago,  when  Mr,  E.  T.  Allen  was  sent  to  Urumia 
for  industrial  work,  shows  that'  the  problem  is  not  less  per- 
plexing in  Persia. 

The  Persian  people  have  a  great  esteem  for  education.  The 
schools  of  our  two  Missions  are  far  and  away  the  most  effec- 
tive and  respected  schools  in  the  country.    There  is  no  national 

502 


system  of  education,  and  there  are  only  a  few  government 
schools.  A  sure  instinct  of  the  incompatability  of  Moham- 
medanism with  modern  education  has  inspired  much  eccle- 
siastical opposition  to  the  schools  in  the  past.  The  opposition 
is  dying  but  the  instinct  is  ever  clearer  and  stronger.  How 
great  are  our  opportunity  and  our  duty! 

S.  S.  Constantinople, 

Mediterranean  Sea,  May  8,  1922. 


503 


11.     THE  MEDICAL  WORK 

We  have  at  present  five  hospitals  in  our  Persia  Missions, 
namely,  Tabriz,  Teheran,  Hamadan,  Resht,  and  Meshed.  Three 
of  these  are  in  Mission  property,  and  the  other  two,  Resht  and 
Meshed,  in  rented  buildings.  There  is  money  in  hand  for  the 
purchase  of  the  present  rented  property  in  Resht  or  for  the 
erection  of  a  new  hospital,  and  there  is  available  now  a  con- 
siderable fund  for  mission  property  at  Meshed.  Prior  to  her 
death  Mrs.  Stead  had  erected  in  Kermanshah  the  walls  and 
roof  of  a  hospital  building  which  Dr.  Packard  is  rearranging 
and  planning  to  complete  during  his  stay  in  Kermanshah 
pending  the  re-occupation  of  Urumia.  There  are  twelve  medi- 
cal missionaries  connected  with  the  two  Missions,  with  the 
Urumia  station  three  men,  with  Tabriz  three  men,  with 
Meshed  two  men,  with  Teheran  one  man  and  one  woman, 
with  Resht  and  Hamadan  one  man  each.  Urumia,  Tabriz, 
Teheran  arid  Hamadan  have  each  one  nurse.  The  total  num- 
ber of  patients  in  the  two  Missions  when  the  work  is  running 
normally  is  about  25,000.  I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any 
other  Mission  field  in  the  world  where  the  medical  work 
exerts  a  greater  influence  than  in  Persia. 

Both  in  Persia  and  in  India,  however,  we  found  the  mis- 
sionaries, doctors  and  evangelists  alike,  full  of  questioning 
with  regard  to  the  efficiency  of  the  medical  work  as  a  direct 
agency  of  conversion.  It  was  a  disappointment  to  all  that  a 
larger  number  of  men  and  women  had  not  been  led  openly  to 
accejft  Christ  as  a  result  of  the  influence  of  the  dispensaries 
and  hospitals.  It  may  be  said  that  a  great  deal  of  other  mis- 
sionary work  including  direct  evangelistic  preaching  has  been 
without  visible  results  in  conversions,  and  also  that  the  influ- 
ence exerted  by  the  hospitals  has  fully  justified  them  even 
without  larger  fruitage  in  conversion.  This  is  true.  But 
the  question  remains  whether  the  medical  work  might  not 
also  be  made  more  effective  as  a  direct  evangelistic  agency, 
and  it  is  our  conviction,  as  it  is  the  conviction  of  the  Missions 
in  Persia,  that  it  should,  and  to  this  end  the  doctors  in  charge 
of  the  hospitals  should  regard  themselves  also  as  primarily 
and  chiefly  responsible  for  the  evangelistic  work  in  the  hos- 
pitals, that  they  should  seek,  instead  of  the  largest  volume  of 
operations  and  treatments,  to  make  their  work  both  in  its 
medical  and  in  its  evangelistic  efforts  qualitatively  as  effi- 
cient as  possible,  that  they  take  time  to  deal  especially  with 

504 


all  in-patients  in  ways  that  should  send  them  out  not  only 
healed  in  body,  but  possessed  in  mind  and  spirit  of  the  Life 
that  has  brought  the  medical  missionary  to  the  field. 

To  emphasize  the  necessity  of  conceiving  the  medical  work 
as  a  direct  evangelizing  force  is  not  to  lose  sight  of  or  to 
depreciate  the  importance  of  the  medical  work  in  Persia  as 
an  instrument  of  friendship  and  good  will  and  an  embodiment 
in  itself  of  the  Gospel  that  we  are  seeking  at  the  same  time 
to  express  in  words.     The  medical  work  has  opened  doors  of 
access  to  individuals  and  to  classes  of  people  whom  otherwise 
it  would  have  been  difficult  to  approach.    It  has  made  friends 
in  all  levels  of  society  from  the  beggar  to  the  Shah.     It  has 
bound  mollahs  and  mujtahids,  even  in  the  precincts  of  the 
Shrine  at  Meshed,  to  the  missionary  doctors  and  to  their  cause 
with  the  bonds  of  closest  confidence  and  gratitude.     As  we 
were  leaving  Meshed,  a  rapidly  driven  carriage  overtook  us 
to  beseech  Dr.  Hoffman,  who  was  pouring  us  on  the  road, 
to  return  to  the  house  of  one  of  the  leading  officials  connected 
with  the  Shrine.     It  was  a  pleasure  just  to  walk  the  streets 
of  Tabriz  with  Dr.  Vanneman  and  to  see  the  veneration  in " 
which  he  was  held.     The  city  gave  him  a  grand   welcome 
when   he   returned    in   March   from   his    furlough.      Within 
a     week    after    the    arrival     of    the     new    governor     and 
upon    his    first    indisposition    he    sent    for    Dr.    Vanneman. 
"Every   one   trusts   Dr.   Vanneman,"   said   the   leading   Per- 
sian  physician   in   Tabriz.      "He   is   the   chief   of   the   phy- 
sicians.    The  son  of  Fath  Ali  Shah  was  a  doctor  who  could 
go  to  every  home  and  see  every  one,  women  and  children  too. 
Dr.  Vanneman  is  this  man  in  Tabriz.     There  is  no  one  who 
does  not  hold  him  in  respect."    A  few  years  ago  when  there 
was  a  possibility  that  Dr.  Packard  might  be  transferred  from 
Urumia  to  East  Persia  the  Board  received  in  New  York  a 
score  of  letters  from  the  leading  Persian  officials  and  Moham- 
medan ecclesiastics  of  Urumia  protesting  in  the  most  earnest 
way  against  Dr.  Packard's  removal.    We  called  with  Dr.  Pack- 
ard on  many  of  the  leading  officials  in  Tabriz,  and  I  think 
there  was  not  one  of  them  who  did  not  appeal  to  Dr.  Packard 
to  return  to  Urumia  and  meanwhile  to  come  to  Tabriz.     One 
old  man  remarked  playfully  that  he  was  thinking  of  exercis- 
ing his  authority  to  prevent  Dr.  Packard  from  leaving  the 
city.    I  have  referred  elsewhere  in  this  report  to  the  attitude 
of  the  leading  mollahs  in  Hamadan  toward  Dr.  Funk.    It  was 
one  of  them  who  acquired  the  hospital  land  for  him,  and  they 
came  in  groups  to  visit  him  during  his  illness.    All  our  doctors 
have  won  unique  influence.    The  medical  work  has  commended 

505 


the  Missions  and  the  Gospel  which  they  bear  to  the  Persian 
people. 

The  East  Persia  Mission  at  its  annual  meeting  in  August, 
1921,  adopted  a  careful  and  complete  statement  of  its  policy 
with  regard  to  its  medical  work  which  was  reported  to  the 
Board  in  full  in  the  minutes  of  the  Mission.  This  policy 
recognizes  the  differing  necessities  of  the  various  stations 
and  does  not  propose  any  unform  medical  staff  and  equipment 
for  them  all.  As  we  studied  the  subject  on  the  field,  it  seemed 
to  us,  and  I  think  this  judgment  represents  the  mind  of  the 
East  Persia  Mission  also,  that  the  needs  of  Hamadan,  Ker- 
manshah  and  Resht  would  be  met  by  a  doctor  and  a  nurse  in 
each  station,  that  there  should  be  at  least  two  doctors  and  a 
nurse  in  the  Teheran  hospital,  and  at  least  three  doctors  and 
a  nurse  in  the  Meshed  hospital.  Perhaps  there  should  be  a 
third  doctor  attached  to  the  Teheran  hospital  who  would  be 
free  to  fill  furlough  vacancies  in  any  one  of  the  one-doctor 
stations.  Such  a  staff  would  allow  the  full  time  of  at  least 
two  doctors,  one  from  Meshed  and  one  and  sometimes  two 
from  Teheran,  for  medical  itineration. 

The  West  Persia  Mission,  also,  at  its  last  meeting  considered 
the  question  of  its  medical  work  and  developed  a  tentative 
program  which  was  discussed  fully  at  the  conferences  at 
Tabriz  when  Dr.  Vanneman  and  Dr.  Packard  who  had  not 
been  present  at  the  Mission  Meeting  and  who  were  the  two 
senior  medical  missionaries  of  the  Mission,  were  able  to  share 
in  the  discussion.  The  ultimate  opinion,  I  think,  in  which 
Mr.  Carter  and  I  agreed,  was  that  there  should  be  two  strong 
and  well  equipped  hospitals,  one  in  Tabriz  and  one  in  Urumia, 
that  each  station  should  have  two  or  three  medical  mission- 
aries, one  of  whom  in  each  station,  or  the  equivalent  of  one, 
should  be  free  for  medical  itineration  or  for  some  months' 
service  annually  in  such  centers  as  Zenjan,  Mianeh  or  Ardebil. 
There  are  a  great  many  Persian  doctors  in  Tabriz,  but  there 
is  not  one  of  them  who  does  major  surgical  work,  and  there 
is  now  a  government  hospital  with  a  few  beds  and  an  un- 
satisfactory equipment,  but  it  does  no  surgical  work,  and 
one  of  the  leading  Persian  officials  told  us  that  it  had  been 
proposed  to  close  the  hospital  and  to  transfer  its  subsidy  to 
the  Mission  hospital.  A  hospital  has  been  in  operation  also 
in  connection  with  the  relief  work  for  which  the  Mission 
doctors  have  supplied  the  medical  service,  but  this  is  only  a 
temporary  institution.  As  I  have  stated  in  the  section  on 
the  reoccupation  of  Urumia,  one  of  the  first  institutions  which 
should  be  built  there  is  the  hospital,  to  serve  even  more  in 

506 


the  future  than  in  the  past  as  an  influence  of  good  will  and 
unification  among  the  conflicting  elements  of  the  population 
west  of  the  Urumia  Lake. 

The  question  of  medical  itineration  is  an  old  and  disputed 
question  in  every  field  where  medical  work  is  carried  on, 
but  it  is  our  conviction  and  that  of  the  evangelistic  mission- 
aries and  I  think,  to  a  large  extent,  of  the  doctors  in  Persia 
that  such  work  in  Persia  is  practicable  and  necessary.  All 
the  way  to  Meshed  we  met  with  evidences  of  Dr.  Cook's  in- 
fluence not  only  in  the  Teheran  hospital  but  on  his  medical 
itinerating  trips.  As  soon  as  it  was  known  that  Dr.  McDowell 
was  with  us  he  was  surrounded  with  those  who  solicited  his 
help.  And  Dr.  Packard  met  with  beseechings  on  every  hand 
as  we  traveled  together  from  Kasvin  to  Tabriz.  There  is  a 
vast  deal  of  suff'ering  in  Persia  that  will  never  reach  station 
hospitals.  It  is  true  that  there  is  much  work  that  a  surgeon 
cannot  do  in  a  Persian  village,  but  it  is  true  also  that  there 
are  blind  eyes  that  can  be  opened  in  the  villages,  as  Dr.  Cook 
used  to  open  them,  under  the  shade  of  some  village  tree,  and 
that  a  great  deal  of  suffering  and  misery  can  be  alleviated  or 
removed.  And  hundreds  of  patients  who  would  never  have 
gone  to  a  station  hospital  otherwise  will  be  drawn  in  through 
medical  itineration  and  hundreds  of  patients  who  have  been 
in  station  hospitals  and  have  gone  back  to  their  villages  can 
be  followed  up  for  the  Gospel's  sake  by  the  itinerating  physi- 
cian. The  Meshed  station  has  carried  on  this  work  in  a  sys- 
tematic way  which  has  convinced  it  of  the  value  and  mis- 
sionary necessity  of  such  service.  The  plan  of  the  Meshed 
doctors,  as  yet  only  slightly  carried  into  effect,  has  been  to 
go  for  a  month  or  two  at  a  time  to  each  of  the  smaller  cities 
in  their  field,  to  remain  there  long  enough  for  it  to  be  known 
in  the  city  and  the  surrounding  villages  that  they  are  there, 
to  do  all  the  work  that  they  can  locally,  and  to  send  any 
necessary  cases  to  the  hospital  in  Meshed.  The  doctor  and 
the  evangelistic  missionary  going  together  to  these  cities  opens 
a  door  to  each  of  them  in  a  more  effective  way  and  leads  to 
the  gathering  together  of  groups  of  friends  or  inquirers  which 
the  station  looks  upon  as  the  nuclei  of  future  Christian 
churches.  At  the  conference  in  Tabriz  Mr.  Pittman  urged 
three  reasons  for  the  help  of  a  doctor  in  his  itinerating  work. 
First,  it  would  give  him  points  of  contact  with  the  people 
which  he  could  follow  up  on  subsequent  tours  alone.  Second, 
it  would  give  many  Moslems  a  reason  for  coming  to  talk  about 
Christianity  who  were  anxious  to  come  for  this  purpose,  but 
who  were  afraid  to  do  so.    The  presence  of  a  physician  would 

507 


be  a  complete  justification  of  their  coming.  In  the  third  place 
it  would  bring  healing  to  many  who  would  never  otherwise 
hear  of  the  doctor  and  it  would  enable  him  to  speak  of  Christ 
to  people  whom  otherwise  he  would  never  see. 

Each  of  the  two  Missions  has  considered  the  question  of  its 
possible  duty  in  the  matter  of  medical  education.  There  is 
no  good  medical  school  in  Persia.  There  has  been  for  some 
years  an  institution  under  government  support  in  Teheran, 
but  it  is  as  yet  inadequately  developed,  and,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Mohammedanism,  dissection  and  adequate  labora- 
tory work  are  not  yet  possible.  Some  of  the  missionaries  in 
East  Persia  have  cherished  the  idea  of  a  Mission  medical 
school  as  part  of  the  Teheran  College,  while  the  last  meeting 
of  the  West  Persia  Mission  considered  the  project  of  such  a 
school  in  Tabriz.  We  do  not  believe  that  either  Mission  has 
now  or  is  likely  ever  to  have  the  resources  with  which  to 
establish  and  to  maintain  an  organized  Class  A  medical  college, 
but  for  many  years  to  come  each  Mission  will  have  to  provide 
for  the  training  of  its  own  medical  assistants  and  for  the 
preparation  of  men  for  useful  medical  work  among  their  own 
people.  No  government  school  in  Teheran  for  many  and 
many  a  day  will  meet  these  needs.  Probably  each  one  of  the 
medical  missionaries  will  have  to  do  what  the  doctors  in  Persia 
have  always  done,  namely,  give  a  few  young  men  a  good 
practical  training  as  their  apprentices.  And  perhaps  one  or 
two  of  the  stations  with  a  larger  equipment  and  staff  can  go 
a  little  further  than  this  and  provide  a  little  more  formal 
and  extensive  training. 

S.  S.  Constantinople, 

Mediterranean  Sea,  May  4,  1922. 


508 


12.     THE  OCCUPATION  OF  THE  FIELD 

The  population  of  Persia  according  to  the  "Statesman's 
Year  Book"  is  between  eight  and  ten  millions.  The  section 
of  Persia  falling  within  the  field  of  our  Persia  Missions  lies 
north  of  a  line  following  the  34th  parallel  of  latitude  from  the 
Afghan  frontier  to  Kashan  and  running  southwest  from 
Kashan  to  the  Turkish  frontier  at  latitude  33  degrees.  The 
part  of  Persia  lying  south  of  this  line  is  by  agreement  the 
field  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society.  It  was  further  under- 
stood, in  agreeing  upon  this  division  of  the  field,  that 
whichever  one  of  the  Missions  was  in  a  position  first  to  occupy 
Seistan  or  Kashan  was  to  be  free  to  do  so.  The  population  of 
our  Presbyterian  field  in  northern  Persia  is  approximately 
6,000,000. 

1.  Our  primary  business  is  the  evangelization  of  these 
people.  The  direct  evangelistic  aim  must  be  primary  and 
final  with  us  and  controlling  in  every  department  of  activity 
of  the  Mission  work.  I  would  not  diminish  in  the  least  the 
emphasis  that  we  are  laying  in  Persia  on  the  schools  and 
hospitals  as  mission  agencies,  but  we  need,  both  absolutely 
and  proportionally,  a  great  increase  in  the  amount  of  mission- 
ary time  and  strength  given  to  the  direct  evangelistic  occupa- 
tion of  our  field.  The  following  table  shows  the  number  of 
our  missionaries  twenty-five  years  ago  and  now  and  the 
number  assigned  to  each  department  of  the  work.  The  table 
is  not  exact  as  the  departments  overlap  and  interfuse. 


Urumia    

Tabriz    

Teheran    

Hamadan     .... 
Kermanshah    .  . 

Resht    

Meshed    

Mosul    

26  38  20  30  14  27 

Since  our  last  visit  to  Persia  the  three  stations  of  Resht, 
Kermanshah,  and  Meshed  have  been  occupied.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve that  we  need  to  establish  any  more  such  regular  stations 

509 


Evan 

gelistic 

Educational 

Medical 

1896 

1922 

1896 

1922 

1896 

1922 

9 

12 

4 

4 

2 

7 

6 

6 

4 

7 

3 

6 

4 

6 

6 

11 

3 

4 

3 

5 

5 

6 

3 

3 

0 

3 

0 

1 

0 

1 

0 

1 

0 

1 

0 

2 

0 

3 

0 

0 

0 

4 

4 

2 

1 

0 

3 

0 

for  some  time  to  come,  but  we  need  to  have  in  each  of  these 
stations  a  larger  number  of  missionaries  free  for  direct  itin- 
eration providing  for  its  entire  field,  and  it  should  carry  out 
this  program  with  the  same  continuity  and  efficiency  with 
which  our  educational  institutions  are  maintained.  There  are 
those,  both  missionaries  and  native  leaders,  who  depreciate 
the  value  of  itinerating  work  and  who  argue  for  the  establish- 
ment of  permanent  institutional  stations.  Such  a  course 
means  the  abandonment  of  the  ideal  of  any  speedy  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  field.  If  the  execution  of  the  missionary  task 
depends  upon  the  indefinite  multiplication  of  institutional 
centers  financed  from  the  West,  then  the  missionary  task  is 
impracticable  of  accomplishment.  The  funds  for  such  a  policy 
can  never  be  supplied  and  such  a  policy  will  never  produce 
a  living  indigenous  Church  filled  with  the  spirit  of  propa- 
ganda and  spontaneously  spreading  itself  through  every  town 
and  village.  I  believe  that  the  right  policy  is  to  Dlant  a  limited 
number  of  strong  training  centers  and  from  these  to  instigate 
and  guide  an  indigenous  movement,  spreading,  bv  directed 
and  evangelistic  itineration  and  bv  the  use  of  all  the  natural 
means  of  intercommunication  and  business  and  social  inter- 
change, through  the  whole  framework  societv.  This  was  the 
method  by  which  Christianity  spread  at  the  beginning.  It 
is  the  way  in  which  every  great  living  religious  movement 
has  been  propagated  in  the  past.  The  argument  which  Dr. 
Holmes  made  for  it  in  the  paper  which  he  presented  at  the 
Hamadan  conference  in  1895  and  which  was  printed  in  full 
as  an  appendix  in  my  report  of  1896  is.  I  believe,  a  valid  argu- 
ment. The  present  reaction  against  itinerating  work  is  per- 
haps a  just  result  of  the  superficial  and  spasmodic  type  of 
itineration  which  has  been  too  common,  but  the  wise  course 
is  not  the  abandonment  of  itineration  but  its  adeouate  prose- 
cution with  a  sufficient  force  and  under  a  policy  of  continuity 
and  definiteness  which  contemplates  the  actual  and  speedy 
evangelization  of  the  whole  field. 

We  took  up  this  question  with  each  station  of  the  East 
Persia  Mission  and  with  the  whole  West  Persia  Mission  at 
our  conference  in  Tabriz.  At  this  conference  Mr.  Wilson 
presented  in  behalf  of  the  Mission  a  model  statement  on  "The 
Evangelistic  Situation  in  West  Persia,"  which  I  quote  in  full 
herewith. 

THE  EVANGELISTIC  SITUATION  IN  WEST  PERSIA 

Changed  Conditions.  The  upheaval  of  the  war  destroyed 
much  of  our  established  work  in  West  Persia.  Since  the 
war  a  series  of  lesser  eruptions  has  kept  us  from  going  in  to 

510 


repair  the  ruin.  Tragedy  has  been  all  about  us  until  we  have 
been  forced  to  guard  constantly  lest  we  become  enured  to 
the  appeal  of  human  suffering.  Among  the  consequences  of 
the  awful  years  since  1914  one  result  is  of  vital  importance 
for  our  work.  The  old,  hard  ground  that  resisted  all  our  efforts 
has  been  broken.  Throughout  the  whole  of  our  field  the  war 
has  plowed  deep  and  the  ground  lies  fallow  waiting  for  the 
seed,  while  other  seed  planted  patiently  through  years  is 
springing  up  to  harvest.  Prejudices  have  been  swept  away 
by  suffering  and  men  with  the  loss  of  their  worldly  goods 
have  been  forced  to  a  spiritual  issue.  As  Zwemer  has  said, 
Persia  is  the  keystone  of  the  great  Moslem  arch ;  we  see 
before  our  eyes  that  the  keystone  is  cracking.  Our  duty  to 
Christ  and  His  cause  requires  that  we  take  advantage  of  the 
present  situation  with  all  the  mission  force  possible  and  with 
renewed  zeal  and  consecration. 

To  Be  Ready  for  Urumia.  The  Urumia  section  of  our  field 
has  remained  closed  for  a  longer  period  than  even  the  most 
pessimistic  would  have  predicted.  The  Assyrian  people  have 
sighed  beside  the  waters  of  Babylon  for  their  lost  homes  and 
they  have  spent  years  in  the  desert  being  taught  of  God.  The 
Moslems  of  the  Urumia  plain  have  been  taught  a  severe  lesson 
too;  and  unless  we  of  this  mission  have  ears  that  hear  not 
we  have  learned  many  things.  The  Urumia  portion  of  our 
territory  will  be  open  again  to  our  mission  and  we  must  have 
a  mobile  force  in  Azerbaijan  ready  for  that  moment.  Whether 
the  section  west  of  the  lake  is  to  be  part  of  an  autonomous 
Kurdistan  or  whether  it  is  to  remain  a  part  of  Persia  we 
can  not  say.  But  all  the  parties  concerned  are  tired  of  the 
struggle  and  peace  must  soon  supersede  these  times  of  strife. 
Then  our  mission  will  be  able  to  occupy  the  territory  which- 
ever political  power  may  be  in  control. 

Salmas  and  Khoij.  The  Plains  of  Salmas  and  Khoy  are  in 
the  same  plight  as  the  Urumia  district  at  present  and  closed 
to  our  work  temporarily,  but  the  ruin  there  must  be  rebuilt 
as  soon  as  the  opportunity  offers.  There  will  be  a  native 
Protestant  Church  too,  that  will  reoccupy  when  the  people 
return  to  their  homes  as  many  of  the  Salmas  and  Khoy  people 
have  found  Christ  during  their  stay  as  refugees  in  Tabriz. 

Evangelistic  Divisions  of  Our  Field.  The  other  sections 
of  our  field  are  open  to  our  work  and  wherever  we  have  been 
able  to  answer  the  challenge  we  have  met  with  a  responsive- 
ness that  to  us  seems  to  make  our  present  duty  plain.  For 
the  purpose  of  evangelism  the  open  portion  of  the  field  may 
be  divided  into  seven  sections ;  the  regions  of  Zenjan,  Maragha, 

511 


Garadagh,  Mianeh,  Marand,  the  villages  near  Tabriz,  and  the 
City  itself. 

A  Mobile  Force  for  Zenjan  and  Maragha.  In  order  to 
properly  reach  our  field  with  the  Gospel  Zenjan  and  Maragha 
should  be  occupied  at  once  with  a  mobile  force.  The  time 
has  come  when  we  can  make  the  direct  evangelistic  approach 
to  the  people  of  our  field.  The  effort  should  be  then  to  found 
churches  in  these  cities  and  not  stations  of  our  mission.  In- 
stitutional work  should  be  left  almost  entirely  to  Tabriz  and 
Urumia.  No  David  who  may  be  sent  to  Zenjan  or  to  Maragha 
should  be  encumbered  with  the  Saul's  armor  of  an  institu- 
tion. When  churches  have  been  founded  that  will  stand  upon 
their  own  resources  and  propagate  the  Gospel  in  their  dis- 
tricts, the  mission  force  should  be  ready  to  leave.  To  this 
end  no  property,  or  at  least  no  institutional  property,  should 
be  bought  in  these  cities  at  least  for  the  present,  but  the  effort 
should  be  toward  straight  preaching  with  medical  evangelism 
stressed  in  Zenjan  and  the  present  school  made  a  more  direct 
evangelistic  agency  in  Maragha.  The  touring  of  the  many 
villages  in  the  vicinity  will  take  up  a  large  part  of  the  time 
in  the  case  of  both  these  centers. 

The  Challenge  of  Zenjan.  In  the  past  our  visits  to  the 
Zenjan  field  for  evangelistic  work  have  been  only  a  little 
more  frequent  than  Board  Secretary  visits  to  West  Persia, 
yet  who  can  see  the  large  villages  that  dot  the  plains  on  every 
side  of  Zenjan  without  feeling  the  burden  of  this  great  un- 
reached field.  Into  some  of  these  villages  the  least  ray  of 
Gospel  light  has  never  filtered ;  in  others  they  recall  the  one 
or  two  or  two  times  in  their  lives  when  a  preacher  has  come 
to  visit  them.  The  Indian  physician  who  was  stationed  for 
a  time  in  Zenjan  last  year  was  so  rushed  with  outside  calls 
that  he  was  almost  forced  to  neglect  the  soldiers  under  his 
care. 

Strategic  Position  of  Maragha.  Maragha  should  be  the 
center  for  a  great  village  work.  At  present  it  also  occupies 
the  strategic  position  of  the  most  direct  approach  to  Kur- 
distan. It  should  be  occupied  by  a  force  which  would  not 
settle  there  permanently  but  which  would  be  ready  to  move 
at  the  call  of  the  mission.  Several  Protestant  Christians 
who  live  in  Maragha  would  form  the  nucleus  for  a  church. 

Mianeh  and  Marand  Districts  Toured  from  Tabriz.  The 
Mianeh  and  Marand  districts  should  be  regularly  and  sys- 
tematically toured  from  Tabriz.  In  Marand  two  Moslem 
converts  are  working  with  their  friends  and  neighbors,  and 
we  are  interested  to  see  what  will  develop  from  their  work 

512 


if  they  are  left  alone  except  for  the  visits  of  missionaries  and 
native  evangelists  when  on  tours  in  that  region.  In  Julfa, 
w^hich  falls  within  Marand  district,  two  hundred  and  eighty- 
eight  Armenians  have  confessed  Christ  and  expressed  their 
desire  to  join  the  Evangelical  church.  Repeated  petitions  for 
a  school  and  pastor  are  coming  also  from  a  village  near 
Sophian  where  something  like  two  hundred  people  have  been 
patriated  by  the  Relief  Committee.  They  also  report  that 
many  Moslems  attend  their  religious  services  and  evince  a 
great  interest  in  the  Gospel  message. 

Mass  Movement  in  Garadagh.  In  the  Garadagh  region 
there  are  more  than  four  hundred  villages,  less  than  thirty 
of  which  are  Armenian.  About  two  thousand  of  the  Arme- 
nians heard  the  Gospel  in  Tabriz  as  refugees,  and  since  they 
have  returned  to  their  villages  there  has  been  something  of 
a  mass  movement  toward  Evangelical  Christianity.  Whole 
villages  have  expressed  their  desire  to  join  the  Protestant 
Church  and  have  said  they  would  bury  their  own  dead  and 
refuse  to  receive  the  ministrations  of  Gregorian  priests  until 
we  could  send  them  preachers  and  spiritual  leaders.  At 
least  one  evangelist,  an  ordained  man  if  possible,  must  be 
stationed  permanently  in  the  Garadagh  region  and  the  force 
should  be  much  larger.  In  addition  missionaries  should  tour 
the  district  thoroughly  and  with  regularity.  The  little  schools 
in  Garadagh  make  ideal  evangelistic  centers. 

Owe  Hundred  Villages  near  Tabriz.  Any  way  we  turn  from 
Tabriz  whole  groups  of  villages  await  our  coming  with  the 
Gospel.  There  are  more  than  one  hundred  villages  within  a 
radius  of  twenty  miles  and  these  villages  constitute  a  splendid 
field  in  themselves.  The  small  amount  of  touring  that  has 
been  done  in  the  environs  of  the  city  has  been  most  encour- 
aging and  many  openings  have  been  made  as  well  as  actual 
conversions.  The  members  of  the  theological  class  could 
help  greatly  in  this  field.  They  should  go  out  in  Gospel  teams 
of  two  or  three  with  a  missionary,  especially  during  the  sum- 
mer vacation  period. 

Tabriz. — In  the  last  place  there  is  the  city  of  Tabriz  with 
a  population  estimated  at  about  a  (}uarter  of  a  million.  This 
has  been  known  in  times  past  as  one  of  the  most  fanatical 
cities  of  Persia  and  yet  today  we  can  preach,  and  pray,  and 
sell  copies  of  the  Scripture  in  every  district  of  the  city,  and 
as  long  as  we  are  tactful  we  encounter  very  little  opposition. 
We  must  so  divide  our  work  that  we  will  reach  the  great  out- 
lying districts 'of  the  city  where  thousands  have  never  heard 
the  story  of  Salvation. 

513 

1" — liuiia   and  Persia 


Tabriz  Church.  The  church  is  becoming  an  increasing 
center  of  evangehsm  as  i'S  best  shown  by  the  results  of  the 
series  of  evangelistic  services  last  month  when  one  hundred 
and  sixteen  persons  confessed  Christ  and  applied  for  member- 
ship in  the  Protestant  Church.  Of  these  sixty-eight  were 
Armenians,  forty-one  Assyrians,  five  Moslems,  and  ttvo  Jews. 
We  should  have  an  evangelistic  reading  room  for  Moslems 
and  one  or  two  other  rooms  where  men  could  come  for  con- 
versations on  spiritual  subjects.  Meetings  in  homes  through- 
out the  city  have  been  and  will  be  one  of  our  most  fruitful 
methods  of  evangelistic  effort  in  Tabriz.  There  is  a  religious 
revival  slowly  but  surely  coming  upon  this  city  and  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree  all  over  our  field.  Other  religions  are 
busy  and  I  am  sure  we  would  be  both  surprised  and  shocked 
if  we  knew  just  what  per  cent  of  the  people  of  our  field  had 
turned  to  Bahaism,  though  'we  must  remember  that  all  who 
do  not  follow  the  outward  forms  of  Islam  are  called  Bahais 
in  many  instances.  The  unorthodox  sects  are  constantly  draw- 
ing out  of  Shiah  Islam  and  new  sects  are  springing  up  con- 
tinually. Men  are  everywhere  thinking  deeply  about  religious 
things  and  this  constitutes  our  great  opportunity  and  will  be 
our  lasting  regret  if  we  are  not  able  to  take  advantage  of  the 
situation  now. 

Persecution  a  Lessening  Factor  in  Our  Work.  There  are 
still  great  obstacles  to  be  overcome  in  the  conversion  of  Mo- 
hammedans and  many  problems  to  be  solved  before  there  will 
be  a  strong  national  church  of  Moslem  converts  in  Persia; 
but  the  old  opposition  and  persecution  is  fast  diminishing 
artd  ceases  to  be  the  largest  item  with  which  we  must  reckon. 
The  actions  of  nominal  Christians,  ignorance,  and  the  lack 
of  a  sense  of  sin  I  would  consider  greater  hindrances  to  our 
work  today  than  persecution  of  our  converts. 

Evangelism  Among  Refugees.  We  have  had  great  popula- 
tions at  our  very  doors  as  refugees  the  past  few  years  and 
there  are  still  probably  as  manv  as  fifteen  thousand  here  if 
we  count  both  Christians  and  Moslems.  It  would  have  taken 
generations  to  reach  them  in  their  homes  and  scattered  vil- 
lages. While  in  Tabriz  they  have  been  peculiarly  susceptible 
to  the  Gospel  message.  Jarred  out  of  their  nests  of  com- 
placency and  satisfaction,  as  well  as  their  homes,  they  have 
come  ready  to  hear  the  Word  of  Life  and  have  returned  to 
their  homes  in  many  cases  to  send  Macedonian  calls  for  more 
of  the  Gospel. 

Systematic  Work  to  Cover  Whole  Field,  and  Methods  With 
Converts.     There  are  two  large  questions  before  us  at  present. 

514 


The  first  is,  How  to  cover  our  field  systematically  and  thor- 
oughly; and  the  second  is,  How  to  handle  the  large  numbers 
who  are  turning  to  Christ.  In  answer  to  the  first  we  must 
have  the  proper  force  in  strictly  evangelistic  work  and  not 
connected  with  any  institution.  As  a  minimum  there  should 
be  two  men  for  the  city,  one  to  spend  much  of  his  time  in 
touring  nearby  villages;  two  men  for  touring  and  a  touring 
doctor.  Edwin  Wright,  because  of  his  knowledge  of  both 
Armenian  and  Turkish  is  needed  here  at  once  and  the  other 
men  should  be  supplied  from  forces  on  the  field  or  appointed 
to  this  special  work  just  as  soon  as  possible.  With  the  return 
of  Miss  Lamme  and  Mrs.  Jessup,  the  evangelistic  work  for 
women  should  be  handled  for  the  present.  In  the  second  place, 
the  Moslem  converts  should  be  organized  in  a  separate  branch 
of  our  church  since  they  have  begun  to  feel  their  own  entity 
and  request  such  an  action.  If  a  separate  church  of  Persians 
comes  as  a  natural  development  the  mission  should  not  stand 
in  the  way  but  should  give  every  assistance  that  will  make  it 
self-propagating  and  self-supporting. 

The  Question  of  Group  Movements  to  the  Church.  The 
other  part  of  the  second  question  is  how  best  to  handle  the 
people  of  Julfa  and  Garadagh  and  groups  of  refugees  in  Tabriz 
who  have  applied  in  such  large  numbers  for  membership  in 
the  Protestant  Church.  In  each  of  the  groups  there  are  sev- 
eral men  of  more  than  the  ordinary  ability  who  are  recognized 
as  leaders.  Would  it  not  be  the  best  method  to  take  these 
leaders  on  a  term  of  probation  and  train  them  intensively  at 
the  same  time  watching  for  the  signs  of  their  conversion  and 
new  life?  When  they  prove  ready  they  should  be  taken  in 
as  the  first  members  of  the  Evangelical  church  in  their  group 
and  with  proper  education  and  preaching  they  should  be  the 
nucleus  for  a  church.  It  is  probably  true  that  many  of  these 
people  came  first  within  the  influence  of  the  Gospel  hoping  to 
receive  loaves  and  fishes,  people  came  to  Christ  in  the  same 
spirit,  and  whatever  their  first  motives  they  offer  a  stirring 
challenge  and  the  most  open  sort  of  a  field  for  the  Gospel. 
We  can  not  neglect  them  and  let  them  sink  back  into  a  greater 
indifference  than  that  of  the  old  days  when  they  resisted  every 
effort  to  give  them  the  Gospel  of  Salvation.  I  stood  beside  a 
Garadagh  mother  with  the  last  of  her  three  children  dead 
at  our  feet  and  asked  where  she  turned  for  comfort  in  that 
dark  hour.  She  replied,  "I  have  no  comfort."  When  I  asked 
if  she  were  not  a  Christian,  her  reply  was  in  the  affirmative, 
but  she  did  not  know  who  Christ  was  and  she  did  not  know 
how  to  pray.    She  has  since  that  time  found  the  greatest  Com- 

515 


fort  in  the  world  and  thousands  like  her  are  coming  to  our 
services  in  Garadagh  and  other  regions  like  hungry  sheep 
going  out  to  pasture.  Christ  commands  us,  "Feed  my  sheep." 
Our  Opportunity  and  Duty.  This  is  our  field.  God  has 
given  it  to  us  and  we  thank  Him  for  it.  We  thank  Him  for 
the  opportunities  that  are  pressing  in  upon  us.  All  the  doors 
are  open.  From  the  standpoint  of  strategic  value  no  field 
is  more  important.  There  is  a  responsiveness  both  among 
nominal  Christians  and  Moslems  never  known  before.  Our 
duty  to  God  and  His  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  compels  us  to  go  in 
now  and  possess  the  land. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

J.  Christy  Wilson. 

At  this  same  conference  in  Tabriz  Mr.  Pittman  presented 
the  following  definite  suggestions  regarding  the  direct  evan- 
gelistic work  in  the  Tabriz  field: 

"l.      CITY  OF  TABRIZ 

"1.  Kasha  A.  Moorhatch  should  be  continued  as  City 
Evangelist  among  all  native  races  with  special  emphasis  on 
work  among  Moslems. 

"2.  One  missionary  should  give  all  his  time  to  city  evan- 
gelization and  have  one  native  evangelist  under  his  control. 

"II.      OUTFIELD 

"1.  There  should  be  extensive  systematic  itineration  touching 
every  part  of  the  field  now  open.  For  purposes  of  itineration 
the  field  may  be  divided  into  four  parts  as  follows: 

"(1)    Gyuna,  Salmas,  Somai,  Khoi,  Maku. 

"(2)    Maragha,  Mianduab,  Sain  Kala. 

"(3)  Mianeh,  Zenjan,  Khalkhal,  Ardabil,  Sarob,  Hashda- 
rood. 

"(4)   Maraud,  Julfa,  Garadagh,  Moghan. 

"2.  For  beginning  this  work  two  evangelistic  missionaries 
should  be  free  to  give  their  whole  time  to  itineration,  each 
one  taking  two  of  the  above  four  divisions  as  his  field  for 
systematic  itineration  and  remaining  for  longer  periods  in 
the  larger  towns  and  especially  spending  the  winter  months 
in  some  large  central  town.  As  soon  as  a  third  man  is 
available,  the  question  of  locating  one  of  the  three  in  a  new 
center  for  reaching  the  surrounding  districts  should  be  con- 
sidered. 

"3.  Each  itinerating  missionary  should  have  one  experi- 
enced native  evangelist  and  one  in  training  to  accompany  him. 

"4.  As  rapidly  as  possible  native  teams  of  two,  one  of 
whom  at  least  should  be  experienced  in  itineration,  should  be 

516 


secured  and  sent  out  to  co-operate  with  the  itinerating  mis- 
sionary in  his  section  of  the  field. 

"5.  As  itineration  must  be  systematic  and  regular  in  order 
to  be  effective,  it  is  important  that  those  engaged  in  this  work 
should  be  free  from  such  institutional  and  routine  work  as 
will  interfere  with  itineration. 

"6.  It  is  desirable  that  new  centers  for  the  itineration  of 
a  particular  district  be  opened  by  native  evangelists  rather 
than  by  missionaries,  that  the  work  may  be  indigenous  from 
the  beginning. 

"7.  We  should  flood  the  province  with  the  best  apologetic 
tracts  in  Persian,  Turkish  and  Armenian. 

"8.  We  should  urge  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society 
to  send  out  itinerating  colporteurs. 

"9.  The  duty  of  self  propagation  should  be  urged  upon 
the  native  church  as  its  foremost  aim.  And  Bible  training 
should  be  encouraged  and  provided  not  only  for  the  prepara- 
tion of  paid  workers  but  with  special  emphasis  on  volunteer 
work  by  all  church  members. 

"10.  Some  reasons  for  emphasizing  extensive  itineration 
at  this  time  are:  (1)  Relief  work  in  Maragha,  Ardabil,  Ma- 
rand,  Ahar  and  other  Moslem  cities  has  advertised  Christianity 
among  Moslems,  giving  opportunity  for  wider  hearing  of  the 
Gospel  message  than  would  otherwise  have  been  possible; 
(2)  The  unsettled  political  conditions  make  itineration  in  some 
parts  of  our  field  the  most  •  desirable  form  of  work  at  the 
present  time;  (3)  We  believe  that  a  greater  faith  in  the  direct 
proclamation  of  our  Gospel,  thus  honoring  God's  Word,  would 
be  rewarded  by  a  greater  blessing  on  our  work." 

The  West  Persia  Mission  meeting  voted  to  occupy  Maragha 
and  Zen j  an  as  sub-stations  and  to  locate  Mrs.  Shedd  and  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Dillener  at  Maragha  and,  in  case  Urumia  should 
remain  closed,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Muller  and  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Ellis 
at  Zenjan.  We  are  unconvinced  that  the  policy  of  locating 
one  or  two  missionaries  at  a  sub-station  in  Persia  will  effect 
as  wide  an  evangelization  of  the  territory  as  might  be  accom- 
plished by  these  same  missionaries  working  from  a  central 
station.  In  the  North  India  and  Punjab  Missions  there  are 
many  stations  with  only  one  or  two  families  from  which  a 
wide  and  continuous  itinerating  work  is  carried  on,  but  in 
Persia  the  location  of  single  families  in  Kasvin  and  Doulata- 
bad  has  not  had  this  result,  but  in  each  case  has  tied  the  resi- 
dent missionary  to  local  work.  There  is  always  the  risk  in 
such  cases  that  a  small  local  church  may  be  built  up  largely 
composed  of  household  servants  and  other  attaches  of  the 

517 


missionary  family,  so  dependent  in  character,  that  with  the 
removal  of  the  missionary  the  church  disappears.  We  stated 
the  case  of  the  small  sub-station,  pro  and  con,  as  fully  as  we 
could  to  the  Mission  advising  it  to  follow  its  own  judgment, 
however,  with  the  resolute  purpose  to  modify  its  plan  if  it 
should  discover  that  the  tentative  location  of  the  missionaries 
proposed  did  not  actually  result  in  a  larger  volume  of  itinera- 
tion and  the  wider  evangelization  of  the  field. 

The  staff  which  the  mission  conference  in  Tabriz  at  the 
time  of  our  visit  proposed  for  the  Urumia  station,  namely, 
four  ordained  men  for  evangelistic  and  educational  work,  and 
two  doctors  and  four  single  women,  one  a  nurse  and  the  other 
three  for  evangelistic  and  educational  work,  ought  to  make 
possible  the  thorough  cultivation  of  the  Urumia  station  field. 
With  the  Mountain  Field  attached  to  the  Mosul  station,  the 
field  left  to  Urumia  is  not,  in  comparison  with  the  other 
Persia  stations,  extensive  either  in  area  or  in  population. 
Such  a  staff  will  furnish  Urumia  a  body  of  workers  very  dis- 
proportionate for  example  to  the  staff  in  Meshed.  There  are 
special  reasons  springing  from  the  history  and  character  of 
the  Urumia  work  which  led  us  to  acquiesce  in  the  Mission's 
judgment,  but  unless  all  the  stations  in  Persia  can  be  ade- 
quately reenforced  it  is  doubtful  if  so  large  a  staff  should 
be  maintained  permanently  in  Urumia. 

2.  Tn  a  statement  which  he  presented  at  our  conferences 
in  Teheran  Dr.  Schuler  estimated  that  the  population  in  the 
C.  M.  S.  territory  in  Persia  was  4,900,000  and  in  the  territory 
of  our  Missions  5,245,000  in  the  East  Persia  field  and  2,700,000 
in  the  West  Persia  field.  The  West  Persia  responsibility  em- 
braced, he  stated,  2,500,000  in  Azerbaijan  and  200,000  in 
western  Gilan.  Of  the  East  Persia  population  he  estimated 
that  the  Resht  station  field  included  the  remainder  of  the 
population  of  Gilan,  approximately  800,000,  and  the  western 
section  of  Mazandaran  with  a  total  population  of  1,000,000. 
The  center  and  east  of  Mazandaran  and  the  whole  of  Astrabad 
and  most  of  the  great  province  of  Irak  Ajmi  fell  to  the  respon- 
sibility of  Teheran.  In  the  Teheran  field  there  were  ten  cities 
of  over  10,000  population  each,  with  a  total  population  of 
600,000  of  whom  400,000  were  in  Teheran.  All  of  these  figures 
are  disputed  by  some  as  excessive,  and  there  are  no  trust- 
worthy census  facts  to  rely  upon.  The  total  number  of  villages 
in  the  Teheran  field  was  unknown,  but  there  were  eight  itin- 
erating circuits  which  the  Mission  had  planned,  and  in  one 
of  these  alone,  to  the  southeast  of  Teheran,  there  were  600  vil- 
lages of  which  not  over  forty  had  been  reached.     We  were 

518 


not  able  to  visit  Mazandaran  and  Astrabad,  but  we  crossed 
the  whole  Teheran  field  once  north  and  south  in  going  from 
Hamadan  to  Kasvin  and  from  Kasvin  to  Resht  and  twice  east 
and  west  from  Kasvin  on  the  west  to  Sharoud  on  the  east, 
and  we  spent  a  fortnight  in  Kasvin  delayed  by  snow  storms 
and  had  opportunity  there  as  we  had  also  in  cities  like  Sem- 
nan,  Damghan  and  Sharoud  and  in  towns  like  Kishlak,  Deh- 
namak,  Lasgird  and  Sultanieh  and  in  many  villages  to  see 
how  great  is  the  unreached  field.  I  am  not  sure  that  it  would 
not  be  well  some  day  to  have  temporary  sub-stations  and 
perhaps  sometime  full  stations  in  centers  like  Kasvin,  Sharoud, 
Astrabad,  or  Barfrush,  but  I  am  very  sure  that  we  ought 
first  to  have  in  connection  with  the  Teheran  station  a  sufficient 
force  to  enable  the  Mission  to  visit  each  one  of  these  more 
important  centers  for  at  least  a  month's  stay  in  each  once  a 
year. 

3.  With  an  adequate  itinerating  force  the  Hamadan  and 
Kermanshah  stations  with  the  sub-station  of  Douiatabad 
ought  to  be  able  to  cover  the  portion  of  the  East  Persia  field 
between  the  Aveh  Pass  and  the  western  border  of  Persia. 
This  field  includes  southern  Kurdistan,  more  accessible  from 
Hamadan  and  Kermanshah  than  from  any  other  points  except 
Senneh  and  also  the  northern  half  of  the  country  of  the  Lurs 
and  Bakhtiaris.  The  Kurds,  the  Lurs  and  the  Bakhtiaris 
are  all  strong  semi-nomadic  tribes  with  which  the  Mission 
has  established  friendly  relations  and  who  are  in  dire  need 
of  all  the  help  that  the  Gospel,  with  its  ministries  of  healing 
and  enlightenment,  can  bring  to  them.  Of  this  Kurdish  work 
I  shall  speak  separately.  Of  the  Hamadan  field  Mr.  Zoeckler 
wrote  in  a  paper  prepared  for  our  visit : 

"The  Hamadan  field  naturally  divides  itself  into  four  main 
divisions  each  having  a  fairly  centrally  located  city;  the  Kur- 
distan section  with  Senneh  as  its  center,  Hamadan  with  the 
city  of  Hamadan  as  its  center,  Araq  with  Sultanabad  as  its 
center  and  Malayir  with  Douiatabad  as  its  center.  The  means 
of  communication,  so  far  as  our  work  is  concerned,  have  not 
been  materially  changed  or  improved  in  recent  years.  We 
have  to  deal  with  a  mixed  population  speaking  no  less  than 
six  languages  two  of  which  have  several  dialects,  and  though 
it  is  frequently  possible  to  reach  a  large  percentage  of  the  men 
through  the  medium  of  the  Persian  language  the  women  know 
only  the  language  of  the  village  in  which  they  live.  For  our 
present  condition,  however,  we  can  practically  disregard  two 
of  these  languages,  Armenian  and  Syriac.  Persian,  Turkish, 
Kurdish  and  Lurish,  the  latter  two  with  their  dialects  we  will 

519 


be  called  upon  to  employ  in  reaching  the  entire  field,  for 
though  there  is  a  considerable  colony  of  Armenians  in  the 
Kamareh  district  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  Sultanabad  and 
colonies  of  Jews  in  all  the  important  centers  of  the  field,  to 
both  of  which  peoples  we  owe  consideration,  our  principal 
problem  in  the  outside  field  is  that  of  reaching  the  Moslem 
population.  Aside  from  its  more  than  one  thousand  villages 
the  Malayir  division  alone  includes  the  cities  of  Doulatabad, 
Tuserkan,  Nehavend,  Burujird  and  Khoramabad  and  all  of 
the  Pish-Kuh  Luristan.  This  group  of  villages  is  not  far  from 
the  Lurish  border  and  its  people  are  in  constant  contact  with 
the  people  of  Luristan.  Close  to  this  group  of  villages  are 
a  number  of  half  Lurish  villages  which  will  form  even  a 
closer  link  with  Luristan.  Reaching  the  field,  whether  in  the 
farther  advanced  stage  when  we  have  work  throughout  large 
sections  of  the  field,  or  whether  in  the  immediate  future  when 
we  may  have  only  a  comparatively  small  amount  of  village 
work  under  way,  can  be  done  only  by  adequate  itineration  on 
the  part  of  the  missionary  force." 

The  Hamadan  plain  itself  is  a  rich  and  appealing  field. 
Coming  down  from  the  Assadabad  Pass  one  counts  scores  of 
large  villages.  In  not  one  of  these  at  present  is  there  a  per- 
manent Christian  group.  One  man  might  well  put  in  all  of 
his  time  for  five  years  carrying  out  a  consecutive  plan  for 
the  evangelization  of  this  one  plain.  The  large  number  of 
Assyrian  Christians  now  scattered  through  these  villages 
afford  at  once  a  great  number  of  new  and  friendly  points  of 
contact. 

4.  The  Resht  field  is  unlike  any  other  field  in  the  Mission. 
It  lies  wholly  on  the  southern  shore  of  the  Caspian  between 
the  sea  and  mountains.  It  is  not  a  village  field  at  all.  With 
the  exception  of  Resht  and  a  few  towns  like  Lehijan,  which 
has  a  population  of  7,000,  the  people  live  in  scattered  home- 
steads. 300,000  live  within  forty  miles  of  Resht.  A  plan 
of  village  itineration,  Dr.  Frame  thinks,  is  impossible.  It 
must  be  replaced  by  work  in  Resht  and  at  a  few  other  points 
which  will  be  available  as  disseminating  centers,  and  by  some 
plan  of  systematic  visitation  of  the  markets  which  are  held 
regularly  at  appointed  places  and  where  all  the  people  of  the 
countryside  come  together. 

5.  The  province  of  Khorasan  in  northeastern  Persia  cor- 
responds to  the  province  of  Azerbaijan  in  northwestern 
Persia.  The  population  of  Khorasan  is  slightly  less,  but  its 
area  is  considerably  greater.  Azerbaijan  has  the  two  strong 
stations  of  Tabriz  and  Urumia  while  the  evangelization  of 

520 


Khorasan  falls  to  Meshed  alone.  No  new  station  is  asked 
for  at  the  present  time,  but  Meshed  should  be  re-enforced. 
It  is  asking  for  three  more  ordained  men  for  evangelistic 
itineration,  one  ordained  man  for  educational  work,  and  at 
least  one  additional  doctor  for  medical  itineration.  There  are 
many  centers  which  the  station  wishes  to  be  able  to  visit,  for 
periods  of  from  one  to  two  months  each,  annually,  such  as 
Nishapur,  Subsavar,  Bujnurd,  Kuchan,  Turbat,  Tun,  Birjand, 
and  Seistan,  (Nasirabad).  Birjand  and  Nasirabad  lie  south 
of  the  line  of  division  between  our  field  and  that  of  the  C.  M. 
S.,  but  a  wide  desert  separates  them  from  the  C.  M.  S.  sta- 
tions, and  the  C.  M.  S.  missionaries  have  rejoiced  to  have  our 
Meshed  force  cover  this  field.  Meshed  is  already  reaching 
many  people  from  Afghanistan  and  Turkestan  who  come  to 
Meshed  on  errands  of  trade  or  religion,  and  many  of  whom 
come  into  the  Meshed  hospital.  To  go  through  the  hospital 
and  read  the  home  cities  of  the  different  patients  inscribed 
on  the  chart  at  the  head  of  each  bed  is  to  gain  an  idea  of  the 
far-reaching  influence  which  such  an  institution  exerts.  Herat 
in  Afghanistan  and  Merv  in  Turkestan  are  less  than  half  as 
far  from  Meshed  as  Meshed  is  from  Teheran.  The  station 
ought  to  be  staffed  strongly  enough  to  enable  it  to  send  out 
prospectors  into  these  nearby  fields.  They  are  already,  or  if 
not  they  will  soon  become,  accessible  to  missionary  work,  and 
Meshed  is  the  natural  center  from  which  the  work  which  must 
be  established  in  these  fields  should  be  projected. 

We  have  long  waited  for  the  opening  of  Afghanistan.  It 
was  in  large  part  with  a  view  to  entering  that  field  when  the 
time  should  be  ripe  that  the  Meshed  station  was  established. 
Already  there  are  many  signs  of  the  passing  of  the  old  day 
of  rigid  seclusion.  We  were  in  India  just  after  the  successful 
issue  of  the  negotiations  for  a  new  treaty  between  India  and 
Afghanistan  and  had  a  long  talk  inFarrukhabad  with  a  nephew 
of  two  of  the  most  prominent  Afghan  officials  on  the  treaty 
commission  who  had  publicly  accepted  Christ  and  was  hoping 
some  day  to  return  to  Afghanistan  to  preach  Him.  Members 
of  the  Afghan  ruling  family  have  recently  been  abroad  an- 
nouncing a  new  policy  of  hospitality  to  foreigners  on  the  part 
of  their  country.  In  Meshed,  as  I  have  reported  elsewhere, 
we  met  Professor  Foucher  of  the  Sorbonne,  who  was  on  his 
way,  with  the  approval  of  the  Afghan  Government,  to  make 
archaeological  investigations  in  northern  Afghanistan.  The 
country  is  at  last  sending  its  young  men  abroad  for  education 
also,  and  the  history  of  Japan  and  of  Persia  shows  what  is 
sure  to  happen  when  the  young  men  of  the  nation  are  sub- 

521 


jected  to  the  expansive  and  liberalizing  influence  of  study 
in  the  West.  In  a  statement  on  "Modern  Persian  and  Afghan 
Thinking"  which  he  gave  me  in  Meshed,  Mr.  Donaldson  re- 
ports the  ceremony  of  the  sending  out  of  this  first  deputation 
of  foreign  students : 

"In  a  little  weekly  magazine  published  in  the  Persian  lan- 
guage in  Kabul,  called  the  Iman-ul-Afghan,  dated  the  8th 
of  November,  1921,  I  have  at  hand  a  full  report  of  an  inter- 
esting function  before  -His  Highness  Amanullah  Khan,  the 
Amir  of  Afghanistan.  A  group  of  young  men  were  being 
sent  at  government  expense  to  study  in  Europe  and  America, 
and  this  occasion  was  an  official  send-off.  A  few  quotations 
from  some  of  the  speeches  that  were  made  are  suggestive  of 
changes  that  have  been  taking  place  in  the  public  sentiment 
of  Afghanistan. 

"First,  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  addressed  the  Amir 
and  the  assembled  company.  *In  the  first  place,'  he  said,  *as 
one  of  the  fathers  of  the  boys  who  are  going  away,  I  wish  to 
emphasize  that  we  are  to  remember  that  these  young  men  are 
leaving  their  native  country  as  a  patriotic  and  as  a  religious 
duty.  Although  the  Amir  began  his  reign  with  a  religious 
war  (iahad)  that  has  improved  the  position  of  Afghanistan, 
nevertheless  he  is  now  undertaking  a  more  important  religious 
war — against  folly  and  ignorance,  in  that  these  our  own  dear- 
est sons  are  being  sent  abroad  to  study  science  and  philosophy. 
And  this  is  quite  in  accord  with  our  religion,  for  we  should 
take  pains  to  know  the  science  and  philosophy  even  of  the 
lost  peoples.  It  is  not  incumbent  upon  us  on  this  occasion 
to  weep  at  the  departure  of  these  our  boys,  but  to  sing  and 
be  happy,  for  there  is  every  probability  that  their  going  will 
result  in  the  advancement  of  our  country.  We  who  are  fathers 
are  not  able,  in  fact,  to  express  our  gratitude,  but  can  only 
say  to  the  Amir,  our  sovereign,  that  we  thank  him,  and  shout 
sincerely,  "Long  live  the  Amir."  ' 

"The  Amir  himself  then  arose  and  replied  as  follows:  'I 
am  hoping  for  the  good  name  of  these  young  men,  both  those 
chosen  from  the  people  and  those  of  the  royal  family.  And 
in  regard  to  this  service  on  my  part,  if  fortune  should  favor, 
and  when  you  return  I  should  be  living,  that  will  be  good,  and 
if  I  should  be  dead,  you  can  come  to  my  tomb  and  enumerate 
your  accomplishments,  one  by  one,  and  after  that  I  will  rest 
in  my  grave  in  peace.  So  now  I  commit  you  unto  God.  Go 
in  peace,  and  may  you  return.' 

"There  were  other  addresses,  notably  a  rather  long  one  by 
one   of  the   Afghan    schoolmasters,   but   a   most   significant 

522 


feature  followed,  namely,  the  presentation  of  money  contribu- 
tions, on  the  part  of  fathers  who  were  not  sending  sons,  to  help 
pay  the  cost  of  sending  this  group  of  young  men  to  study." 

This  area  of  the  very  heart  of  Asia  was  in  the  mind  of  the 
Board  in  the  beginning  of  its  history.  In  the  earliest 
reports  of  the  Board  in  1835  and  1836  it  declared  its  purpose 
to  press  forward  into  Afghanistan  and  even  Bokhara  and 
Eastern  Persia.  The  report  of  1835  states  with  regard  to  the 
missionary  occupation  of  the  Punjab :  "Apart  from  the  fact 
that  the  opening  of  the  Indus  and  its  tributaries  to  an  active 
commerce  by  steam  communication,  now  in  contemplation,  and 
the  concentration  of  a  considerable  trade  from  Thibet  and 
Tartary,  through  the  defiles  of  the  mountains,  carrying  back 
into  these  benighted  regions  the  arts  and  religious  light  of 
Christian  nations,  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  the  political  ascend- 
ency of  the  powerful  chief  of  the  Sikh  nation,  already  makes 
the  Punjab  the  most  safe  and  convenient  entrance  into  Cabul, 
Bokhara,  and  Eastern  Persia.  In  these  countries,  it  is  true, 
the  Moslem  faith,  in  a  milder  form  than  in  Western  Asia,  has 
long  prevailed;  but  it  is  believed  that  Christianity  would  even 
now  be  tolerated,  as  Hinduism  is ;  and  Burns  states  that  while 
traveling  in  these  unfrequented  countries,  he  gathered  from 
the  conversation  of  the  Mohammedans  of  Cabul  and  Persia 
among  themselves,  that  there  existed  among  them  a  prediction 
that  Christianity  was  speedily  to  overturn  the  entire  structure 
of  their  faith.  The  Scriptures  have  been  translated  into  the 
Mongolian  language — a  language  spoken  by  many  tribes,  from 
the  shores  of  the  Baikal  to  the  borders  of  Thibet,  and  from 
the  Caspian  to  the  gates  of  Pekin,  including  millions  in  the 
Chinese  empire ;  and  if  our  Society  should  eventually  establish 
a  mission  at  Selinga,  Kiatka,  or  some  other  spot  under  the 
protection  of  a  Christian  power,  in  Asiatic  Russia,  and  an- 
other on  the  borders  of  China  or  Tartary,  on  the  great  thor- 
oughfare from  Pekin  to  Tobolsk  and  St.  Petersburg,  these 
two  remote  positions  would  stand  towards  each  other,  and 
the  great  plateau  of  Central  Asia,  in  the  most  interesting 
and  powerful  relation." 

The  report  of  1836  speaks  of  the  station  at  Ludhiana  which 
had  been  organized  and  to  which  new  missionaries  were 
going:  "At  Ludhiana  there  are  residing  at  present,  under 
the  protection  of  the  British  Government,  two  exiled  kings 
from  Afghanistan,  who  have  their ,  followers  with  them  to 
the  number  of  2,000  or  upward.  There  are  also  more  than 
3,500  Kashmirians  residing  at  that  station,  and  many  at 
other  towns  in   Upper  India,   who  were   driven  from  their 

528 


native  valley  by  famine  and  by  the  oppression  of  their  rulers. 
They  are  employed  in  manufacturing  the  fine  fabrics  for 
which  their  country  is  so  celebrated,  and  they  retain  the  lan- 
guage and  the  usages  of  the  tribe  of  the  Hindu  family  to 
M^hich  they  belong.  Owing  to  the  residence  of  these  people 
at  the  principal  missionary  station,  everj^  opportunity  is 
afforded  of  learning  the  language  of  those  countries,  and 
among  them  making  known  the  way  of  forgiveness  of  sins 
through  the  risen  Saviour.  The  opening  of  Divine  Providence, 
in  thus  bringing  such  large  portions  of  two  nations  who  have 
never  heard  of  Christ  to  the  very  door  of  missionary  opera- 
tions, was  too  plain  to  be  neglected.  One  of  the  brethren  of 
the  next  reinforcement  will  be  appointed  a  missionary  to 
Kashmir,  and  another  of  them  to  Afghanistan.  Until  they 
have  learned  the  respective  languages,  these  brethren  will 
reside  at  Ludhiana,  and  in  every  way  endeavor  to  promote 
the  best  interests  of  those  to  whom  they  are  sent." 

Surely  before  a  century  is  completed  we  ought  to  have 
begun  to  fulfill  these  great  purposes  of  the  founders  and  to 
have  laid  the  foundations  of  a  Mission  in  Khorasan,  Afghan- 
istan, Turkestan,  and  Bokhara  which  would  have  mission 
stations  in  Meshed,  Herat,  Balkh,  Bokhara,  Samarkand,  and 
Merv,  and  in  due  time  in  Khiva,  Tashkend  and  Khokand. 
Those  men  are  to  be  envied  to  whom  the  privilege  of  pioneer- 
ing such  a  mission  can  be  given. 

6.  The  Kurdish  Field.  For  more  than  half  a  century  our 
Urumia  missionaries,  through  the  Mountain  Work  in  Turkey 
and  the  hospital  in  Urumia  have  sustained  a  closer  relation- 
ship to  the  Kurdish  people  than  perhaps  any  other  mission- 
aries. The  story  of  these  relations  is  told  in  part  in  the  lives 
of  Dr.  Grant  and  Mr,  Rhea  and  more  fully  in  the  Biography 
of  Dr.  Cochran.  They  have  been  a  wild  and  unbroken  people, 
however,  and  there  has  never  been  any  adequate  effort  made 
to  reach  them. 

The  Kurds  were  estimated  to  number  before  the  war  about 
3,000,000  of  whom  600,000  lived  in  Persia  and  the  remainder 
in  Turkey.  Dr.  Packard,  who  knows  the  Kurdish  problem 
as  well  as  any  man  and  whose  medical  work  has  brought  him 
the  friendship  of  many  of  the  leading  Kurdish  chiefs,  made 
a  comprehensive  and  illuminating  statement  at  our  confer- 
ences at  Tabriz.  One-third  of  the  Kurds,  it  is  estimated,  were 
wiped  out  by  the  war.  They  are  believed  to  be  the  descendants 
of  the  Karduchi  of  Xenophon's  Anabasis,  and  they  live  in  a 
territory  circumscribed  by  the  cities  of  Urumia,  Hamadan, 
and   Kermanshah  in   Persia   and   Mosul,   Mardin,   Diarbekr, 

524 


Harput,  Bitlis,  and  Van  in  Turkey.  There  are  four  branches 
of  the  Kurds  speaking  various  dialects:  (1)  the  Hakkiari 
tribes  who  are  the  largest  branch  and  who  speak  Kirmanji; 
(2)  a  smaller  section  who  speak  Mukri.  Most  of  the  Persian 
Kurds  with  their  center  around  Soujbulak  speak  this  lan- 
guage. The  Mukri  Kurdish  is  much  more  nearly  related  to 
the  Persian  language  than  is  the  Kirmanji.  (3)  The  Jaff 
Kurds  inhabit  the  upper  stretches  of  Mesopotamia,  the  water 
shed  between  Persia  and  Turkey,  extending  from  the  Urumia 
region  to  Jezireh.  The  Jaff  Kurdish  is  nearest  to  the  Kurdish 
original  and  the  Jaff  Kurds  are  the  most  likely  descendants 
of  the  folk  who  gave  Xenophon  so  much  trouble.  (4)  The 
Shekoik  Kurds  between  the  Salmas  plain  and  Van  are 
of  the  Hakkiari  Kurds,  the  great  central  body.  Ismail  Agha 
or  Simko  who  now  controls  Urumia  is  the  head  of  the  Abdouy 
branch  of  the  Shekoik  Kurds. 

The  contact  of  our  mission  with  the  Kurds  began  in  Dr. 
Grant's  time,  eighty  years  ago.  The  missionaries  itinerating 
in  the  mountains  have  constantly  been  in  contact  with  the 
Kurds  and  have  met  both  with  friendship  and  with  repeated 
robbery  at  their  hands.  Kurdish  patients  have  come  from  all 
over  Kurdistan,  as  far  as  Bitlis  and  Mosul,  to  the  Urumia 
hospital.  No  men  have  had  more  influence  among  them  than 
Dr.  Cochran  and  Dr.  Packard.  Perhaps  the  way  had  not  been 
opened  hitherto  for  a  direct  and  effective  attempt  to  reach 
the  Kurds,  but  it  may  be,  on  the  other  hand,  that  such  an 
effort  made  years  ago  might  have  done  something  to  divert 
the  sufferings  that  have  come  through  the  Kurds  both  on  the 
Assyrian  and  the  Armenian  people  and  on  the  Missions  in 
Turkey  and  in  Persia  and  on  the  Kurds  themselves.  In  any 
event,  it  is  clearly  our  duty  now  to  project  a  more  adequate 
missionary  effort  among  these  virile,  impulsive,  and  sturdy 
people. 

The  small  mission  to  the  Kurds  in  Soujbulak,  maintained 
by  some  of  the  Lutheran  congregations  in  the  United  States 
through  the  Lutheran  Orient  Mission  Society,  incorporated 
in  Minnesota  in  1913,  represents  a  devoted  effort  to  reach  one 
section  of  this  large  Kurdish  field.  Our  West  Persia  Mission 
began  work  in  Soujbulak  forty  years  ago  by  sending  there 
Mirza  Mesrof  Khan,  who  is  now  living  in  Tabriz,  one  of  the 
trusted  leaders  in  the  church  there,  and  filling  an  honored 
place  under  the  Persian  Government  in  the  tax  and  revenue 
department.  Soujbulak  was  constantly  visited  also  in  mis- 
sionary tours.  When  in  1905  the  Rev.  L.  0.  Fossum  came 
as  an  independent  Lutheran  missionary  to  Urumia,  the  Mis- 

525 


sion  urged  him  to  settle  instead  in  Soujbulak  and  take  up 
work  for  the  Kurds.  He  was  later  reinforced,  but  his  death 
from  fever  and  the  disturbance  of  the  war  and  the  murder 
in  October,  1921,  of  Mr.  Bachimont  by  the  Kurds  under 
Simko  has  broken  up  the  Mission  for  the  present,  and  the 
earnest  women  who  have  been  left  are  working  efficiently  and 
happily  with  our  own  Mission  in  Tabriz.  The  Lutheran 
churches  supporting  the  Mission  have  met  these  heavy  trials 
with  a  courageous  spirit  and  have  issued  an  appeal  which  has 
its  wholesome  lesson  for  all  of  us  who  have  been  called,  as 
our  Lutheran  friends  have  been,  and  who  may  be  called  again, 
to  face  death  and  disaster  at  the  hands  of  those  whom  we 
have  come  to  help.  I  venture  to  quote  two  paragraphs  from 
this  truly  Christian  appeal: 

"Let  us  pause  for  a  moment  and  look  back  over  history's 
pages  that  we  may  not  judge  ourselves  in  that  we  pass  judg- 
ment on  others.  Were  not  the  British  Christians  mercilessly 
driven  from  their  abodes,  and  their  churches  and  homes  de- 
stroyed by  the  Saxons  in  the  5th  century?  Did  not  King 
Radbod  of  Friesland,  intoxicated  by  successes  of  war  in  716, 
devastate  all  the  fruits  of  Willibrord's  labors  in  that  country? 
Did  not  Boniface,  the  papal  ambassador  and  missionary  to 
Friesland,  attired  as  a  priest  robed  for  festivity,  die  at  the 
hands  of  a  mob  from  among  the  same  people  39  years  later? 
Did  not  the  Prussians  in  977  treacherously  murder  the  noble 
missionary,  Adalbert?  The  sad  news  that  the  heathen  at 
Birks,  Sweden,  had  killed  or  imprisoned  all  the  Christians, 
did  not  discourage  Ansgar,  the  Apostle  of  the  North.  And 
did  not  the  first  Christian  king  of  Norway,  King  Haakon 
the  Good,  burn  with  anger  and  threaten  revenge  when  the 
Treniers  at  Mere  had  destroyed  the  churches  and  killed  the 
pastors  in  about  950?  These  are  our  ancestors.  The  Eng- 
lish, Germans,  Scandinavians  of  today  would  not  have  been 
what  they  are  were  it  not  for  the  determination  of  the  mis- 
sionaries who  halted  at  no  obstacles.  An  incident  from  Norse 
history  occurs  to  my  mind.  King  Haakon  the  Good,  engaged 
in  battle,  is  lost  sight  of  by  his  comrades,  and  Giviad  Skrnia 
calls  out:  'Where  is  the  Norseman's  king?  Has  he  fled,  or 
where  is  the  golden  helmet?'  To  this  the  king,  at  the  front 
of  the  battle  line,  answers:  'Continue  steadily  towards  our 
goal,  and  you  will  find  the  king  of  the  Norsemen.'  The  pioneer 
missionary  to  the  Moslems,  Raymond  Lull,  the  noble  Major- 
can,  courted  martyrdom  and  gave  his  life  at  Borgia,  Africa, 
in  1314.  May  his  words  never  be  forgotten  by  the  pioneer 
Ijutheran  Society  working  among  the  Kurds :    'Let  Christians 

526 


consumed  with  burning  love  for  the  cause  of  faith  only  con- 
sider that  since  nothing  has  power  to  withstand  truth,  they 
can  by  God's  help  and  His  might  bring  infidels  back  to  the 
faith,  so  that  the  precious  name  of  Jesus,  which  in  most 
regions  is  still  unknown  to  most  men,' may  be  proclaimed  and 
adored.'    Sorrow  had  befallen  us,  but  can  we  be  dismayed? 

"Looking  for  a  man  to  send  as  missionary  to  Denmark, 
Lewis  the  Pious  asked :  'Where  will  we  find  a  man  who  loves 
God  so  dearly  that  he  will  accept  the  dangerous  task  for 
Christ's  sake?'  Well  may  we  ask  the  same  question.  God 
grant  that  an  'Answer'  may  come  to  us,  as  'The  Apostle  of 
the  North'  came  to  Lewis  the  Pious." 

It  is  in  this  spirit  that  we  should  go  forward  with  our  own 
large  responsibility  towards  the  Kurds.  We  ought  to  use  every 
present  opportunity  in  our  station  work  to  reach  them.  The 
Resht  station  might  well  put  forth  special  effort  to  reach  the 
large  numbers  of  Kurds  who  come  down  to  Resht  in  the  fall 
from  Kurdistan  and  who  return  in  the  spring.  We  met  hun- 
dreds of  them  upon  the  road,  men,  women  and  children  trudg- 
ing back  to  their  mountain  homes  in  the  first  flush  of  the 
springtime  with  heavy  bags  of  rice  upon  their  backs.  The 
Kurdish  population  is  one  of  the  chief  groups  to  be  reached 
in  the  Resht  area,  and,  as  they  are  migrants,  whatever  they 
learn  in  Resht  will  be  scattered  in  a  hundred  villages  from 
Ardabil  to  Bijar.  Dr.  Packard  says  that  many  of  tne  Kurds 
in  the  Kermanshah  region  are  not  three  hundred  years  re- 
moved from  Christianity  and  that  they  are  altogether  ready 
to  come  under  Christian  influence.  Some  of  the  Kurdish  chiefs 
belong  to  the  sect  of  the  Ali  Illahees  and  are  alleged  to  have 
appealed  to  the  British  consul  in  Kermanshah  for  protection 
in  case  they  should  come  back  to  Christian  allegiance. 

Miss  Mary  Jewett  worked  a  great  deal  among  these  Ali 
Illahee  people.  She  wrote  of  them:  "They  call  themselves 
'The  People  of  Lies.'  Hiding  their  light  under  a  bushel,  it 
has  gone  out.  All  lie  and  deceive,  swear  and  revile.  Many 
of  them  are  wild  men — highway  men  and  robbers.  Chameleon- 
like, they  adopt  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  people  among 
whom  they  dwell,  'accommodating  themselves  to  their  sur- 
roundings, providing  they  are  not  able  to  overcome  them.' 
.  .  .  Their  religion  is  a  strange  combination  of  truth  and 
falsehood,  mostly  falsehood.  They  do  not  accept  the  Koran 
or  Mohammed.  They  say  they  have  a  sacred  book  of  their 
own,  but  it  is  too  sacred  for  profane  eyes.  They  hold  to  the 
traditions  of  their  ancestors  and  these  traditions  handed  down 
from  father  to  son,  they  call  a  'white  book,'  as  they  say,  'writ- 

527 


ten  on  our  hearts.'  There  is  one  Benyamen  (Benjamin)  for 
whom  they  have  a  profound  reverence,  and  whom  they  call 
a  prophet.  He  lived  a  long  time  ago  in  a  town  called  Khora- 
man  and  was  buried  in  Kerind,  where  there  is  a  shrine  over 
his  grave,  which  they  consider  sacred.  The  history  of  this 
man  is  shrouded  in  mystery.  He  certainly  was  a  man  of  in- 
fluence. A  sign  of  their  nationality  which  he  imposed  upon 
them  is  kept  universally,  viz.,  that  no  man  of  them  shall  ever 
trim  the  mustache,  not  even  a  hair  of  it,  and  you  may  know 
them  everywhere  by  their  long  untrimmed  mustaches.  They 
tell  a  story  of  a  man  who  trimmed  his  mustache  and  was  vis- 
ited with  dire  calamities  as  a  punishment. 

"They  believe  in  the  transmigration  of  souls.  After  a  man 
dies  his  soul  wanders  about  for  a  thousand  and  one  years, 
when  it  again  enters  a  human  body  and  lives  again.  If  he 
was  a  wicked  man,  he  may  be  punished  by  having  to  enter 
into  the  body  of  an  animal.  There  is  a  story  of  two  brothers 
who  quarreled.  One  drove  the  other  away  and  he  never 
heard  of  him  again.  One  night,  an  old,  sick  donkey  came 
and  laid  down  at  his  gate  and  died.  He  thought  it  was  his 
brother  come  home  to  die.  So  he  had  the  dead  donkey  buried 
with  all  honor,  and  this  atoned  for  the  wrong  he  had  done  his 
brother. 

"It  is  given  to  some  who  live  a  very  devout  and  holy  life 
to  become  God  Himself.  So  God  appears  at  different  times, 
in  different  forms,  in  different  human  beings.  Thus  Moses, 
Gabriel,  Jesus  Christ,  Ali,  Benjamin,  Henry  Martyn,  David 
Livingstone  and  others  were  one  and  the  same  God,  manifested 
in  the  flesh.  Many  of  them  are  Pantheists.  Some  worship 
Satan.  Some  worship  fire.  ...  As  the  Ali  Allahees  do  not 
keep  the  Moslem  fast,  or  make  the  Moslem  prayers,  they  are 
often  called  upon  to  practice  deceit  when  thrown  among  Mos- 
lems. They  are  very  hospitable  and  not  forgetful  to  entertain 
strangers.  They  receive  the  missionary  with  apparent  love 
and  kindness.  Some  call  themselves  Christians.  Some  ac- 
knowledge their  sins  and  long  for  a  better  life."  ("Twenty- 
five  Years  in  Persia,"  pp.  16-18.) 

In  Urumia  and  Kermanshah  and  Mosul  we  have  three  sta- 
tions surrounding  the  Kurdish  field  and  in  each  of  these  sta- 
tions there  should  be  at  least  one  missionary  who  knows 
Kurdish  and  whose  chief  work  is  Kurdish  evangelization.  Sen- 
neh  also  is  directly  among  the  Kurds.  The  Urumia  hospital, 
when  it  is  reopened  will  furnish  one  wide  door  of  approach. 
We  have  another  in  the  Kurdish  orphanage  in  Kermanshah, 
and  Kasha  Keena's  letter  which  I  have  quoted  in  the  section 

528 


of  this  report  on  the  reoccupation  of  Urumia  speaks  of  the 
new  opportunity  in  the  Mountains  to  bear  a  message  of  love 
and  reconciliation  to  those  at  whose  hands  the  Christian 
people  of  the  Mountains  have  suffered  for  many  centuries. 
There  are  those,  of  course,  who  say  of  the  Kurds  what  used 
to  be  said  of  the  American  Indians,  "There  is  no  good  Kurd, 
but  a  dead  Kurd."  I  spoke  of  this  view  to  a  group  of  the 
Urumia  Mohammedans  in  Tabriz  and  asked  them  whether 
they  did  not  think  that  the  sufferings  of  the  Mohammedans 
and  Christians  in  Urumia  at  the  hands  of  the  Kurds  might 
have  been  prevented  if  years  ago  the  Kurds  had  been  reached 
by  good  will  and  kindness.  After  Simko  was  dead  they 
thought  such  a  policy  might  be  wise,  and  I  told  them  of  what 
had  been  done  for  the  American  Indian  and  of  the  duty  which 
our  Mission  feels  so  clearly  to  reconcile  Kurd  and  Moham- 
medan and  Christian,  where  alone  they  can  be  reconciled,  in 
the  faith  and  service  of  Christ.  And  even  in  such  characters 
as  Simko,  with  all  their  wildness,  there  are  great  elements 
of  good  which  ought  to  be  subdued  to  the  fearless  loyalty  of 
the  Saviour. 

7.  The  Native  Church  and  the  Occupation  of  the  Field. 
The  native  churches  in  Tabriz  and  Teheran  have  made  great 
progress  since  I  visited  them  twenty-five  years  ago.  They 
seemed  to  us  to  be  really  living  forces.  The  three  congrega- 
tions in  Tabriz  had  each  its  own  minister,  the  Armenian  con- 
gregation Baron  Arsen  Khachigian,  the  Assyrian  congrega- 
tion Kasha  Babilla  Shimmon,  and  the  Turkish  speaking  con- 
gregation Kasha  Moorhatch.  These  are  unusually  strong  men, 
and  the  Armenian  and  the  Syrian  congregations  were  well 
on  the  wa}^  towards  self-support.  The  Teheran  church  has 
developed  greatly  under  the  responsibilities  which  have  been 
left  to  it  by  the  Mission,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  may 
soon  have  either  one  duly  installed  native  pastor  or  two,  one 
for  the  Armenian  and  the  other  for  the  Persian  congregation, 
and  that  in  the  case  of  all  these  organizations  both  in  Tabriz 
and  in  Teheran,  the  real  leadership  and  obligation  can  be 
laid  upon  native  shoulders.  In  Hamadan  the  missionaries 
felt  that  the  churches  had  made  very  little  progress  since 
twenty-five  years  ago.  Both  in  finances  and  in  church  activity 
their  feelings  towards  the  missionaries  were  so  wholly  filial 
that  while  they  were  ready  to  give  in  some  measure  they 
wanted  the  missionaries  to  take  the  leadership  and  hold  the 
administration  in  their  own  hands.  Mr.  Allen  presented  to 
our  station  conference  in  Hamadan  a  very  plain  speaking 
statement  of  the  unsatisfactory  situatior;.     This  problem  of 

529 


dependent  and  anemic  churcheri  is  to  be  dealt  with  in  two 
ways.  On  the  one  hand  missionaries  may  simply  refuse  to 
discharge  responsibilities  which  do  not  belong  to  them.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  may  seek  to  bring  the  church  into  its 
true  life  by  enhsting  it,  and  the  sooner  this  is  done  the  easier 
it  will  be,  in  the  aggressive  work  of  evangelization.  Some- 
thing is  to  be  said,  no  doubt,  for  the  poHcy  of  discouraging 
immature  Christians  from  propagating  misleading  concep- 
tions of  Christianity,  but  if  on  the  other  hand  the  native 
church  does  no  propaganda  until  all  its  members  have  had  an 
adequate  theological  training,  it  will  never  be  a  propagating 
force  at  all.  It  may  well  be  that  certain  members  of  the 
church  should  be  set  aside  for  the  more  explicit  and  direct 
evangelistic  work,  but  it  should  be  the  responsibility  of  the 
church  to  set  them  aside,  and  every  member  of  the  church 
and  every  inquirer  and  catechumen  should  be  taught  from  the 
outset  to  share  whatever  knowledge  of  Christianity  he  has 
gained  or  at  least  whatever  interest  in  Christianty  he  has 
acquired. 

The  Armenian  people  have  a  natural  and  praiseworthy 
devotion  to  their  own  language.  In  Teheran  the  only  mis- 
sionary who  speaks  Armenian  now  is  Mrs.  Schuler,  and  in 
Hamadan  Mrs.  Funk.  In  each  of  these  stations  the  Armenian 
men  know  Persian  but  the  women  as  a  rule  do  not.  It  would 
be  desirable  if  in  each  of  these  stations  some  one  of  the  men 
and  also  one  of  the  single  women  should  know  Armenian,  but 
the  Armenian  population  is  not  large,  and  in  each  station 
the  natural  desire  of  the  people  to  have  a  minister  who  would 
preach  to  them  in  their  own  language  and  in  their  own  lan- 
guage baptize  and  marry  the  living  and  bury  the  dead  ought 
to  be  met  by  the  consecration  to  the  Christian  ministry  of 
young  Armenian  men  from  the  evangelical  Armenian  com- 
munities themselves.  It  is  estimated  that  ther-3  are  500 
Armenians  altogether  in  Hamadan  and  3,000  in  Teheran.  In 
each  case  the  majority  have  a  nominal  attachment  to  the  Gre- 
gorian Church,  but  in  reality  their  Armenianism  is  national 
and  not  religious.  In  Tabriz,  where  Mr.  Pittman,  Mrs.  Pitt- 
man,  Miss  Beeber,  and  Miss  Johnson  all  speak  Armenian,  the 
Armenian  population  is  estimated  at  4,500,  of  whom  nine- 
tenths  do  not  attend  church  services  at  all  while  the  remainder 
are  divided  between  the  Gregorian,  Protestant  and  Roman 
Catholic  congregations. 

Persia  has  an  area  of  630,000  square  miles,  equal  to  two- 
thirds  of  the  area  of  the  United  States  east  of  the  Mississippi 
River.     Approximately  one-half  of  this  is  the  territory  of 

530 


our  two  Persia  Missions.  Scattered  over  this  large  area  of 
northern  Persia  is  a  population  for  which  our  Mission  is 
responsible  about  that  of  the  population  of  Illinois.  For  this 
population  there  is  a  total  missionary  force,  including  wives, 
of  95  missionaries,  while  there  are  1,000  ordained  Protestant 
ministers  in  the  city  of  Chicago  alone,  and  3,500  in  the  State 
of  Illinois.  How  many  more  missionaries  ought  there  to  be 
adequately  to  occupy  northern  Persia  and  to  do  the  work  of 
founding  in  this  great  and  difficult  field  a  living  church  of 
converts  from  Mohammedanism  which  will  bear  Christ  to 
every  city  and  village  and  soul  in  Persia? 

S.  S.  Constantinople, 

Mediterranean  Sea,  May  9,  1922. 


681 


13.     THE  CALL  OF  MESOPOTAMIA 

For  several  years  the  five  foreign  mission  agencies  of  the 
Presbyterian  and  the  Reformed  Churches  (namely  the  Board 
of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S. 
A.,  the  Executive  Committee  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  the  U.  S.,  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church,  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America,  and  the  Board 
of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  the  United 
States)  have  had  under  consideration  a  plan  for  their  con- 
solidation in  one  united  foreign  missionary  organization.  The 
full  story  of  the  negotiations,  together  with  an  outline  of  the 
plan  and  the  favorable  or  sympathetic  actions  of  the  different 
Boards  and  their  superior  ecclesiastical  bodies,  is  set  forth 
in  a  printed  statement  which  the  Boards  have  issued  and 
need  not  be  reviewed  here.  Pending  the  further  development 
of  any  such  plan  it  was  suggested  by  Dr.  Chamberlain  and 
Dr.  McKenzie  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  in  America  after  their  visit  to  Asia  in  1920 
that  a  beginning  might  be  made,  either  by  the  territorial 
apportionment  of  missionary  responsibility  for  the  Persian 
Gulf  area  and  for  Mesopotamia  among  the  five  Boards  in- 
volved or  by  their  establishment  of  a  united  mission,  to  care 
for  this  mission  territory. 

Dr.  Chamberlain  and  Dr.  McKenzie  visited  Arabia  and  Meso- 
potamia in  October,  1920,  and  conferred  with  the  Presbyterian 
and  Reformed  missionaries  on  the  field  and  with  the  British 
Mandatory  Authority.  As  a  result  they  came  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  joint  occupation  of  the  field  by  a  united  mission 
would  be  the  wisest  arrangement.  This  proposal  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  on  Janu- 
ary 17,  1921,  and  the  following  action  was  taken: 

"The  Council  reported  a  conference  with  Dr.  McKenzie,  Dr.  Cham- 
berlain, Mr.  Potter  and  Dr.  Warnshuis  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America  with  reference  to  the  missionary 
occupation  of  Mesopotamia.  Dr.  Mackenzie  and  Dr.  Chamberlain  had 
just  returned  from  Mesopotamia  and  brought  with  them  a  recommen- 
dation of  the  Arabian  Mission  of  the  Reformed  Church  of  America  urg- 
ing the  establishment  of  a  union  mission  in  Mesopotamia,  to  be  supported 
and  administered  jointly  by  the  Presbyterian  and  Reformed  Boards. 
It  was  voted  to  approve  the  recommendation  of  this  conference'between 

532 


the  officers  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  and  the  Board  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  America,  as  follows: 

"1.  That  the  Presbyterian  Board  would  gladly  join  with  the  four 
other  Boards  proposed  in  the  conducting:  of  a  joint  mission  in  Mesopo- 
tamia, to  be  staffed  and  supported  by  the  five  Boards,  on  such  a  basis  as 
might  be  arranged. 

"2.  That  if  the  Boards  of  the  Southern  Presbyterian,  the  United  Pres- 
byterian Church  and  the  Reformed  Church  in  the  United  States  which 
are  as  yet  less  closely  related  to  the  situation  in  Mesopotamia  do  not  feel 
prepared  now  to  join  in  the  undertaking,  the  Presbyterian  Board  would 
be  prepared  to  join  with  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  America  in  conducting  such  n  unite'H  missionary  work  in 
Mesopotamia  as  might  be  found  practicable. 

"3.  That  pending  any  more  complete  arrangements  for  co-operative 
work,  the  Presbj'terian  Board  would  be  glad  to  approve  of  service  by 
any  of  its  missionaries  in  Persia  who  might  be  released  to  work  in  con- 
nection with  the  Arabian  Mission  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  Mesopo- 
tamia, such  missionaries  to  serve  as  full  members  of  the  Arabian  Mis- 
sion, their  support  to  be  continued  by  the  Presbyterian  Board  through 
the  Persia  Missions.  Mr.  Speer  and  Dr.  White  were  appointed  to  repre- 
sent the  Board  in  further  conference  with  the  representatives  of  the 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America  and  to 
serve  on  a  joint  Committee  to  plan  for  the  proposed  missionary  develop- 
ment in  Mesopotamia." 

The  only  two  of  the  five  Presbyterian  and  Reformed  Boards 
which  seemed  to  be  in  any  position  to  deal  with  the  matter 
were  our  own  Board  and  the  Board  of  the  Reformed  Church 
in  America.  Preparatory  to  any  further  action  in  the  matter 
the  Board  of  the  Reformed  Church  requested  our  deputation 
to  confer  with  the  missionaries  of  that  Board  in  the  Arabian 
Mission, 

We  have  been  very  happy  to  fulfill  this  commission  so  far 
as  was  possible.  We  were  not  able  to  visit  Arabia,  as  I  did 
twenty-five  years  ago,  but  we  were  received  with  character- 
istic hospitality  and  friendliness  by  the  missionaries  of  the 
Reformed  Church  in  Basra  and  in  Bagdad  and  went  over 
with  them  fully  the  question  of  the  duty  of  our  two  Churches 
with  regard  to  missionary  work  in  Mesopotamia.  The  con- 
ferences in  Bagdad  embraced  not  only  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Cantine 
of  the  Reformed  Church  but  also  Dr.  and  Mrs.  McDowell  and 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Packard,  Miss  Lamme  and  Miss  Burgess  of  our 
West  Persia  Mission.  In  Mosul  the  conferences  included  Mr. 
Wright  of  our  West  Persia  Mission,  Mr.  Lampard  of  the 
Near  East  Relief,  and  Miss  Martin,  the  only  remaining  mis- 
sionary of  the  C.  M.  S.  in  Mesopotamia.  Later  we  discussed 
the  whole  question  of  the  Mesopotamian  field  carefully  with 

533 


each  one  of  the  East  Persia  stations  and  with  the  West  Persia 
Mission  in  our  long  conferences  in  Tabriz. 

The  population  of  Mesopotamia  is  approximately  three  mil- 
lion. The  majority  of  the  people  are  not  Sunni  Mohammedans 
like  the  Turks  but  Shiah  Mohammedans  like  the  Persians, 
The  Shiah  majority  is  not  very  great  to  be  sure,  but  it  is  great 
enough  to  indicate  the  close  relationship  between  the  Mission 
problem  in  Mesopotamia  and  the  Mission  problem  in  Persia. 
The  great  shrine  of  the  Persian  Mohammedans,  greater  even 
than  Meshed,  is  Kerbala.  Around  Kerbala  and  Nejef  and 
Kufa  cluster  the  affections  of  the  whole  Shiah  Mohammedan 
world.  The  main  cities  of  Mesopotamia  are  Basra,  at  the 
head  of  the  Persian  Gulf  with  a  population  of  75,000,  Amara 
8,000,  Kut  10,000,  Nasiriyeh  8,000,  Kerbala  80,000,  Hillah 
10,000,  Bagdad  150,000,  and  Mosul  100,000.  All  these  figures 
are  approximate.  At  the  time  of  our  visit  the  Reformed 
Church  had  two  missionary  families  and  two  single  women 
missionaries  in  Basra,  one  family  at  Amara  on  the  Tigris 
river  and  one  family  in  Bagdad,  while  our  Mission  had  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  McDowell  and  Miss  Lamme  caring  for  the  Assyrian 
refugees  in  Bagdad  and  Mr.  Wright  working  from  Mosul 
northwards  into  the  mountains.  The  Reformed  Church  had 
also  occupied  Nasiriyeh,  but  the  missionary  located  there  was 
home  on  furlough.  The  Church  Missionary  Society  which 
had  formerly  occupied  both  Bagdad  and  Mosul  has  entirely 
given  up  its  work  in  Mesopotamia  for  financial  reasons,  leav- 
ing a  large  unfinished  hospital  property  in  Bagdad  which  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  McDowell  were  occupying  with  some  of  their  refu- 
gees and  which  Dr.  Cantine  has  power  of  attorney  to  sell.  It 
is  a  good  property,  but  with  some  unsettled  dispute  as  to  its 
boundaries.  The  only  mission  property  in  Mosul  is  a  resi- 
dence with  some  attached  buildings  belonging  personally  to 
Miss  Martin. 

The  clear  conviction  to  which  we  were  all  brought  in  our 
conferences  in  Basra,  Bagdad  and  Mosul  was  that  the  Meso- 
potamian  Mission  should  be  undertaken  as  the  joint  respon- 
sibility of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  America  and  our  own  Board,  with  an  open  door 
for  the  entrance  of  any  of  the  other  Presbyterian  or  Reformed 
Boards  whenever  they  might  be  able  to  join  in  the  enterprise. 
The  administration  of  the  Mission  could  be  cared  for  by  a 
joint  committee  of  the  co-operating  Boards,  operating  in  the 
same  way  as  the  committees  or  trustees  of  union  institutions 
like  the  University  of  Nanking.  In  this  case,  however,  for  the 
present  at  least,  there  would  be  no  need  of  the  legal  incor- 

534 


poration  of  a  new  body.  Each  one  of  the  two  Boards  could 
hold  the  titles  to  any  properties  provided  by  it,  and  the  inti- 
mate acquaintance  and  perfect  mutual  confidence  of  the  two 
Boards  would  make  their  co-operation  in  sqch  an  enterprise 
as  easy  and  delightful  a  co-operative  undertaking  as  has  ever 
been  attempted. 

The  Reformed  Church  missionaries  were  of  the  opinion 
that  for  the  present  at  least  Basra  should  continue  as  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  Arabian  Mission  of  the  Reformed  Church. 
The  city  and  the  work  there  have  relations  with  the  work 
in  all  the  rest  of  Mesopotamia  which  will  inevitably,  I  think, 
relate  them  to  the  new  mission  in  due  time,  but  for  the  present 
its  natural  and  appropriate  relationship  is  to  the  courageous 
and  faithful  Mission  of  which  it  has  hitherto  been  a  part. 
As  soon  as  it  is  prudent  and  helnful.  Hillah  and  Kerbala  should 
be  occupied  in  wavs  which  will  commend  their  occupation  to 
the  good  will  and  friendship  of  the  people.  The  two  stations. 
however,  which  should  be  occupied  carefully  and  effectively 
at  the  earliest  day  are  Bagdad  and  Mosul. 

With  regard  to  Bagdad  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote  from 
the  report  which  Dr.  Cantine  presented  to  the  annual  meeting 
of  the  Arabian  Mission  at  Karachi  in  September,  1921.  After 
sneaking  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society 
Dr.  Cantine  wrote  as  follows : 

"I  was  given  Power  of  Attorney  to  administer  the  C.  M.  S. 
property.  This  Dropertv  consists  of  nearly  an  acre  of  land 
on  the  river  bank,  a  mile  below  the  South  Gate  of  the  city. 
On  it  is  the  incomplete  building  which  was  to  be  the  Mission 
Hospital.  This  property  the  C.  M.  S.  is  willing  to  sell  to  us 
for  what  it  cost  them.  Although  there  has  been  a  certain 
amount  of  deterioration  due  to  its  use  by  the  Turkish  and 
British  forces,  vet  the  greatly  enhanced  values  of  today  would 
make  it  a  profitable  investment  for  the  future.  The  ouestion 
is  to  what  use  the  present  incompleted  structure  could  be 
put?  The  adaptation  of  a  hospital  building  into  a  dwelling 
is  a  doubtful  possibility,  but  it  might  easily  be  used  as  a  school 
or  dormitory. 

"The  present  Protestant  school  is  an  uncertain,  perhaps 
doubtful  missionary  asset.  Fostered  by  the  C.  M.  S.  until  it 
had  gained  a  recognized  position  among  the  schools  of  the 
city,  it  suffered  greatly  during  the  war.  Thrown  upon  their 
own  resources,  the  community  deserves  great  credit  for  the 
sacrifices  made  to  keep  it  in  existence.  Last  year  they  re- 
ceived a  grant  of  Rs.  1,000  from  the  C.  M.  S.,  another  of 
Rs.  2,000  from  the   Government,   and   some  help   from  the 

535 


English  Garrison  Church.  With  the  school  fees  and  speeial 
subscriptions  from  the  Protestant  families,  they  have  main- 
tained a  respectable  school  of  one  hundred  pupils  and  three 
teachers.  During  the  latter  part  of  the  year  I  taught  a  class 
in  higher  English,  The  grant  from  the  C.  M.  S.  will  not  be 
renewed,  and  that  from  the  Government  and  the  English 
Church  will  be  cut  down,  and  unless  they  receive  substantial 
help  from  other  sources  they  cannot  maintain  their  position. 
Together  with  the  financial  difficulty  is  the  evident  purpose 
of  the  Government  to  gradually  discourage  denominational 
schools,  and  to  draw  the  children  into  their  own  now  attended 
by  the  Moslems  only.  One  sympathizes  with  their  viewpoint, 
that  the  future  stability  of  the  country  requires  a  better  under- 
standing and  mutual  respect  between  the  various  religious 
bodies,  and  that  this  can  best  be  brought  about  by  a  general 
public  school  attendance.  My  own  belief  and  hope  is  that 
this  can  eventually  be  done,  while  still  conserving  to  the  Chris- 
tian minority  many  of  the  privileges  of  Christian  instruction 
now  enjoyed.  If  the  Mission  at  Bagdad  is  to  enter  into  this 
sphere  of  activity  I  would  advise  emphasis  being  put  upon 
higher  and  specialized  education.  At  present  taking  into 
consideration  the  fact  that  there  are  no  Moslem  children  in 
the  Protestant  school,  and  that  the  large  majority  of  the  pupils 
are  not  Protestants  but  Catholics,  the  question  of  monetary 
aid  from  the  Arabian  Mission  should  be  carefully  considered. 

"And  now  a  word  about  the  Protestant  community.  In 
Bagdad,  as  at  Basra,  Protestantism  is  identified  with  mis- 
sionary effort,  whose  history,  throughout  all  the  Near  East, 
proves  that  however  much  a  Protestant  organization  may  in- 
tend to  work  for  the  uplift  of  the  Moslem  population  alone, 
yet  wherever  there  is  an  Oriental  Church  there  will  also  be 
in  time  those  who  will  come  out  and  attach  themselves  to  our 
faith.  It  may  be  called  a  by-product  of  our  effort,  but  none 
the  less  its  importance  must  be  recognized.  The  Protestant 
Christian  who  comes  to  us  from  the  older  missions  to  the 
North,  or  from  our  own  midst,  is,  in  the  mind  of  the  Moslem, 
the  only  evidence,  in  general,  of  what  Christianity  can  do  with 
the  Oriental,  what  he  himself  may  expect  to  become  if  he 
accepts  our  preaching  of  Christ.  The  responsibility  for  the 
leadership  of  such  a  factor  for  good  or  evil  cannot  lightly 
be  put  aside.  Most  of  us  are  acquainted  with  the  Protestant 
community  at  Basra.  That  at  Bagdad  is  larger,  and  in  some 
ways  better  equipped  to  be  the  exponent  of  a  purer  Christi- 
anity than  may  be  found  in  the  several  Eastern  Churches. 
They  are  well  organized,  and  the  isolation  and  strain  of  long 

53S 


endured  war  conditions  have  given  them  an  independence  that 
is  admirable.  As  would  be  assumed  from  their  association 
with  the  C.  M.  S.  they  have  become  accustomed  to  the  liturgi- 
cal service  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  maijy  of  them  con- 
sider themselves  members  of  that  body.  With  this  connection 
I  have  not  in  the  least  interfered,  though  I  have  been  able  to 
help  them  in  many  ways,  especially  in  their  relations  with  the 
Government.  I  see  no  reason  why  their  independent  organi- 
zation should  not  be  assured  of  the  active  sympathy  of  our 
Mission,  or  of  any  other  that  might  come  to  Bagdad. 

"Passing  on  to  what  may  be  considered  the  most  important 
section  of  this  report — the  Moslem  population  and  the  Mis- 
sion's interest  in  it — it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  there  is 
no  essential  difference  between  the  Moslem  population  of 
Bagdad  and  that  of  Basra ;  between  the  Mission  work  that  we 
have  done  in  the  latter  place  and  that  which  we  might  do  in 
the  former.  The  slight  differences  due  to  a  larger  population 
and  a  position  inland  may  be  readily  understood  and  dis- 
counted. What  I  mean  is  that  the  change  in  latitude  will 
bring  no  new  problems  to  confront  us ;  there  is  no  hope  of 
discovering  in  the  City  of  the  Caliphs  a  new  and  easy  road 
to  the  Moslem  heart ;  nearness  to  the  seat  of  Government  and 
a  speaking  acquaintance  with  the  King  of  Irak  will  not  make 
it  easier  to  speak  of  the  King  of  Heaven.  I  see  no  indications 
that  mission  work  in  Upper  Mesopotamia  will  be  a  bit  more 
promising  than  in  Lower;  in  Bagdad,  than  in  Basra,  Amara 
and  Nasariyeh.  But  this  is  not  to  say  that  the  reorganization 
of  missionary  effort  in  Bagdad  is  not  of  the  utmost  import- 
ance and  worthy  of  the  most  careful  consideration  by  the 
Arabian  Mission. 

"The  limited  amount  of  time  at  my  disposal,  and  the  some- 
what chaotic  conditions,  have  militated  against  my  obtaining 
as  broad  and  varied  an  acquaintance  with  the  Moslem  thought 
of  Bagdad  as  I  could  have  wished.  But  I  have  talked  with 
enough  men  representative  of  the  various  strata  of  society 
to  know  that  the  advent  of  an  American  Mission  will  be  gen- 
erally welcome.  I  say  'American,'  for  that  designation  is 
still  in  Mesopotamia  an  introduction  that  insures  respectful 
consideration.  It  is  perhaps  in  educational  work  in  some  of 
its  many  branches  that  the  most  promising  future  lias.  Just 
what  and  how  depends  so  much  upon  men  and  means  that 
the  question  can  perhaps  be  better  answered  a  year  hence. 
But  it  seems  to  me  that  a  high  school  for  boys,  with  attached 
hostels  might  be  the  first  thing  attempted.  I  have  been  repeat- 
edly assured  by  Moslem  and  Christian,  that  such  a  school, 

537 


obviating  the  necessity  for  sending  their  boys  out  of  the  coun- 
try, would  be  greatly  appreciated.  While  the  government 
educational  officers  are  a  bit  non-committal,  not  being  very 
sure  of  their  own  policy  as  yet,  they  have  said  that  they  did 
not  doubt  but  that  they  and  we  could  work  with  hearty  co- 
operation and  success.  Very  much  good  could  be  done  by  a 
man  qualified  to  be  a  leader  who  would  interest  himself  in 
the  literary,  social  and  general  development  of  the  civic  life. 
Medical  Missions  would  be  more  appreciated  in  the  outlying 
districts. 

"To  Bagdad  itself,  the  capitol  city,  the  place  to  which  in  the 
future,  as  in  the  past,  will  converge  so  many  roads  not  alone 
of  commerce,  but  also  of  culture  and  religion — to  the  Bagdad 
of  today  the  Church  should  only  send  of  her  best.    No  knowl- 
edge of  the  Arabic  language  and  literature,  no  proficiency  in 
religious  discussion,  no  acquaintance  with  the  Arab  character, 
its  strength  and  weakness,  will  come  amiss  in  the  equipment 
of  the  future  laborer  in  this  great  central  city  of  Islam.     If 
the  field  is  entered  at  all  by  the  American  churches  it  should 
not  be  done  half-heartedly ;  the  cost  should  be  counted  and  paid 
ungrudgingly,  and  without  undue  expectation  of  a  quick  re- 
turn.    Much  will  depend  upon  a  right  beginning.     I  do  not 
think  the  best  results  will  follow  a  division  of  the  entire  field 
between  the  existing  missions,  even  though  some  of  them  are 
working  adjacent  territory  and  might  be  able  to  send  at  once 
of  their  older,  Arabic  speaking  missionaries.     Nor  do  I  be- 
lieve that  'the  powers  that  be'  would  look  with  favor  on  such 
a  decentralized  occupation  of  Mesopotamia.    The  other  method 
would  be  for  the  churches  interested  to  send  out  young  mis- 
sionaries who  have  chosen  this  field  as  a  life  work,  who  have 
their  own  constituencies  at  home  interested  in  Mesopotamia, 
and  who  have  prepared  themselves  for  this  very  thing.     It 
would  mean  an  extra  Board  or  Committee  at  home  and  an 
extra  Mission  abroad,  but  surely  the  field  in  extent,  population 
and  importance  is  worthy  of  that  very  thing.    I  do  not  think 
that  volunteers  will  be  lacking.     To  those  who  will  acquaint 
themselves  with  the  history  of  this  ancient  land,  its  long  past 
of  Christian  life,  suffering  and  martyrdom ;  its  legacy  of  divine 
promise;  its  present  day  religious  importance;  its  awakening 
and  entrance  upon  a  new  era  among  the  peoples  of  the  world, 
Mesopotamia  will  still  be  a  word  to  stir  the  pulse  and  kindle 
the  zeal  of  those  who  work  and  pray  that  the  Kingdoms  of  this 
world  may  become  the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord. 

"And  now  what  part  may  the  Arabian  Mission  play  in  this 
hoped-for  consummation ;  not  in  the  future  but  for  the  coming 

538 


year  for  which  we  are  now  legislating.  I  think  it  is  recog- 
nized that  our  little  mission  is  not  able  to  assume  the  financial 
obligation  that  would  follow  even  our  taking  over  of  Bagdad 
alone.  To  do  as  much  there  as  was  done  by  the  C.  M.  S.  just 
before  the  war,  and  less  should  not  be  attempted,  would  absorb 
a  large  fraction  of  our  income.  And  perhaps  I  speak  for 
others  also  when  I  say  that  we  might  prefer  not  to  build  on 
other  men's  foundations,  but  to  follow  our  own  star  westward 
into  the  interior.  However,  the  same  question  faces  us  as 
it  did  the  last  Annual  Meeting,  and  we  know  but  little  more 
now  as  to  its  final  solution  than  we  did  a  year  ago.  The  Re- 
formed and  the  Presbyterian  Boards  seem  willing  to  enter 
into  some  form  of  union  effort  for  Upper  Mesopotamia,  but 
so  far  as  we  know  no  definite  plan  has  been  presented  or  acted 
upon." 

Dr.  Cantine  has  stated  the  needs  and  opportunities  with 
care  and  restraint.  He  has  not  spoken  of  the  ten  thousand 
Jews  for  whom  nothing  is  being  done  nor  of  the  Indian  and 
European  Christians  in  Bagdad  who  had  been  gathered  in  a 
company  for  united  worship  and  work  largely  through  the 
instrumentality  of  a  Wesleyan  army  chaplain,  whose  expected 
withdrawal  from  the  field  was  mourned  by  every  one.  There 
had  been  some  talk  of  the  organization  of  this  group  into  a  de- 
nominational enterprise  in  connection  with  one  of  the  strong 
Protestant  bodies  in  India,  but  all  of  those  whom  we  met, 
both  Indian  and  British,  desired  instead  some  united  and  in- 
terdenominational association.  Nowhere  in  the  world,  I  think, 
have  we  met  a  field  of  larger  need  or  seen  the  Christian  Church 
so  inadequately  coping  with  her  task. 

If  there  has  been  one  other  city  which  has  spoken  with  yet 
stronger  appeal,  it  is  Mosul.  Dr.  Cantine  in  his  report  recog- 
nizes its  singular  call.  "As  with'  Bagdad,"  he  wrote,  "its 
importance  as  a  missionary  center  has  been  recognized  for 
many  years  both  by  American  and  British  societies.  It  also 
has  just  been  vacated  by  the  C.  M.  S.  and  its  needs  and  oppor- 
tunities are  about  the  same  as  its  sister  city.  Indeed,  looking 
to  its  population  and  especially  to  its  large  village  environ- 
ment in  the  nearby  hills,  it  presents  certain  features  which 
might  make  residence  and  work  there  more  attractive  than 
in  Bagdad."  I  have  described  elsewhere  our  visit  to  Mosul 
and  the  deep  impression  which  our  experiences  there  made 
on  our  minds  and  hearts.  I  cannot  think  of  the  city  now 
without  a  fresh  eagerness  and  anxiety.  Rich  memories  of 
the  past  call  to  us  from  every  side  in  unceasing  protest  against 
the  idea  of  th^  abandonment  by  the  Church  of  this  great  field. 

539 


The  Protestant  community  in  behalf  both  of  its  church  and 
of  its  school  appealed  for  the  help  of  a  strong  mission  in 
meeting  the  situation  infinitely  beyond  its  strength.  The  edu- 
cated young  Jacobite  leaders  pled  for  a  school  that  would 
do  for  Mosul  and  the  whole  upper  valley  of  the  Tigris  what 
they  knew  only  a  mission  school  could  do.  "Why  do  you  spend 
millions  of  dollars  on  relief  work  feeding  the  stomachs  of 
people?  Why  do  you  not  feed  their  brains?  Fed  bodies  will 
die.  Bodies  had  better  die  unfed  if  they  are  bodies  only. 
But  fed  minds  live.  Do  something,  we  beg,  for  the  starving 
human  spirit  here."  Representatives  of  the  Assyrians,  both 
the  evangelical  body  and  the  old  Church,  set  forth  the  pathetic 
needs  of  these  broken  people  seeking  to  regather  the  remnants 
of  their  lacerated  life.  The  C.  M.  S.  workers  had  just  begun 
to  lay  hold  upon  the  affections  of  the  people  with  a  hospital 
in  the  same  marvelous  way  in  which  our  Missions  in  Persia 
have  done,  but  this  had  been  given  over  to  Government  and 
was  going  on,  though  no  one  knew  for  how  long  a  time,  with- 
out the  ministry  to  the  Church  or  the  fruitage  to  the  cause 
of  Christ  which  it  had  had  and  would  have  again  as  a  Mission 
hospital.  As  clear  as  the  call  to  Bagdad,  which  Dr.  Cantine 
had  set  forth,  seemed  to  us  to  be  the  call  to  Mosul,  and  we 
urged  Edwin  Wright  to  remain  there  as  the  West  Persia 
Mission  had  authorized  him  to  do  until  its  mission  meeting  in 
the  fall  of  1922,  and  we  urged  Dr.  McDowell  as  soon  as  he 
was  able  to  close  up  the  relief  work  in  Bagdad,  which  would 
be  about  March  31st,  to  go  to  Mosul  and  to  rent  Miss  Martin's 
house  pending  decision  by  the  West  Persia  Mission  and  the 
Board  as  to  the  re-occupation  of  Mosul  as  a  regular  station 
and  the  purchase  of  Miss  Martin's  house  or  other  property 
there,  or  pending  the  establishment  of  the  new  united  mission 
of  which  Mosul  would  be  a  station.  Many  considerations  in- 
cluding the  political  uncertainties  seemed  to  us  to  make  it 
desirable  to  have  as  strong  a  missionary  force  as  possible 
in  Mosul  this  spring,  and  the  same  considerations  strength- 
ened the  hope  that  if  Dr.  Cantine  was  to  return  on  furlough 
this  year  his  place  should  not  be  left  unfilled  by  the  Arabian 
Mission  during  his  absence.  With  regard  to  the  political 
problems  in  Mesopotamia  and  especially  in  Mosul,  lying  on 
the  frontier  between  Mesopotamia  and  Turkey,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  set  down  here  any  written  statement.  The  one  relevant 
question  is  whether  Christian  Missions  would  be  allowed  to 
operate  within  the  bounds  of  the  mandated  territory  of  Meso- 
potamia or,  to  be  more  exact,  within  the  bounds  of  the  King- 
dom of  Irak  into  which  this  mandated  territory  is  being  trans- 

540 


formed.  This  question  would  seem  to  be  explicitly  and  satis- 
factorily answered  by  articles  15  and  16  which  appear  in  the 
Draft  Mandates  for  Mesopotamia  and  Palestine : 

"The  mandatory  will  see  that  complete  freedom  of  conscience 
and  the  free  exercise  of  all  forms  of  worship,  subject  only  to 
the  maintenance  of  public  order  and  morals,  is  ensured  to  all. 
No  discrimination  of  any  kind  shall  be  made  between  the 
inhabitants  of  Palestine  on  the  ground  of  race,  religion  or 
language.  No  person  shall  be  excluded  from  Palestine  on  the 
sole  ground  of  his  religious  belief. 

"The  right  of  each  community  to  maintain  its  own  schools 
for  the  education  of  its  own  members  in  its  own  language 
(while  conforming  to  such  educational  reouirements  of  a  gen- 
eral nature  as  the  Administration  may  impose)  shall  not  be 
denied  or  impaired. 

"The  mandatory  shall  be  responsible  for  exercising  such 
supervision  over  relierious  or  eleemosvnary  bodies  of  all  faiths 
in  Palestine  as  may  be  required  for  the  maintenance  of  public 
order  and  good  government.  Subject  to  such  supervision,  no 
measures  shall  be  taken  in  Palestine  to  obstruct  or  interfere 
with  the  enterprise  of  such  bodies  or  to  discriminate  against 
anv  representative  or  member  of  them  on  the  ground  of  his 
religion  or  nationality." 

As  will  be  seen  there  is  no  explicit  mention  of  missionary 
agencies  or  of  missionary  activity,  though  the  last  paragraph 
obviously  refers  to  them,  and  while  undoubtedly  these  pro- 
visions are  meant  to  protect  those  who  change  their  religious 
faith  thev  are  not  phrased  with  any  direct  reference  to  such 
contingencies. 

In  November,  1920,  Sir  Percy  Cox,  the  High  Commissioner 
of  Great  Britain  for  Mesopotamia,  assured  the  missionaries 
of  the  Reformed  Church  "That  the  advent  of  the  Arabian 
Mission  to  Bagdad  will  be  very  welcome  and  that  there  will 
be  no  objections  to  the  arrangements  that  you  propose."  We 
called  on  Sir  Percy  with  Dr.  Cantine,  with  whom  Sir  Percy 
had  been  associated  in  friendly  ways  in  earlier  days  on  the 
Arabian  coast.  In  reply  to  our  question  with  regard  to  mis- 
sionary freedom  he  recalled  the  terms  of  the  mandate  and 
the  guarantee  which  they  gave  of  religious  liberty  and,  as  he 
understood,  of  the  freedom  of  missionary  activity  conducted 
in  the  wise  way  in  which  he  had  observed  that  the  Presbyte- 
rian and  Reformed  Missions  did  their  work.  It  is  to  be  as- 
sumed that  the  Arab  officials  into  whose  hands  the  British 
have  been  rapidly  passing  the  administration  of  the  country 

541 


will  hold  the  same  view  and  maintain  the  same  attitude.  King 
Feisal  assured  the  Chaldean  bishop  in  Mosul  that  there  would 
be  entire  religious  freedom.  "I  have  heard  nothing,"  one  of 
the  best  informed  observers  in  Mesopotamia  told  us,  "either 
about  King  Feisal  or  about  his  personal  advisers  that  would 
lead  me  to  think  that  he  would  attempt  to  antagonize  wisely 
directed  missionary  effort." 

Perhaps  there  may  be  those  who  may  question  the  wisdom 
of  our  undertaking  our  share  of  this  resiDonsibility  in  Mesopo- 
tamia when  the  needs  of  all  our  other  Missions  for  more  ade- 
quate support  are  so  pressing.  Are  we  warranted  in  assuming 
this  new  responsibility?  This  is  an  entirely  fair  and  necessary 
question. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  not  a  new  responsibility.  Mosul 
is  one  of  the  oldest  mission  stations  to  which  our  Church 
is  related.  We  have  connections  with  it  which  go  back  to  the 
early  years  when  the  New  School  Presbyterian  Churches  were 
carrying  on  their  foreign  missionary  work  through  the  Ameri- 
can Board.  In  1892  the  station  was  transferred  with  all  its 
work  and  personnel  from  the  American  Board  to  our  own 
Board.  In  1900  we  transferred  it  in  turn  to  the  C.  M.  S., 
and  now  that  the  C.  M.  S.  is  compelled  to  withdraw  it  is  our 
own  responsibility,  consecrated  by  time,  and  not  a  new  task 
which  we  are  called  upon  to  take  up. 

2.  It  is  an  integral  part  of  the  Arabic  and  Mohammedan 
field  extending  from  Syria  to  Persia.  In  recognition  of  the 
unity  of  this  field  and  of  our  distinct  relation  to  it,  we  have 
recently  taken  over  Aleppo  and  Mardin  from  the  American 
Board,  although  we  had  no  such  strong  historic  relations  with 
these  stations  as  we  have  had  with  Mosul. 

3.  In  God's  providence  this  whole  Arabic  speaking  Moslem 
area  in  the  Near  East  has  fallen  to  the  missionarv  responsi- 
bility of  the  Presbyterian  and  the  Reformed  Churches,  Egypt 
to  the  United  Presbyterian  Church,  Arabia  to  the  Reformed 
Church  in  America,  Syria  to  our  own  Church,  and  Mesopo- 
tamia to  the  Reformed  and  Presbyterian  Churches  together. 
Mosul  is  an  integral  part  of  this  responsibility,  and  in  reas- 
suming  it  and  in  joining  with  the  Reformed  Church  in  the 
adequate  missionary  occupation  of  the  whole  Mesopotamian 
field  we  are  responding  to  what  seems  to  be  a  clear  and  un- 
mistakable providential  call. 

4.  The  Shiah  faith  of  more  than  half  of  the  Moslems  of 
Irak  relates  this  population  intimately  to  our  missions  in 
Persia.    These  are  the  Missions  which  above  all  others  in  the 

542 


world,  save  the  C.  M.  S.  Mission  in  southern  Persia,  must 
work  out  the  problem  of  the  effective  presentation  of  Chris- 
tianity to  the  Shiah  branch  of  Islam.  The  prevailing  language 
in  Kerbala  is  Persian.  A  stream  of  Persian  pilgrims  pours 
annually  into  Kerbala.  One  of  the  most  influential  diplomatic 
representatives  in  the  East  remarked  once  on  the  anomally 
of  the  fact  that  the  religious  life  and  thought  of  Persia  were 
controlled  from  a  center  beyond  its  soil. 

5.  Mosul  is  the  base  from  which  the  work  for  the  moun- 
tain Assyrians  must  be  carried  on.  It  was  largely  for  this 
purpose  that  we  took  it  over  from  the  American  Board  in 
1892.  Now  that  for  the  present,  and  perhaps  for  a  long  time, 
the  connection  of  the  mountain  Assyrians  with  Urumia  is 
utterly  broken,  Mosul  is  our  only  door  of  approach.  All  the 
other  friends  of  the  Syrians  have  forsaken  them.  Now  more 
than  ever,  reduced  by  famine  and  disease,  struggling  in  pov- 
erty and  disappointment  to  rebuild  their  homes,  needing  more 
than  ever  our  sympathy  and  our  spiritual  and  practical  help, 
thev  have  a  right  to  look  to  us  for  aid  which  we  can  only 
supply  through  missionaries  working  northward  from  Irak. 

6.  Mosul  and  northeastern  Mesopotamia  are  an  indisDen- 
sable  Dart  of  the  Kurdish  field.  I  have  sDoken  of  this  considera- 
tion elsewhere,  but  would  simply  point  out  now  that  Mosul 
is  one  of  the  main  centers  from  which  the  evaneelization  of 
the  Kurds  must  be  undertaken.  The  lonsr  delav  of  the  Church 
in  undertaking  this  task  has  been  paid  for  literally  in  rivers 
of  blood. 

7.  The  establishment  of  this  united  Mission  and  the  strong 
but  prudent  occupation  of  Bagdad  and  Mosul  should  be  under- 
taken without  delay.  A  little  reflection  will  suggest  to  any 
one  who  knows  the  condition  of  the  Near  East  convincing 
reasons  why  this  missionary  duty  ought  not  to  be  postponed. 

I  am  glad  to  report  that  we  found  the  Persian  Missions 
heartily  in  svmpathy  with  these  proposals.  Thev  agreed  with 
us  that  the  best  way  to  meet  this  clear  responsibility  in  Meso- 
potamia was  by  a  joint  mission  of  the  Reformed  Church  Board 
and  our  own,  that  Dr.  and  Mrs.  McDowell  should  remove  to 
Mosul,  which  we  were  glad  to  learn  in  Persia  they  had  done 
on  the  conclusion  of  their  relief  work  in  Bagdad  on  March 
31st,  that  our  two  Churches  should  provide  adequately  the 
forces  and  support  necessary  for  the  work,  that  pending  the 
establishment  of  the  new  Mission  Mosul  should  be  resumed 
as  a  station  of  the  West  Persia  Mission,  and  that  the  estimates 
for  the  Mountain  Work  of  the  Urumia  station  should  be  trans- 

54S 


ferred  to  it.    It  was  characteristic  of  these  two  good  Missions 
in  Persia  that,  feehng  as  earnestly  as  they  do  their  own  needs, 
they  should  nevertheless  be  ready  to  favor  a  courageous  re-         _ 
sponse  to  this  new  call.    This  new  call  and  yet  so  old,  so  old.        1 

S.  S.  Constantinople,  '  | 

Aegean  Sea,  April  26,  1922. 


544 


14.     THE  RELIEF  WORK 

We  were  commissioned  by  the  Near  East  Relief  to  see  as 
much  as  we  could  of  the  Relief  work  in  Mesopotamia,  Persia, 
and  the  Caucasus.  And  no  part  of  the  duty  assigned  us  by 
the  Board  was  nearer  to  our  hearts  than  that  of  visiting  the 
communities  of  Assyrian  and  Armenian  refugees  and  bearing 
to  them  a  message  of  sympathy  from  their  fellow  Christians 
in  America.  We  began  to  meet  with  the  refugees  first  in 
Bombay,  and  from  there  to  Constantinople  we  were  in  con- 
stant contact  with  this  immense  tragedy,  the  result  in  part  of 
the  sudden  catastrophe  of  the  war  and  in  part  of  forces  of 
unbrotherliness  and  wrong  which  have  been  at  work  in  these 
saddened  lands  through  many  years. 

When  we  reached  Mesopotamia  in  January, the  great  refugee 
camps  of  the  Armenians  at  Nahromar  and  of  the  Assyrians, 
first  at  Bakuba  and  later  at  Mindan,  had  been  broken  up. 
The  Armenians  had  been  taken  by  the  British  at  British  ex- 
pense by  sea  from  Basra  to  Batum  in  the  Caucasus  and  from 
Batum  by  rail  to  Kamerlu  in  the  Armenian  Republic  in  the 
Caucasus  where  we  saw  them  in  April.  The  British  Govern- 
ment provided  them  with  tents  and  other  equipment.  When 
we  were  in  Bagdad  Der  Vahan  Tajirian,  the  acting  Armenian 
bishop,  came  to  express  his  gratitude  to  the  American  people 
and  the  Near  East  Relief  and  to  tell  us  of  the  Armenian  refu- 
gees in  Mesopotamia.  In  Mosul,  he  said,  there  were  thirty 
Armenian  families  who  had  lived  there  before  the  war  and 
about  one  thousand  refugees.  In  Bagdad  there  were  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  families  resident  and  about  two  thousand 
refugees.  In  Basra  there  were  thirty  families  and  five  hun- 
dred refugees.  Of  the  ten  thousand  in  the  Nahromar  camp 
six  thousand  had  been  already  carried  to  Batum,  the  first 
ship  having  sailed  on  November  11th.  Three  thousand  more 
were  to  be  sent  by  the  British  Government  which  was  declin- 
ing, however,  to  send  one  thousand  others  who  had  left  the 
camp  and  had  started  to  earn  their  living  but  were  desirous 
of  being  sent  on  with  the  remainder  to  Batum.  He  had 
petitioned  the  High  Commissioner  in  behalf  of  this  thousand, 
but  the  Government  had  replied  that  it  could  not  take  them. 
As  far  as  he  knew  there  were  no  other  Armenian  refugees 
in  Irak.  The  first  president  of  the  Armenian  republic  and 
other  oflficials  who  had  been  driven  out  when  the  republic 
became  soviet  under  Russian  pressure  in  1921  had  recently 
passed  through  Bagdad  on  their  way  to  Constantinople.  Of 
three  and  a  half  million  Armenians  before  the  war,  he  be- 

545 

18 — India   and  Persia 


lieved  that  a  million,  six  hundred  thousand  had  been  killed. 
But  dark  though  the  outlook  was,  darker  than  ever  before  in 
their  history,  he  still  had  hope,  and  he  believed  that  the  Chris- 
tian faith  of  the  people  was  undiminished.  They  had  had 
to  fight  for  their  country  before,  and  they  could  fight  for  it 
still.  If  driven  out  they  would  go  where  they  could,  but  a 
century  hence,  with  undiminished  faith  and  unbroken  hope, 
they  would  still  claim  their  own  land.  The  bishop  stated 
that  nine  hundred  orphans  who  were  at  that  time  in  Nahro- 
mar  were  to  be  taken  to  Jerusalem  to  be  cared  for  by  the 
Near  East  Relief  and  the  Armenian  committee,  and  that  a 
hundred  and  twenty  Armenian  orphans  in  Mosul  were  to  be 
sent  with  them.  Dr.  McDowell  had  had  one  hundred  and 
sixteen  Armenian  orphans  in  a  Near  East  Relief  orphanage 
in  Bagdad,  and  these  had  been  sent  at  the  expense  of  the 
Near  East  Relief  by  the  British  Government  with  the  chil- 
dren it  was  sending  from  Nahromar  to  Constantinople  and 
Batum. 

After  the  failure  of  the  Assyrian  expedition  from  Mindan 
back  to  Urumia  in  the  fall  and  early  winter  of  1920,  the 
Assyrian  refugees  scattered.  As  many  as  could  do  so,  but 
far  less  than  a  thousand  in  all,  went  to  Europe  or  America 
to  join  friends  or  relatives  there.  The  mountain  Assyrians 
remained  in  upper  Mesopotamia  or  made  their  way  back  into 
the  mountains.  Their  situation  shortly  before  we  visited 
Mosul  in  January  was  described  for  us  in  a  statement  that  Dr. 
McDowell  wrote  out: 

"Some  of  the  mountaineers,  being  given  their  freedom, 
have  gone  outside  the  British  lines  and  have  settled  in  their 
own  homes  in  Supna,  Amadia,  Berwar  and  Ashitha  and  lower 
Tiary.  The  house  of  Mar  Shimon  have  been  placed  in  a  village 
close  to  Amadia.  How  safe  it  will  be  for  these  people,  only 
time  can  determine. 

"The  remaining  mountaineers,  whose  homes  were  still  be- 
yond reach,  were  settled  in  villages  about  Mosul,  or  rather  to 
the  north  of  Mosul  and  within  the  British  lines.  These  num- 
ber several  thousand. 

"These  have  been  most  unfortunate.  They  have  been  on 
the  land  for  over  a  year  but  have  not  been  able  so  far  to  make 
a  living  from  it  and  have  been  reduced  to  almost  famine 
conditions.  Further  to  add  to  their  misery,  an  epidemic  of 
malaria  broke  out  among  them  and,  according  to  the  report 
of  the  medical  authorities,  99  per  cent  of  them  have  been 
prostrated  by  it.  Mr.  Lampard,  our  Relief  colleague  at  Mosul, 
and  Mr.  Wright  of  our  Mission  have  been  doing  heroic  service 

546 


in  these  villages  the  last  two  months  going  about  and  per- 
sonally dosing  the  sick  with  quinine  supplied  by  British  re- 
sources. The  epidemic  is  subsiding  for  lack  of  material,  but 
the  victims  of  it  have  been  left  in  a  most  debilitated  condition. 
Beyond  all  doubt  these  Mosul  people,  i.  e.,  the  refugees  settled 
in  the  villages,  are  the  most  destitute  and  most  deserving  of 
assistance  of  any  under  our  care  either  in  Mesopotamia  or 
in  Persia 

"On  this  side  the  Persian  border  our  mountaineers  will 
gradually  feel  their  way  back  until  their  valleys  will  be  re- 
occupied  as  far  as  Julamerk,  possibly  as  soon  as  next  summer. 
This  would  account  for  the  chief  mountain  tribes  of  Tiary, 
Tkhoma,  Jelu  and  Baz." 

Before  we  left  Persia,  we  heard  from  Dr.  McDowell  of  the 
instructions  which  had  reached  him  from  the  Near  East  Relief 
in  New  York,  discontinuing  all  relief  grants  for  Mesopotamia 
and  proposing  the  transfer  of  Mr.  Lampard  to  Persia.  Dr. 
McDowell  was  planning  accordingly  to  move  from  Bagdad  to 
Mosul  on  May  1st.  I  believe  that  he  thought  that  he  had 
funds  enough  on  hand,  remaining  from  the  appropriations 
already  made  by  the  Near  East  Relief,  to  enable  him  to  clear 
off  all  unfulfilled  commitments  and  to  provide  some  final  help 
in  meeting  the  desperate  situation  of  the  mountain  people, 
ravaged  by  malaria  and  yet  courageously  seeking  to  make 
their  way  back  into  their  rough  valleys,  to  rebuild  their  little 
terraced  fields,  to  gather  a  few  sheep,  and  to  restore  their 
demolished  homes. 

At  the  time  of  our  visit  in  January  all  the  Urumia  Christians 
who  had  not  gone  to  America  had  made  their  way  back  to 
Persia  with  the  exception  of  two  thousand  who  were  still  in 
Bagdad.  No  general  relief  was  being  given.  An  orphanage 
of  one  hundred  children  and  a  number  of  homeless  and  de- 
pendent women  were  housed  in  the  incompleted  hospital  build- 
ing in  Bagdad  rented  from  the  C.  M.  S.  The  orphanage  had 
numbered  two  hundred,  but  when  it  was  proposed  to  remove 
it,  as  it  was  clear  should  be  done,  to  Kermanshah  one  hun- 
dred boys  had  disappeared,  absorbed  in  one  way  or  another. 
It  is  not  undesirable  that  from  time  to  time  in  the  future 
extreme  pressure  should  be  brought  to  bear  upon  both  the  As- 
syrian and  Armenian  communities  to  reduce  yet  further  the 
number  of  children  being  cared  for  by  relief.  The  Assyrian 
refugees  in  Bagdad  have  had  better  opportunities  than  the 
other  communities  for  employment,  and  with  characteristic 
industry  and  self-respect  they  have  improved  these  opportu- 
nities.    Practically  all  the  men  had  found,  or  were  likely  to 

547 


find,  economic  footing.  The  best  restaurant,  barber  shop,  and 
optician's  store  were  all  in  the  hands  of  Syrians.  They  were 
supplying  some  of  the  best  carpenters,  masons,  house  servants 
and  railroad  conductors  and  workmen.  It  was  clear  that  the 
women  and  children,  however,  who  had  no  men  to  support 
them  ought  to  be  sent  on  in  the  spring  to  Hamadan  to  join  the 
larger  community  there.  Dr.  McDowell  was  waiting  until  all 
had  gone  who,  by  any  possibility,  could  go  without  help,  and 
he  was  hoping  to  be  able  to  provide  the  remnant  with  sixty 
rupees  each  if  possible  for  their  journey.  All  the  Assyrians 
in  Bagdad  declared  that  they  would  return  to  Urumia  when- 
ever it  was  practicable  and  prudent  for  them  to  go.  Many 
of  the  people  had  found  decent  homes  for  themselves,  but 
most  of  them  were  living  in  the  tents  of  the  Assyrian  refugee 
camp.  There  was  also  a  large  camp  of  Kurdish  refugees 
where  the  level  of  life  was  far  below  anything  to  which  the 
poorest  of  these  Assyrian  refugees  would  allow  themselves 
to  fall. 

Of  the  Assyrians  who  had  made  their  way  back  into  Persia 
we  found  something  less  than  a  thousand  in  Kermanshah, 
most  of  them  living  in  a  great  quadrangle  of  old  government 
buildings,  where  the  sanitary  conditions,  on  the  whole,  were 
not  bad  and  where  the  people  were  doing  their  best  to  main- 
tain the  decent  standards  of  living  characteristic  of  the  Uru- 
mia Assyrians.  Some  of  the  men  had  found  employment  in 
Kermanshah,  but  most  of  the  people  were  idle  though  entirely 
willing  to  work  if  work  could  be  found.  Bread  was  being 
supplied  to  the  neediest,  partly  through  Relief  contribution 
from  the  Near  East  Relief  funds  provided  from  Hamadan, 
and  partly  through  the  aid  of  the  kargazar,  the  Persian  official 
in  charge  of  the  interests  of  Christians,  whom  we  found  to  be 
one  of  the  most  intelligent  men  in  Persia  with  regard  to  the 
whole  Assyrian  problem,  and  who  was  engaged  in  taking  a 
census  of  all  the  Assyrian  refugees  in  Kermanshah  and  Hama- 
dan. It  seemed  probable  and  desirable  that  these  Kerman- 
shah refugees  should  join  the  colony  in  Hamadan  as  soon  as 
they  could  be  provided  for  there. 

The  Hamadan  community  is  now  the  largest  concentration 
of  the  Urumia  Assyrians.  At  the  time  of  our  visit  in  January 
there  were  approximately  5,000  Assyrians  in  Hamadan  and 
the  surrounding  villages.  The  Relief  work  here  had  been 
cared  for  from  the  beginning  by  Mr.  Bentley  and  it  illustrated 
the  advantage  of  continuity  of  administration  and  policy. 
As  in  the  case  of  all  relief  work  there  were  some,  especially 
the  grafters,  who  had  complaints  to  make,  but  Mr.  Bentley 

548 


deserves  the  greatest  praise  for  the  persistence  and  patience 
with  which  he  has  done  a  very  difficult  task.  He  early  realized, 
and  the  Hamadan  station  agreed  with  him,  "that  there  is  no 
sufficiently  immediate  prospect  of  the  repatriation  (in  Uru- 
mia)  of  the  Syrian  people  to  justify  planning  on  that  basis, 
but  rather  that  the  fact  of  the  partial  rehabilitation  of  3,000 
Syrians  or  more  in  the  Hamadan  district  constitutes  a  per- 
manent problem  to  be  met  in  this  field."  Under  this  convic- 
tion he  set  to  work  at  once  to  get  the  people  out  of  the  city, 
where  they  must  be  a  relief  charge,  into  the  villages  where 
they  might  hope  to  support  themselves.  He  found  village 
masters  ready  to  co-operate  with  him  in  order  to  fill  up  many 
of  the  villages  around  Hamadan  which  had  been  in  large  part 
depopulated  by  the  famine  of  1919.  3,000  of  the  people 
had  been  got  out  into  such  villages,  leaving  1,000  widows 
and  orphans  who  must  be  cared  for  in  Hamadan  and  1,000 
more  of  the  people  who  can  make  their  own  support.  We 
visited  some  of  the  refugees  who  had  been  established  in  the 
villages.  It  was  winter  time  and  there  was  little  work  that 
could  now  be  done,  but  many  of  them  had  planted  grain,  and 
with  a  little  help  could  get  along  until  harvest,  and  then,  if 
they  had  not  been  compelled  to  mortgage  their  grain,  and 
could  be  given  a  little  further  help,  might  be  expected  by 
the  time  of  another  harvest  to  be  on  their  feet.  They  were 
very  poor,  sleeping  on  the  ground  or  on  thin  pallets  with  only 
a  blanket  or  two  to  a  family,  and  living  several  families  in 
one  room,  but  they  were  full  of  gratitude  and  courage.  We 
were  so  well  pleased  with  the  way  in  which  the  problem  had 
been  handled  at  Hamadan  that  we  joined  with  the  local  com- 
mittee there  in  a  cablegram  to  New  York  urging  that  sufficient 
help  should  be  given  to  enable  the  committee  to  complete  its 
work  of  village  rehabilitation  in  addition  to  the  care  of  widows 
and  orphans.  A  later  letter  from  Mr.  Bentley,  dated  February 
16th,  stated  that  he  had  prepared  a  studied  estimate  of  their 
needs,  the  result  of  which  was  to  show  that,  with  what  they 
had  in  hand,  they  could  complete  the  rehabilitation  work  which 
had  been  begun  if  they  could  receive  further  help  of  not 
less  than  $25,000.  $50,000,  he  wrote,  was  the  amount  which 
they  would  prefer  to  name,  as  in  addition  to  the  rehabilitation 
work  they  have  the  widows  and  orphans  to  provide  for.  Our 
own  judgment  was  that  they  should  have  the  larger  amount, 
if  possible,  as  it  is  certain  that  the  scanty  crops  which  will  be 
gathered  this  year  will  not  suffice  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
villagers.  They  will  need  seed  for  the  next  harvest,  and  they 
lack   clothing   and   the   scantiest   household   equipment.      Of 

549 


course  if  Urumia  opens,  almost  all  these  people  will  want  to 
return  and  should  be  encouraged  to  do  so,  but  it  is  not  likely 
to  open  soon,  and  even  if  it  does,  nothing  that  has  been  done 
will  be  lost,  while  the  settlement  of  the  people  in  self-support- 
ing industry  is  indispensable  to  the  maintenance  of  their  racial 
and  individual  character. 

There  were  two  hundred  and  thirty  children  in  the  Assyrian 
orphanage  in  Hamadan,  half  boys  and  half  girls.  The  number 
is  likely  to  be  increased  by  children  from  Bagdad  and  Ker- 
manshah,  but  will  be  reduced  by  the  settlement  of  the  people 
in  village  homes,  enabling  many  of  them  to  care  for  the  orphan 
children  of  relatives.  The  orphanage  is  made  up  of  children 
from  one  and  a  half  years  upward  and  is  housed  in  the  old 
barracks  of  the  British  Indian  troops.  It  has  been  admirably 
organized  under  Miss  Guild's  care  both  as  an  orphanage  and 
as  a  school.  In  addition  to  the  educational  work  in  the 
orphanage  the  Mission  has  helped  the  Assyrians  in  the  re- 
establishment  of  an  admirable  school  under  the  care  of  a  noble 
Assyrian  woman,  Rabi  Ester,  one  of  the  teachers  in  Fiske 
Seminary,  who  should  be  given  every  assistance,  so  that  the 
institution  can  be  carried  back  to  Urumia  when  the  day  of 
repatriation  comes. 

The  Relief  work  in  Tabriz  is  set  forth  in  a  statement  which 
Mr.  Muller,  who  has  devoted  himself  with  unremitting  faith- 
fulness and  efficiency  to  the  administration  of  the  work,  pre- 
pared for  our  conferences : 

RELIEF  WORK  IN  TABRIZ 

I  have  been  asked  by  the  Relief  Committee  in  Tabriz  to 
prepare  a  paper  on  the  subject  of  relief  work  in  Tabriz  for 
presentation  to  Dr.  Speer  and  Mr.  Carter,  I  regret  that  lack 
of  time  has  prevented  me  from  making  a  more  comprehen- 
sive survey  and  I  also  regret  that  this  statement  must  come 
to  the  attention  of  Dr.  Speer  and  Mr.  Carter  without  having 
been  first  read  and  approved  by  the  Committee  in  Tabriz. 

The  refugee  population  in  this  area  comprises  Armenians 
from  Urumia,  Salmas  and  Khoi  (3,500),  Erivan  (1,000),  and 
various  parts  of  Turkey,  Garadagh,  Dasht,  etc.,  (1,500)  ; 
Assyrians  from  Urumia  and  Salmas  (3,500)  ;  and  Moslems 
from  Urumia,  Sulduz  and  Salmas  (1,000),  and  Nakhchivan 
(500). 

During  the  past  year  a  negligible  amount  of  Relief  work 
has  been  done  for  Moslems,  and  that  little  in  the  form  of 
work  relief — the  maximum  number  of  Moslems  helped  at  any 
one  time  was  about  200  men. 

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Armenians.  Close  to  2,000  refugees  have  been  repatriated 
to  their  homes  in  the  Garadagh;  three  hundred  to  their  own 
home  in  Russian  Julfa;  and  113  to  their  own  homes  in  villages 
in  Persia  near  the  Russian  border.  These  2,300  or  2,400  were 
repatriated  in  their  own  villages  in  the  spring  and  summer 
of  1921  after  a  moderate  degree  of  order  had  been  restored 
to  those  sections.  In  the  autumn  the  following  Armenian 
refugees  were  repatriated  in  villages  not  their  own  homes: 
52  Armenians  from  Turkey  have  been  furnished  with  seed 
and  oxen  in  Muzhambar,  a  village  one  day's  journey  from 
Tabriz;  127  Armenians  from  Garadagh  were  furnished  simi- 
larly in  the  village  of  Bagh-i-vazir,  near  Soflan;  82  Armenians 
from  Khoi  in  a  village  near  Erivan  called  Karadaghlu;  and 
some  in  the  villages  near  Maragha. 

In  addition  to  these  settlements  that  have  actually  been 
accomplished,  others  are  in  progress ;  400  Salmas  Armenians 
and  180  Khoi  Armenians  have  been  invited  by  the  Armenian 
government  at  Erivan  to  migrate  thither  and  with  our  assist- 
ance some  have  already  gone  across  the  border  toward  their 
new  home  and  the  rest  are  about  to  go.  A  large  number  of 
political  refugees  from  Erivan  have  been  refused  permission 
to  return  to  Erivan  and  they  are  seeking  a  home  on  Persian 
soil.  We  have  offered  to  help  these  to  the  number  of  1,000. 
Another  group  of  Salmas  Armenians  are  seeking  a  place 
near  Tabriz  where  they  may  farm.  It  should  be  noted  that 
many  Moslem  land  owners  are  definitely  bidding  for  Chris- 
tian refugees  to  repopulate  their  villages,  but  they  are  un- 
able to  outfit  them ;  the  deterring  element  in  the  movement  is 
the  small  amount  of  help  we  are  able  to  offer  in  the  villages. 

The  Assyrian  refugees  have  been  less  ready  to  move  into 
villages,  partly  because  they  are  few  in  number  and  afraid 
to  scatter ;  partly  because  they  still  have  some  hope  of  return- 
ing to  their  own  land ;  but  mostly  because  they  have  no  leaders 
and  spokesmen,  no  influential  resident  fellow  Assyrians  nor 
ecclesiastical  figures  who  are  recognized  in  political  circles. 
A  very  few  have  gone  to  a  village  near  Maragha;  a  group 
of  Gavalan  Assyrians  wished  to  be  settled  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Kuchi,  near  their  own  homes,  but  our  committee  was  not 
ready  to  risk  an  investment  there. 

Village  repatriation  is  the  only  form  of  relief  work  in  this 
area  that  holds  out  hope  of  self-support  to  refugees  in  large 
numbers.  Here  and  there  an  individual  may  be  helped  to  self- 
support  through  a  trade  or  business,  but  settlement  in  villages, 
and  nothing  else,  can  provide  for  the  great  bulk.  All  other 
forms  of  relief  in  this  area  have  been  recognized  as  makeshifts 

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to  meet  temporary  situations.     These  makeshifts  during  the 
past  year  have  taken  the  following  forms  in  Tabriz : 

1.  Road  construction.  With  the  co-operation  of  the  local 
government  refugee  men  have,  since  last  October,  been  put 
at  road  construction.  The  maximum  number  of  men  availing 
themselves  of  this  form  of  help  at  any  one  time  was  about 
1,560,  all  of  whom  were  Armenian  and  Assyrian  refugees 
from  various  sections  with  the  exception  of  about  200,  who 
were  Moslem  refugees  from  Urumia.  During  the  winter 
these  workmen  received  two  krans  (about  17  cents)  a  day 
for  actual  time ;  this  was  reduced  to  one  and  one-half  krans 
on  March  13th  in  order  to  stimulate  the  movement  village- 
ward  ;  it  will  be  further  reduced  to  one  kran  on  April  3rd 
and  discontinued  altogether  on  April  15th. 

The  main  work  done  by  these  men  was  (a)  The  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  Kheaban,  the  Teheran  road  as  it  enters  the  city; 
(b)  The  building  of  a  new  road  bed  from  Kajil  Kabrastan 
to  the  present  railroad  avenue,  thus  making  the  roadbed 
for  an  absolutely  straight  road  from  the  Christian  section 
of  the  city  to  the  railroad  station;  (c)  The  extension  of  the 
American  hospital  road  beyond  the  hospital;  and  (d)  Street 
improvements  within  the  city. 

2.  Near  East  Factory.  With  the  able  assistance  of  a 
prominent  Armenian  business  man  a  factory  was  started  in 
October  with  a  capital  of  2,000  tomans.  The  capital  has  been 
increased  from  time  to  time  and  is  now  5,500  tomans.  The 
object  of  the  factory  has  been  to  furnish  work  for  women, 
and  the  hope  has  been  cherished  that  in  some  form  or  other 
the  factory  would  continue  as  a  business  enterprise  after  the 
Relief  need  has  passed.  The  number  of  employees  is  now  at 
its  maximum  with  664  on  the  factory  payroll.  Of  these  597 
are  Christian  refugee  women — spinners,  carders,  washers, 
etc., —  most  of  them  taking  raw  materials  from  the  factory 
to  their  homes  and  bringing  back  the  finished  product.  Em- 
ployees are  divided  as  follows : 

Wool  spinners    367 

Rug  weavers   52 

Cot.   spinners    88 

Basket  weavers   2 

Carpenters    2 

Carders  and  combers   72 

Cloth  weavers    31 

Wool  washers    11 

Lace   workers    17 

Knitters    11 

Masters  and   administrators    13 

"664 

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The  following  rates  paid  in  the  factory  do  not  indicate  what 
we  would  like  to  pay,  but  rather  the  maximum  we  have  been 
able  to  pay  as  a  business  institution. 

Lace  work  girls.  An  average  day's  work  is  from  2,500 
to  2,800  stitches  of  very  close  work,  and  for  this  they  receive 
about  eight  cents  (one  kran). 

Rug  weavers.  An  average  rug  weaver  can  make  about 
13,000  knots  a  day.  For  every  13,000  knots  he  receives  2.25 
krans.  The  rugs  we  are  weaving  have  35  knots  to  every 
linear  ponza  (2%  inches)  or  1,225  knots  to  the  square  ponza. 
A  small  rug  6i/t  by  414  feet  contains  about  1,372,000  knots 
and  can  be  made  by  two  weavers  working  steadily  in  from 
one  to  two  months. 

Spinners  of  woolen  yarn  use  a  very  crude  spindle  and 
with  it  can  spin  a  batman  (6  or  7  pounds)  of  wool  in  from 
sixteen  days  to  one  month.  For  this  they  receive  17.60  krans 
pay. 

Wool  carders  receive  3.50  krans  for  "fluffing"  one  batman 
of  wool,  this  is  the  work  of  about  three  days. 

Cloth  weavers  receive  .35  krans  for  weaving  one  arsheen 
(4414  inches)  of  cotton  cloth  and  .50  krans  for  woolen.  About 
seven  arsheen  can  be  woven  in  one  day  on  the  average. 

3,  Free  Relief,  Tickets  have  been  issued  during  the  win- 
ter to  a  total  of  about  3,700  refugee  children  and  610  aged 
men  and  women  who  were  unable  to  help  themselves.  These 
received  five  krans  a  week  each  during  the  severe  part  of  the 
winter;  it  was  later  reduced  to  four  krans  and  is  now  three 
krans  a  week.  A  twenty  kran  outfit  of  baby  clothes  has  also 
been  provided  for  each  of  258  refugee  babies  born  since  Sept. 
1st,  last.     (These  figures  are  up  to  March  18.) 

4.  Orphanage.  An  orphanage  of  about  100  orphans  has 
been  maintained  during  the  winter. 

Very  respectfully  submitted, 

Hugo  A.  Muller 
Tabriz,  March  23,  1922. 

Since  this  resume  was  written  a  cable  has  been  received 
from  the  New  York  office  reading:  "Referring  to  minutes  of 
Tabriz  Committee  Jan.  5th  and  12th.  Near  East  positively 
impossible  to  provide  funds  for  road  building  while  homeless 
orphans  elsewhere  starve.  Further  Persia  appropriation 
withheld  pending  receipt  of  budget  planning  strictly  on  the 
basis  of  child  care." 

We  feel  that  the  New  York  office  does  not  fully  understand 
the  Relief  situation  here  (largely,  to  be  sure,  because  of  our 
failure  to  send  adequate  reports)  ;  and  that  they  proceed  on  the 

553 


presumption  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  refugees  are 
orphans,  and  of  ages  too  young  to  work. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  full  orphans  in  our  area  are  few; 
there  are  many  half  orphans;  and  there  are  many  children 
with  both  parents  living.  But  the  problem  is  rather  this: 
given  a  large  Christian  population  of  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren, refugees  from  their  homeland  and  unable  to  return 
because  of  war  conditions  and  political  conditions,  living  in 
the  midst  of  an  unfriendly  Moslem  population — to  find  a 
means  of  self-support  for  them. 

Last  Autumn  all  those  whose  homeland  was  restored  to 
order  were  helped  back  to  their  land  and  are  there  now.  The 
plan  has  been  to  settle  the  rest  this  year  in  villages  where 
order  has  been  restored.  During  the  winter  this  plan  could, 
of  course,  not  be  carried  out,  but  it  was  necessary  to  keep 
the  population  alive  until  Spring.  We  had  taken  a  firm  stand 
against  a  continuance  of  general  free  relief,  but  the  difficulty 
was  to  find  profitable  employment  for  the  refugees.  Road 
construction  was  resorted  to,  this  furnishing  physical  occuDa- 
tion  and  a  meagre  support  for  all  needy  men  and  boys.  The 
"Factory"  organized  at  the  same  time  did  the  same  for  women 
and  girls  but  on  a  still  more  meagre  basis.  We  deprecate 
any  relief  measures  that  further  break  up  the  family  unit,  and 
we  believe  the  heads  of  families  should  be  helped  again  to 
the  position  of  the  main  bread-winner  of  the  family.  Accord- 
ing to  plans  the  road  building  gangs  were  gradually  breaking 
up  and  going  to  villages  and  to  farming  with  their  families 
as  the  Spring  opened  up ;  and  the  road  work  was  to  stop  very 
shortly;  on  receipt  of  the  cable  we  stopped  the  road  building 
work  at  once,  about  two  weeks  earlier  than  planned. 

In  reply  to  the  above  cable  we  wired  on  March  28th  as 
follows:  "In  reply  to  telegram  March  24th.  only  method 
child-care  we  can  conscientiously  endorse  involves  patriation 
villages,  where  parents'  relatives  will  support  children.  Stop. 
Our  Committee  disapproves  making  thousands  children  wards 
Relief  for  an  indefinite  time  when  proper  action  will  place 
their  support  on  their  own  people.  Stop.  Speer  expected 
to  arrive  on  first  prox.    Will  consult  regarding  budget." 

It  is  extremely  difficult  to  prepare  a  budget  when  so  many 
elements  remain  unknown.  How  many  will  apply  for  repatria- 
tion? In  what  district  will  they  be  settled?  How  favorable 
terms  can  they  get  from  their  landlords?  How  good  a  har- 
vest will  thev  reap?  Will  the  price  of  bread  and  of  seed  con- 
tinue to  rise?  etc. 

In  view  of  all  these  uncertainties  as  near  as  it  is  possible  to 

554 


make  a  budget  for  repatriation  (and  that  is  the  only  kind  of 
child-care  that  we  have  enthusiasm  for)  the  budget  for  the 
Tabriz  area  would  be  as  follows:  (Budget  as  revised  by  com- 
mittee.) 

Tomans 

1,000  families.  One  ox  per  family  at  30  Tomans 30,000 

1,000  Kharwars  seed  grain  at  present  prices    50,000 

Five  months  free  relief  at  15  krans  monthly  per  person   52,500 

Shovels,  plows,  etc 3,000 

Orphanage  for  one  year,  200  children   7,500 

143,000 

It  would  be  necessary  to  add  to  this  amount  about  20,000 
tomans  if  villages  are  rented.  This  project  is  now  under  con- 
sideration but  we  hope  to  make  some  arrangement  which  will 
render  such  action  unnecessary. 

The  Relief  Committee  feels  that  if  appropriations  are  made 
on  a  monthly  basis  they  may  attempt  to  carry  such  a  re- 
patriation policy  to  a  successful  conclusion  with  an  appropria- 
tion of  30,000  tomans  monthly  for  the  Persia  area.  This  is 
a  minimum  and  needs  for  this  program  could  not  be  met 
with  a  smaller  amount. 

With  the  funds  that  we  have  we  are  proceeding  with  the 
plan,  giving,  not  one  ox  and  one  kharwar  of  seed  for  every 
family  (which  we  believe  is  the  minimum  with  which  self- 
support  can  be  attained),  but  only  one  ox  and  one  kharwar 
of  seed  for  every  two  families — in  the  hope  that  later  funds 
will  enable  us  to  bring  it  up  to  this  minimum. 

Among  the  refugees  who  have  gone  to  villages  since  March 
23d  is  an  increasing  number  of  Assyrians. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

Hugo  A.  Muller 

March  30,  1922. 

We  join  in  these  recommendations,  not  for  the  purchase  or 
renting  of  any  villages,  but  for  the  establishment  of  the  people 
in  village  homes,  under  arrangements  between  them  and  the 
village  owners,  as  soon  as  possible. 

A  good  part  of  our  time  in  Tabriz  was  given  up  to  the  Relief 
problem,  in  conferences  with  the  Persian  officials,  the  Relief 
committee,  the  Armenian  Archbishop,  the  Armenian  consul, 
and  committees  and  individuals  representing  the  Armenian, 
Assyrian,  and  Moslem  communities.  It  was  all  that  one  could 
endure  to  listen  to  what  one  had  to  hear  and  to  go  about  the 
streets,  lined  with  groups  of  grateful  but  appealing  people. 
One  of  the  many  meetings  which  we  shall  never  forget  was  a 

555 


great  gathering  in  the  yard  of  the  Relief  administration  offices 
where  Dr.  Packard  and  I  told  the  people  as  sympathetically, 
but  yet  as  plainly  as  we  could,  what  the  relief  situation  was. 
I  can  still  feel  the  deep  and  significant  silence  with  which 
the  throng  passed  quietly  out  of  the  yard  when  we  were  done. 
We  were  deeply  moved  also  by  the  plight  of  the  "intellectuals," 
who  included  the  students,  teachers,  and  leading  men  of  the 
Armenian  Republic  who  had  been  driven  out  when  the  Soviets 
overturned  the  government  in  the  spring  of  1921.  Just  as  we 
left  Persia  there  seemed  to  be  a  good  prospect  that  these 
refugees  might  be  allowed  to  return  to  Erivan.  Another  type 
of  appeal  to  which  we  listened  with  even  deeper  sympathy,  if 
possible,  was  from  those  whose  daughters  had  been  carried 
off  from  them.  One  letter  from  an  Assyrian  father  which  I 
received  in  Tabriz  will  be  sufficiently  illustrative: 

"Honorable  Sir: 

"I  beg  to  inform  your  honor  about  my  daughter,  named 

,  who  is  a  captive  in  Constantinople,  in  the  harem 

of  a  Mohammedan.  I  lost  her  in  our  flight  from  Urumia  in 
the  summer  of  1918.  She  found  refuge  in  the  French  Mission 
house  there.  When  the  Turks  took  Urumia,  she  was  left  to 
the  mercy  of  the  Turks  and  was  taken  by  one  Turk  to  Con- 
stantinople. After  my  eagerness,  researching  about  her  and 
from  the  information  which  I  heard,  I  learned  that  she  was 
in  Constantinople.  Now  I  have  heard  that  she  has  married 
the  Turk.  I  mean  that  she  has  been  forced  to  do  so,  and  she 
has  lost  her  religion  of  Christianity  and  has  been  forced  to 
be  a  Mohammedan.  In  the  name  of  our  God  I  pray  you  to 
save  my  dear  daughter.  I  ask  you  in  the  name  of  our  Jesus 
Christ  to  save  my  daughter  from  the  hands  of  Turks  and  to 
restore  her  to  the  Christian  faith." 

We  share  earnestly  the  hope  of  the  Relief  Committee  in 
Tabriz  that  it  may  be  possible  for  the  Near  East  Relief  to 
provide  the  small  sum  necessary  to  effect  the  settlement  in 
the  villages  of  the  refugees  remaining  in  Tabriz,  so  that  they 
may  be  employed  in  self-supporting  labor  in  their  own  homes 
again  and  be  able  to  take  over  in  large  part,  and  if  it  may  be 
wholly,  the  care  of  their  own  dependent  women  and  orphan 
children. 

At  Julfa,  where  we  crossed  the  Aras  river  from  Persia  into 
Trans-Caucasia,  we  met  Armenian  refugees  on  both  sides  of 
the  border.  In  Persian  Julfa  the  group  had  been  held  up  by 
passport  technicalities.  They  complained  to  us  that  they  could 
not  even  find  enough  grass  to  eat.  At  the  railway  station  in 
Russian  Julfa,  now  in  the  Soviet  Tartar  republic  of  Azer- 

556 


baijan,  a  large  group  of  Armenian  refugees,  men,  women  and 
little  children,  were  drawn  up  to  greet  us.  They  were  clothed 
in  rags  and  behind  them  the  once  handsome  railway  station 
was  a  gutted  ruin.  The  company  was  made  up  of  two  groups 
and  they  presented  the  following  petitions: 

"Petition  from  the  Aza  Refugees  near  Julfa  to  the 
American  Relief 
"Being  in  a  very  unendurable  condition,  we  are  unable  to 
live.  Our  people  are  starving.  Besides  our  people  have  not 
sown  any  seed.  We  believe  that  in  our  present  difficulties 
only  the  American  Relief  can  save  us  from  sure  starvation 
and  that  it  will  stretch  out  its  hand  to  save  us  from  the  claws 
of  famine.  We  humbly  ask  you  to  help  us  in  every  way  pos- 
sible. 

"On  Behalf  of  the  Aza  Refugees." 

"Petition  from  Julfa  People  to  the  American  Relief  Committee 
"With  this  petition  we  wish  to  inform  you  of  our  condition. 
In  1918  the  Turkish  sword  met  us.  We  left  our  homes  and 
our  properties  and  fled  to  Zangizoor  and  Erivan.  In  1919 
we  returned  to  our  homes,  where  we  again  met  persecution 
from  the  Osmanli  Turks.  Again  we  fled  to  Tabriz,  where 
we  found  refuge  under  the  care  of  the  Relief  Committee.  We 
were  helped  from  that  time  until  1921,  Coming  here  we 
have  no  oxen  and  no  seed.  We  are  obliged  to  plow  our  fields 
and  sow  our  seed  by  the  help  of  Tartars  to  whom  we  are  to 
give  one-half  of  our  crop.  If  all  this  were  ours  it  would  be 
sufficient  for  us  and  we  would  not  be  in  need.  We  ask  your 
attention  to  our  shortage  of  bread.  As  to  the  matter  of  our 
clothes,  all  of  us  as  you  see,  old  and  young,  men  and  women, 
are  almost  naked.  This  winter  we  have  sold  our  clothes  to 
buy  bread.  Therefore  we  request  you  to  help  us  needy  people. 
,  .  .  Please  read  Isaiah  58:6,  7,  and  then  James  2:15,  16.  We 
are  very  thankful  that  you  have  carried  out  the  spirit  of  these 
verses  until  this  time.  We  request  you  to  continue  your  help 
until  the  harvest,  giving  us  oxen,  agricultural  implements, 
and  seed, 

"On  Behalf  of  the  Julfa  People," 

At  Kamerlu  on  the  railway  between  Julfa  and  Erivan  we 
saw  the  refugees  whom  the  British  Government  had  trans- 
ported from  Basra  to  Batum  by  sea,  and  who  had  been  brought 
by  rail  from  Batum  through  the  Caucasus.  The  Lord  Mayor's 
Fund  of  London  was  aiding  these  refugees  to  settlement  in 
the  villages  in  the  fertile  country  around  Kamerlu.  On  a 
green  near  the  railway  station  several  hundred  children  from 

557 


the  orphanage  were  playing  games,  and  then  as  the  dusk 
came  on  marched  away,  singing,  to  their  fatherless  and  moth- 
erless home. 

Mr.  Muller  and  Dr.  Lamme,  as  representatives  of  the  Relief 
Committee  in  Tabriz,  had  been  sent  with  us  by  the  Committee 
to  confer  with  the  Near  East  Relief  authorities  in  the  Cau- 
casus and  to  arrange  various  matters  with  regard  to  the  Relief 
work.  The  Near  East  Relief  people  met  us  at  Erivan,  the 
capital  of  the  Armenian  republic,  and  from  Erivan  to  Batum, 
and  again  in  Constantinople,  they  cared  for  us  with  a  kindness 
and  hospitality  and  efficiency  for  which  we  can  never  ade- 
quately thank  them,  and  they  gave  us  every  facility  for  seeing 
the  wonderful  work  which  in  the  name  of  the  American  people 
they  are  carrying  on  for  the  succor  of  the  starving  and  the 
dying  in  the  Caucasus. 

The  total  population  of  the  Caucasus  as  estimated  in  Harold 
Buxton's  report  on  famine  conditions  is  5,600,000,  distributed 
as  follows:  Georgia  2,200,000,  Azerbaijan  (not  the  Persian 
Azerbaijan)  2,000,000,  Armenia  1,400,000.  Mr.  Buxton  says 
that  the  Commissary  on  Foreign  Affairs  in  Armenia  told  him 
that  there  were  1,100,000  native  Armenians  in  the  Armenian 
republic  and  300,000  refugees,  and  that  150,000  were  doomed 
to  starvation  if  help  did  not  come.  Of  the  2,000,000  in  Azer- 
baijan, 432,000  were  in  towns,  the  remainder  in  villages. 
Fifty  per  cent  of  the  acreage  was  unsown  in  1921,  and  100,000 
people  in  the  towns,  and  200,000  in  the  villages  were  in  need 
of  relief.  In  Georgia,  Mr.  Buxton's  report  stated,  60,000 
people  were  starving. 

The  chief  work  of  the  Near  East  Relief  in  the  Caucasus, 
naturally  and  in  accordance  with  the  purpose  of  its  supporters, 
is  in  Armenia  where  its  two  chief  centers  are  Erivan  and 
Alexandropol.  Erivan  was  normally  a  clean,  attractive  city 
of  40,000  people.  The  population  has  now  been  doubled  by 
refugees,  but  ten  per  cent  of  the  houses  were  destroyed  in  the 
war,  and  the  city  bears  an  aspect  of  desolation.  At  the  time 
of  our  visit  most  of  the  starving  children  had  been  gathered 
up  from  the  streets,  and  there  were  4,000  of  the  little  waifs 
in  the  orphanages  and  hospitals,  and  7,000  people  were  being 
fed  daily  in  soup  kitchens  and  by  rations.  The  people  were 
being  settled  as  rapidly  as  possible  in  villages,  and  the  naked 
were  being  clothed  with  the  garments  sent  out  from  America. 
One  could  wish  that  donors  at  home  might  know  the  im- 
measurable comfort  and  help  which  these  bales  of  old  clothes 
from  America  have  brought  to  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
people  in  the  Caucasus.     Babies  were  born  and  sick  people 

558 


were  dying  in  the  crowds  that  waited  in  the  soup  kitchen 
yard.  The  turned  down  covers  in  the  hospital  beds  disclosed 
the  thin,  wasted  bodies  of  the  little  children  who  were  being 
nursed  back  to  life  and  health  again.  At  Alexandropol  there 
are  15,000  orphans.  Old  Russian  barracks  have  been  trans- 
formed into  three  amazing  institutions.  In  one  dining  room 
1,500  children  can  be  seated  and  in  one  shower-bath  450 
washed  at  a  time.  The  children  do  all  the  work  they  can,  in- 
cluding mending  clothes.  They  have  school  half  a  day  and 
instruction  half,  under  good  teachers  available  from  among 
the  refugees.  They  are  happy  and  grateful.  All  these  chil- 
dren are  suffering  from  trachoma  and  many  of  them  from 
scabies.  It  was  a  pitiful  sight  in  one  of  the  Erivan  hospitals 
to  see  the  little  children  coming  by  twos  to  the  barbers  to  have 
their  heads  shaved,  the  blood  pouring  from  the  sore  scalps. 
27,000  people  are  being  fed  in  the  soup  kitchens  at  Alexan- 
dropol. When  the  Turks  went  away  in  the  spring  of  1921, 
they  stripped  these  cities  and  Armenia  bare,  taking  off  cattle 
and  the  timber  and  the  food  stuffs,  and  leaving  desolation 
behind  them.  The  want  and  suffering  of  the  country,  as  we 
saw  it  evidenced  in  Erivan  and  Alexandropol,  is  tragic. 

Armenia  is  a  fertile  land,  and  the  Armenians  are  an  indus- 
trious and  energetic  people.  They  do  not  ask  or  need  perma- 
nent or  indefinite  assistance.  They  will  struggle  to  their  own 
feet,  if  the  destruction  of  war  is  not  released  upon  them  again 
and  if  they  have  temporary  economic  help.  This  is  what  the 
Near  East  Relief  is  trying  to  provide.  Its  task  would  have 
been  done  before  this  in  Armenia  except  for  the  care  and 
training  of  orphans,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  Turkish  inva- 
sion and  the  Soviet  overturning.  Even  now,  howjever,  through 
the  provision  of  seed  grain  and  the  necessary  help  for  agri- 
cultural re-establishment,  the  dependent  adult  people  should 
be  in  a  position  of  self-maintenance  by  next  year.  If  adequate 
help  especially  in  the  supply  of  seed  could  have  been  given 
this  year,  the  people  would  be  out  of  danger  by  the  coming 
harvest,  but  the  children  will  be  a  charge  for  a  long  time  yet, 
and  the  proper  care  of  this  great  trust  will  call  not  for  funds 
only  but  for  the  wisest  and  truest  personal  service. 

Tiflis  is  normally  a  city  of  300,000  population  and  is  now 
congested  by  the  crowding  in  of  double  that  number.  There 
is  not  here  the  depth  of  poverty  and  need  which  is  so  visible  in 
Armenia,  but  there  is  an  immense  amount  of  want  and  un- 
employment, and  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  still  worse  conditions 
can  be  avoided.  We  saw  no  drays  or  wagons  or  any  merchan- 
dise whatever  moving  on  the  streets.     Many  shops  are  closed 

559 


and  others  are  open,  with  the  scantiest  stocks  of  goods,  for 
only  part  of  the  day.  There  are  no  factories  except  a  few 
cigarette  factories  which  represent  an  economic  waste.  The 
central  administration  office  of  the  Near  East  Relief  of  the 
Caucasus  area  is  in  Tiflis,  and  Near  East  Relief  workers  are 
carrying  on  seven  feeding  stations,  which  are  feeding  nearly 
10,000  people,  seven  schools,  four  orphanages,  and  two  old 
clothes  distribution  centers.  We  visited  a  great  deal  of  this 
work  and  talked  with  the  people  in  charge  of  it,  many  of 
them  Russian  men  and  women  of  high  social  position  and 
rare  abilities  who  were  thankful  for  this  opportunity  of  ser- 
vice and  for  the  bare  subsistence  which  it  provided.  The 
widow  of  a  Russian  general  in  charge  of  one  of  the  dining 
halls  for  children  gave  me  a  remarkable  set  of  papers  and  dia- 
grams which  she  had  prepared  showing  the  work  of  the 
center  under  her  charge  with  a  general  memorandum  in  Eng- 
lish which  I  venture  to  quote  as  illustrative  of  the  spirit  of 
the  personnel  which  the  Near  East  Relief  has  been  able  to 
employ. 

MEMORANDUM 

"From  the  Manager  of  the  1st  American  Ganovskaia  Dining- 
room. 

''Before  attempting  to  give  an  idea  of  the  activity  of  our 
organization,  I  must  first  express  our  feeling  of  deep  gratitude 
to  the  highly  humanitarian  help  the  noble  American  nation 
spreads  throughout  the  world,  and  which  has  now  reached 
the  southern  borders  of  our  once  so  grand  and  brilliant  coun- 
try that  is  now  ruined  and  perfectly  prostrate  and  would  be 
condemned  to  perish,  were  it  not  for  the  Almighty  Hand 
manifested  in  the  charity  sent  to  it  from  America.  We  cer- 
tainly have  reason  to  fear  that  time  and  length  of  help  may 
have  limits  and  exhaust  the  givers  thereof,  but  the  acuteness 
of  want  and  misery  are  in  no  way  allayed  and  would  be  ex- 
actly as  mortal  to  the  thousands  of  children's  lives,  as  the 
situation  was  when  the  American  help  was  first  given  to  Tiflis, 
now,  already  three  years  ago,  when  our  Ganovskaia  dining- 
room  began  providing  dinner  for  100  poor  children,  and  has 
gradually  grown  into  dimensions  of  various  help  to  the  num- 
ber of  1,100  children.  Thanks  to  the  geographical  situation, 
and  conditions  of  climate  the  Caucasus,  notwithstanding  its 
being  but  a  part  of  the  old  Empire,  has  now  become  a  refuge 
for  the  unhappy  widows  and  orphans  of  Russians,  and  53  per 
cent  of  the  children  we  assist,  are  Russians,  the  next  in  num- 
ber are  Gregorians,  and  there  follow  Armenians,  Germans, 
Poles,  and  Jews.    50  per  cent  of  all  the  number  are  orphans. 

560 


The  aim  of  our  dining-room  is  the  help  to  children,  and  we 
begin  providing  nourishment  to  their  mothers  a  month  or  two 
before  their  confinement.  The  ordinary  age  of  our  boarders 
does  not  surpass  14  (30';  are  under  7  and  50';  are  between 
8  and  12),  but  sometimes  we  make  an  exception  and  provide 
to  older  ones  struck  by  tuberculosis,  recovering  from  severe 
illnesses,  quite  destitute  of  any  help,  or  being  students  on  the 
last  course  of  their  education. 

"Scarcity  of  food  and  general  destitution  have  acted  most 
destructively  on  the  youthful  inhabitants  of  this  town,  and 
we  count  35  per  cent  of  consumption  and  50  per  cent  of  weak 
and  sickly  children  among  our  boarders. 

"The  actual  program  of  our  activity  is  the  following:  (1) 
General  nourishment  consisting  of  a  dinner  and  one-fourth  lb. 
of  bread.  (2)  Increased  nourishment  for  the  sickly  and  chil- 
dren recovering  from  severe  illnesses.  (3)  Help  in  clothes 
and  shoes,  drawn  from  the  bales  of  old  clothes  sent  from 
America.  (4)  Medical  help  expressed  in  daily  reception  in 
the  ambulatory  of  the  D.  R.,  visits  to  the  ill  children  by  our 
physicians  and  their  assistants  and  delivery  of  medicines. 
(5)  Elementary  education  in  a  kindergarten  attached  to  the 
D.  R.  and  primal  classes  in  the  apartment  itself  consisting  of 
teaching  manual  works,  as  shoe-making,  and  weaving  and  sew- 
ing and  instruction  in  teaching,  reading  and  writing  and  arith- 
metic and  even  foreign  languages,  as  English  and  French,  to 
small  groups  desirous  of  learning  them. 

"All  our  endeavors  are  directed  to  save  not  only  the  physical 
growth  of  our  children,  but  to  develop  in  them  the  moral  gifts 
Nature  has  provided  them  with,  and  to  save  them  from  the 
destructive  influence  of  the  street.  The  surroundings  they  live 
in  are  a  sore  trial  for  such  an  object,  but  we  have  had  more 
than  once  the  gratifying  consequence  of  seeing  the  influence 
of  mild  discipline  and  teaching  in  a  complete  change  of  manner 
and  spirit  in  a  child,  formerly  rough  and  coarse.  They  come 
to  us  at  a  little  past  8  in  the  morning  and  try  to  remain  as 
long  as  they  can  and  disperse  after  6  in  the  evening,  visibly 
enjoying  the  influence  of  their  surroundings.  Our  incompe- 
tent and  unorganized  ways  of  education  giving  good  fruit 
proves  to  me  the  great  necessity  of  moral  help  to  those  poor 
children,  that  might  be  given  to  them  by  organizing  a  regular 
refugee  primal  school  where  the  children  might  profit,  in 
an  established  order  of  daily  occupations,  bringing  them  ef- 
fectual use  in  their  future  lives  and  preparing  them  to  be  use- 
ful citizens,  capable  of  helping  themselves  and  others.  I  am 
not  a  partisan  of  resident  pupils,  because  in  that  way  children 

561 


become  too  detached  from  the  life  of  general  conditions  and 
very  often  expect  from  it  too  much  external  help  and  are  blind 
to  the  surrounding  miseries  that  unhappily  life  is  so  full  of, 
but  rational  teaching  would  help  them  in  that  struggle  with- 
out giving  the  bitter  feeling  of  not  being  in  any  way  pre- 
pared for  it. 

"Being  aware  of  the  elevated  interest  you  have  in  the  wel- 
fare of  humanity,  I  here  express  my  earnest  hope  that  you  will 
perhaps  help  us  to  advance  and  augment  the  amount  of  good 
already  given  to  our  unhappy  people  by  your  generous  nation. 

"Manager  1st  American  Ganovskaia  D.  R.  and 
Kindergarten  Eugenie  Kayanavitchy, 

"Widow  of  a  Russian  General." 

"Tiflis,  Ganovskaia  Str.  No.  3. 
18th  of  April,  1922." 

The  Near  East  Relief  has  been  able  to  secure  from  the 
Governments  in  the  Caucasus  free  transportation  of  its  goods 
and  personnel.  So  efficient  has  been  the  management  of  this 
work  both  at  Batum,  the  receiving  center,  and  on  the  railroad 
that  there  has  been  practically  no  loss  whatever  from  theft. 
In  the  conditions  which  prevail  at  the  present  time  in  the 
Caucasus,  this  is  little  short  of  miracle. 

We  were  unable  to  see  all  we  desired  in  Constantinople, 
because  of  erroneous  information  as  to  the  time  of  sailing 
of  our  steamer,  but  we  saw  the  headquarters  work  of  the  Near 
East  Relief,  conferred  with  the  new  Patriarch  of  the  Greek 
Church,  had  a  meeting  with  the  missionary  body,  and  visited 
the  admirable  orphanage  of  that  admirable  woman.  Miss 
Cushman.  No  one  can  handle  such  work  or  any  work  more 
efficiently  than  Miss  Cushman,  and  she  finds  it  difficult  to  pro- 
vide for  the  care  and  training  of  the  children  and  all  the 
necessary  overhead  relief  expenses  on  the  budget  allowance 
of  two  liras  or  $7  a  month  for  each  child. 

We  cannot  speak  too  warmly  of  what  we  saw  of  the  Near 
East  Relief  work.  (1)  It  is  doing  a  great  work  of  human 
salvage.  It  has  kept  alive  thousands  of  adult  people  who 
otherwise  would  have  died,  and  it  has  rescued  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  children  who  will  live  to  redeem  the  waste  places  and 
to  rebuild  the  ruins  in  the  Near  East.  (2)  It  has  lifted  the 
name  of  America  to  a  unique  place  in  the  respect  and  aifection 
of  the  people  of  all  races  in  Turkey  and  Persia  and  Russia. 
We  were  charged  with  innumerable  messages  of  gratitude  to 
the  American  people  from  the  Greek  Patriarch  in  Constanti- 
nople, the  Armenian  Catholicos  in  Etchmiadzin,  other  eccle- 

562 


siastics,  Persian  political  officials,  and  hundreds  of  the  people 
to  whom  the  American  Relief  has  been  their  only  friend  and 
hope.  This  was  again  and  again  their  very  language.  "Our 
only  hope  is  America."  "But  for  America,  our  nation  would 
have  died."  It  is  this  service  of  the  past  which  has  begotten 
in  the  minds  of  these  people  the  confidence  that  we  will  not 
fail  them  now.  "The  great  country  of  which  you  are  a  citi- 
zen," wrote  the  Armenian  archbishop  when  we  were  in  Rama- 
dan, "has  by  her  humane  effort  in  the  relief  work  for  these 
sufferers  set  the  nations  of  the  world  a  unique  example  of 
Christian  fellowship  and  brotherhood,  and  has  carried  on 
this  great  humane  work  for  so  long  that  it  seems  to  be  impos- 
sible that  she  should  leave  the  undertaking  unfinished  and, 
at  this  the  critical  hour  of  their  need,  when  death  is  awaiting 
every  man,  woman  and  child  of  them,  leave  these  refugees  to 
their  own  resources.  Most  of  these  refugees  have  settled 
down  in  the  villages  and  sown  in  the  hopes  of  reaping  the 
harvest  in  the  coming  season,  and  if  no  relief  reaches  them 
they  will  either  be  forced  by  circumstances  to  leave  every- 
thing and  wander  about  or  else  to  stay  where  they  are  and 
await  death  by  hunger."  (3)  We  were  impressed  by  the 
unity  and  the  economy  of  the  relief  work  in  the  Caucasus. 
It  was  gratifying  to  see  the  spirit  of  co-operation  and  loyalty 
which  animated  it.  And  I  doubt  whether  any  great  relief 
undertaking  has  ever  been  carried  through  with  a  larger  meas- 
ure of  efficiency  and  frugality.  There  are  many  people  with- 
out employment  in  the  Caucasus  who  are  glad  to  do  faithfully 
any  work  that  will  yield  a  bare  subsistence.  Dr.  Elmer  told 
us  that  it  was  possible  in  Tiflis  to  get  a  good  doctor  who  would 
give  all  his  time  to  relief  service  in  one  of  the  dispensaries 
for  seven  dollars  a  month,  and  he  stated  that  the  average  cost 
of  the  Russian  and  Armenian  personnel  in  the  Tiflis  area  was 
four  dollars  a  month.  (4)  Somewhere  in  the  Near  East  we 
heard  a  jibe  at  all  this  relief  work  of  the  American  people  to 
the  effect  that  America  got  back  one  hundred  and  fifty  per 
cent  of  all  that  she  gave  away.  I  do  not  think  that  it  is  Phari- 
saical to  believe  that  to  him  that  gives  it  shall  be  given  again 
and  that  in  the  end  a  blessing  of  just  prosperity  does  come 
to  the  nation  which  gives  generously  to  human  need,  but  no 
such  thoughts  as  these  have  been  in  the  minds  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  in  this  service.  It  has  been  an  unselfish  and  truly 
Christian  ministry.  No  doubt  there  is  much  in  our  national 
life  to  justify  the  charge  of  selfishness  and  commercialism, 
but  in  a  work  like  this  one  rejoices  to  believe  that  our  country 
is  engaged  in  a  great  and  loving  deed  for  love's  sake  alone, 

563 


and  that  amid  the  many  judgments  that  await  her,  whether 
of  sorrow  or  of  joy,  she  will  not  fail  some  day  to  hear  a  Voice 
saying  to  her,  "I  was  naked  and  ye  clothed  me ;  I  was  hungry 
and  ye  fed  me;  I  was  a  stranger  and  ye  took  me  in." 

S.  S.  Constantinople, 

Ionian  Sea,  May  2,  1922. 


564 


15.     SOME   MISCELLANEOUS  POINTS 

1.  Sketch  of  Persian  History,  1897-1922.  As  a  background 
to  this  report  on  Persia,  it  mav  be  well  to  summarize  briefly 
the  history  of  the  country  for  the  last  twenty-five  years. 

Nasr  ed  Din  Shah,  the  last  strong  Persian  ruler,  was  assas- 
sinated at  the  shrine  of  Abdul  Azim  in  May,  1896,  and  was  at 
once  succeeded  by  his  son,  Muzaffar  ed  Din,  who  reigned  until 
his  death  in  January,  1907.  Modern  ideas  had  begun  to  pene- 
trate Persia  and  the  growth  of  these  ideas  and  of  a  sense 
of  nationalism  was  accentuated  by  the  resentment  of  the  people 
at  what  they  deemed  the  gradual  extinction  of  their  depend- 
ence by  the  influence  of  Russia  and  Great  Britain.  The  Shahs 
had  been  absolute  but  in  1905  the  Persian  people  demanded 
representative  institutions  and  in  January,  1900,  the  Govern- 
ment announced  that  the  Shah  had  given  his  consent  to  the 
establishment  of  a  National  Council  (Mejiis).  "Under  the 
rescript  of  August  5,  1906,  it  was  decided  that  the  National 
Council  should  consist  of  and  be  elected  by  members  of  the 
reigning  dynasty  (princes  and  Ka.iara),  clergy,  chiefs,  nobles, 
landowners,  merchants  and  tradesmen.  An  ordinance  of  Sep- 
tember 10,  1906,  fixed  the  number  of  members  at  156  (60 
for  Teheran  and  96  for  the  provinces),  and  early  in  October 
elections  were  held.  On  October  7th,  the  National  Council 
(or  as  many  of  its  members  as  could  be  got  together)  met, 
chose  a  president,  and  was  welcomed  by  the  Shah,  whose 
speech  was  read  before  it.  A  further  rescript  dated  Decem- 
ber 30,  1906,  signed  by  Muzaffar  ed  Din,  and  countersigned 
by  the  Vali-Ahd,  and  by  the  Grand  Vizier,  deals  with  the 
decree  of  August  5,  1906,  and  states  the  powers  and  duties 
of  the  National  Council,  besides  making  provision  for  the 
regulation  of  its  general  procedure  by  the  National  Council 
itself.  The  number  of  members  was  limited  to  156,  but  could 
be  raised  to  200;  members  were  to  be  elected  for  2  years; 
would  meet  annually  on  October  8  (14th  Mizan),  and  have 
immunity  from  prosecution,  except  with  the  knowledge  of 
the  National  Council.  The  publicity  of  their  proceedings 
(except  under  conditions  accepted  by  the  National  Council) 
was  secured.  Ministers  (or  their  delegates)  could  appear  and 
speak  in  the  National  Council,  and  would  be  responsible  to 
that  body,  which  had  special  control  of  financial  affairs  and 
internal  administration.  Its  sanction  would  be  required  for 
all  territorial  changes,  for  alienation  of  State  property,  for  the 

565 


granting  of  concessions,  for  the  contracting  of  loans,  for  the 
construction  of  roads  and  railways,  and  for  the  ratification 
of  all  treaties,  except  such  as  in  the  interest  of  the  State 
require  secrecy."  ("The  Statesman's  Year-book,"  1916,  p. 
1220.) 

Muzaffar  ed  Din  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Mohammed  Ali 
who  confirmed  the  new  constitution.  The  Me j lis  and  the  Shah 
soon  came  into  collision  and  the  Mejlis  was  dissolved  and  a 
time  of  disaster  followed.  In  1907  Russia  and  Great  Britain 
partitioned  Persia  by  a  convention  of  their  own  into  two 
spheres  of  influence  and  the  fall  of  the  Mejlis  was  followed 
by  increasing  Russian  dominance  in  Teheran.  When  the  war 
which  had  begun  between  the  Nationalists  and  Royalists 
threatened  the  Shah's  security  in  1909  he  fled  to  the  Russian 
Legation  and  thereupon  the  National  Council  met,  and  inter- 
preting the  Shah's  action  as  abdication,  chose  his  son,  Ahmad 
Mirza,  the  present  Shah,  to  succeed  him.  The  Mejlis  met 
again  on  November  15,  1909,  and  was  formally  opened  by 
the  Shah,  then  a  boy  of  13.  The  new  government  attempted 
to  reorganize  its  finances  with  the  help  of  American  advisers 
under  the  assurance  of  theRusso-British  agreement  that  Persia 
was  to  be  left  free  to  manage  its  own  internal  affairs.  But  the 
activities  of  Mr.  Shuster,  the  American  who  was  chosen  to  be 
Treasurer  General,  soon  brought  him  into  collision  with  Rus- 
sian and  British  interests  and  after  seven  months'  service, 
which  the  Persians  still  remember  gratefully,  he  was  forced  to 
resign  and  within  a  few  years  the  whole  financial  administra- 
tion was  back  in  Persian  hands  again. 

Russian  and  British  influences  were  paramount  in  Persia 
until  the  war.  Then  the  collapse  of  the  old  Russian  Govern- 
ment was  followed  by  a  new  treaty  between  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment and  Persia  by  which  Russia  forgave  the  debt  owed 
her  by  Persia  and  turned  over  to  Persia  all  Russian 
Government  property  in  Persia  except  the  buildings  needed 
for  diplomatic  and  consular  purposes.  "In  August,  1919, 
a  treaty  was  drawn  up  between  Great  Britain  and 
Persia  in  which  the  British  Government  (1)  reiter- 
ated the  past  undertakings  to  respect  absolutely  the 
independence  and  integrity  of  Persia;  (2)  undertook  to 
supply  whatever  expert  advisers  may  be  necessary  for 
the  several  departments  of  the  Persian  administration;  (3) 
also  to  provide  such  officers,  munitions  and  equipment  as  may 
be  adjudged  necessary  by  a  joint  British  and  Persian  Military 
Commission  for  the  formation  of  a  uniform  force  for  the  main- 
tenance of  order  in  the  Country  and  on  the  Frontiers;  (4)  to 

566 


provide  a  substantial  loan  to  finance  the  reforms  in  2  and  3; 
(5)  to  co-operate  in  railway  construction  and  other  forms  of 
transport;  (6)  to  appoint  a  joint  committee  to  revise  the 
existing  Customs  Tariff.  The  agreement  was  on  February 
27,  1921,  denounced  by  the  then  Prime  Minister,  Seyed-Ziaed- 
Din."  ("The  Statesman's  Year-Book,"  1921,  page  1164.)  The 
Persians  felt  greatly  aggrieved  by  this  treaty  which,  rightly 
or  wrongly,  they  regarded  as  bringing  Persia  under  the  con- 
trol of  Great  Britain,  practically  on  the  same  basis  as  India, 
and  it  accentuated  the  strong  anti-British  feeling  of  the  coun- 
try. In  consequence  Great  Britain  removed  all  the  troops 
which  the  war  had  brought  to  Persian  soil  and  also  withdrew 
many  other  forms  of  influence. 

At  the  present  time,  accordingly,  Persia  is  free  from  all 
outside  political  control.  The  Shah  is  abroad  in  Europe.  The 
Mejlis  is  in  session  for  the  fourth  time  since  it  was  first 
founded.  The  spirit  of  democracy  and  constitutionalism  is 
stronger  than  it  has  ever  been.  The  nation  can  now  prove, 
if  it  will,  its  capacity  and  desire  for  orderly  progress  and  free 
institutions. 

2.  Organization  of  the  Missions.  We  considered  in  all  our 
conferences  the  question  of  the  relation  of  the  two  Persia 
Missions.  Has  the  time  come  for  uniting  the  two  Missions 
as  has  been  done  in  Shantung,  Japan  and  Siam?  Or  should 
there  be  three  or  even  four  Missions,  our  two  present  Mis- 
sions, the  Mission  in  Mesopotamia,  and  the  Khorasan-Afghan- 
istan  Mission?  The  considerations,  which  are  familiar  to  the 
Board  in  connection  with  the  Missions  in  Shantung,  Japan, 
and  Siam,  in  favor  of  unification  are  equally  valid  in  Persia. 
For  the  present,  however,  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the 
consolidation  of  the  East  and  West  Persia  Missions  appear 
to  over-balance  the  reasons  for  union.  Even  at  the  best  season 
of  the  year  Tabriz  and  Meshed  are  a  month's  hard  and  ex- 
pensive journey  apart.  At  the  worst  season  of  the  year  it 
may  take  two  or  even  three  months  to  travel  between  these 
two  stations.  There  is  a  clear  linguistic  separation  between 
the  fields  of  the  two  Missions,  West  Persia  using  the  Turkish 
language  and  East  Persia  Persian.  Hitherto  the  problems  of 
the  two  fields  were  in  a  measure  diverse  because  of  the  pre- 
ponderance of  work  for  Assyrians  and  Armenians  in  the  Uru- 
mia  and  Tabriz  stations.  Now  this  diversity  has  been  dimin- 
ished through  the  predominance  of  work  for  Moslems  in  West 
Persia  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  addition  of  the  large  Assyrian 
community  to  the  East  Persia  Mission  field  at  Hamadan  on 
the  other  hand.    There  are  no  railways  between  the  difl'erent 

567 


stations,  and  between  some  of  them  the  roads  are  nothing  but 
caravan  trails  passable  only  on  horseback.  The  general 
opinion  seemed  to  be  that  the  union  of  the  two  Missions  should 
be  effected  whenever  the  means  of  communication  improved 
sufficiently  to  bring  all  the  stations  into  nearer  and  easier  ac- 
cess, and  that  until  then  there  should  be  as  full  correspond- 
ence and  visitation  as  possible  and  a  resolute  effort  on  the 
part  of  each  Mission  and  all  the  stations  to  think  of  their 
own  wbrk  in  terms  of  the  w'nole  field  and  its  needs. 

I  have  reported  elsewhere  the  general  opinion  that  the  work 
at  Mosul  and  in  the  mountains  should  be  made  a  part  of  a 
new  Mesopotamian  Mission  to  be  staffed,  supported  and  ad- 
ministered jointly  by  the  Reformed  Church  and  our  own,  and 
to  be  buttressed  on  the  south  by  the  Arabian  Mission  of  the 
Reformed  Church,  on  the  west  by  our  Syrian  Mission,  on 
the  east  by  the  East  Persia  Mission,  and  in  the  northeast  by 
the  Urumia  station  of  the  West  Persia  Mission. 

There  remained  the  question  whether  the  Meshed  station 
should  be  constituted  a  separate  Mission.  Several  years  ago 
this  idea  was  urged  upon  the  Board  by  the  Meshed  station 
with  the  acquiescence  of  the  East  Persia  Mission.  We  were 
glad  to  find  the  station  at  the  present  time  strongly  in  favor 
of  its  continuance  as  a  station  of  the  East  Persia  Mission. 
It  seemed  to  us  all  that  Meshed  needed  the  association  of  the 
Mission  and  that  the  Mission  needed  the  association  of  Meshed. 
Ultimately  as  we  have  set  forth  in  the  section  of  this  report 
dealing  with  "The  Occupation  of  the  Whole  Field"  there  should 
be  a  new  mission  growing  out  of  Meshed  and  embracing  a 
great  region  at  present  wholly  unoccupied  by  any  missionary 
agencies.  Until  then  special  effort  should  be  made  to  bring 
the  whole  East  Persia  Mission  into  relationship  with  Meshed 
and  its  problems.  Only  two  members  of  the  Mission  who  are 
now  on  the  field,  Dr.  Frame  and  Dr.  McDowell,  who  accom- 
panied us,  have  ever  visited  Meshed  and  only  one  of  these 
since  its  occupation  as  a  Mission  station.  It  is  desirable  that 
others  should  be  sent,  and  it  might  be  very  wise  to  have  a 
small  deputation  of  the  most  experienced  and  trusted  Moham- 
medan converts  from  the  older  stations  visit  and  advise  with 
the  little  Church  which  has  been  founded  in  Meshed. 

3.  Property.  The  Board  has  excellent  mission  properties 
in  Teheran,  Tabriz,  Hamadan  and  Kermanshah.  Almost  all 
of  these  are  in  admirable  order  and  repair.  They  are  among 
the  most  beautiful,  most  healthful  and  most  useful  properties 
in  these  various  cities.  Most  of  the  improvements  and  addi- 
tions which  are  necessary  have  been  made  possible  by  the 

568 


rehabilitation  and  Sunday  school  offerings.  The  chief  re- 
maining needs  are  for  additional  missionary  residences  and 
for  the  property  equipment  funds  at  Resht  and  Meshed,  and 
for  the  college  expansion  of  the  Teheran  Boys'  School  in  East 
Persia  and  for  the  rehabilitation  of  the  Urumia  station  in 
West  Persia. 

Mr.  Carter  deals  with  these  property  matters  in  a  separate 
chapter.  The  only  property  whose  title,  so  far  as  we  know, 
is  in  dispute,  is  the  portion  of  the  college  property  first  pur- 
chased without  the  walls  of  Teheran.  It  is  believed  that  there 
is  no  real  flaw  in  this  title,  and  that  the  title  may  soon  be 
declared  as  secure  as  any  titles  in  Persia  can  be  said  to  be. 

All  our  property  at  Resht  and  Meshed  at  the  present  time 
is  rented  property.  There  will  be  no  difficulty  in  purchas- 
ing in  Resht  and  we  went  over  the  various  available  properties 
with  Dr.  Frame,  who  has  probably  by  this  time  made  final 
purchase  of  the  property  which  he  is  now  using  as  a  hospital 
and  of  some  adjacent  property  available  for  residences  and 
the  boys'  school.  The  present  Mission  premises  rented  in 
Meshed  are  very  satisfactory.  Three  good  residences  have 
been  secured  side  by  side  for  moderate  rent,  and  good  build- 
ings excellently  adapted  for  the  hospital  have  been  rented 
across  the  street,  with  another  residence  adjoining.  Ample 
and  desirable  property  for  all  the  present  and  future  needs 
of  the  station  has  been  offered  it  for  purchase,  and  one  of  the 
leading  mollahs  has  been  promoting  the  transaction  and  is 
ready  to  validate  the  deeds.  The  kargazar,  however,  hesitates 
to  approve  so  large  a  purchase  without  special  authorization 
from  Teheran,  not  because  he  lacks  sympathy  with  the  Mis- 
sion in  whose  girls'  school  in  Teheran  his  daughter  has  been 
educated,  but  because  he  desires  to  save  both  the  Government 
and  the  Mission  the  trouble  that  might  arise  from  arousing 
dormant  fanaticism.  Both  for  this  and  for  other  reasons  we 
were  not  clear  that  it  was  wise  to  press  for  the  immediate 
acquisition  of  a  large  piece  of  property  in  Meshed.  It  may, 
however,  be  wise  to  do  so,  if  after  further  tactful  investiga- 
tion, it  is  found  that  property  can  be  secured  without  oppo- 
sition or  ill  will. 

4.  Press  and  Literature.  The  only  press  which  the  Mis- 
sions in  Persia  possessed  was  the  Syriac  press  in  Urumia 
which  was  entirely  destroyed  during  the  war.  The  mission- 
aries presented  in  each  conference  the  question  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  one  central  Mission  press  for  all  of  Persia  or  two 
presses,  one  in  each  Mission.  The  multiplicity  of  languages, 
Persian,  Turkish,  Syriac,  Armenian  and   Kurdish,   and  the 

569 


segregation  of  some  of  these  languages  from  others  and  the 
slow  communication  and  difficult  transportation  between  the 
stations  make  the  establishment  of  a  single  press  a  doubtful 
expedient.  At  the  present  time  Hamadan  is  the  most  poly- 
glot of  the  stations  and  is  as  geographically  central  as  any 
of  them,  and  so  long  as  the  Caucasus  trade  route  is  closed, 
is  nearest  the  foreign  markets  from  which  supplies  must 
be  secured. 

After  reviewing  the  whole  question  with  the  Missions  and 
in  the  light  of  the  Board's  experience  with  Mission  presses 
in  other  lields  and  the  increasing  disposition  of  the  Missions 
for  good  reasons  to  abandon  Mission  presses  and  have  all 
their  printing  done  by  public  presses  wherever  this  is  pos- 
sible, we  advised  the  Missions  against  at  this  time  setting  up 
any  new  press  establishment.  A  full  experiment  should  be 
made  in  the  use  of  the  printing  plants  which  now  exist  in 
Tabriz  and  Teheran  and  elsewhere.  It  may  possibly  be  found 
necessary,  after  the  re-establishment  of  Urumia,  to  have  a 
small  press  there.  That  can  be  determined  later.  Meanwhile, 
however,  immediate  provision  must  be  made  to  provide  new 
fonts  of  Syriac  type  which  can  probably  be  used  in  Tabriz  to 
supply  literature  for  the  Assyrians.  All  their  school  books 
and  other  literature  were  destroyed  and  should  be  replaced. 
There  is  no  Syriac  type  in  Persia,  and  the  Mission  would 
like  to  have  new  fonts  made  at  once  from  the  matrices  in 
America  and  sent  out  to  the  field,  the  expense  to  be  met  out 
of  the  press  appropriations  which  are  still  continued  in  the 
Urumia  grants. 

The  question  of  literature  is  a  separate  question  from  that 
of  a  printing  press.  There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  need 
of  a  far  larger  and  better  supply  of  Christian  literature  both 
in  Persian  and  in  Turkish.  Nothing  has  been  produced  in 
recent  years  equal  to  such  early  publications  as  the  "Balance 
of  Truth"  and  "Sweet  First  Fruits."  Effective  literature  can- 
not be  produced  in  any  mechanical  way,  and  the  shelves  of 
the  presses  in  Beirut  and  Shanghai  testify  to  the  folly  of  using 
missionary  time  and  missionary  money  in  printing  pamph- 
lets or  books  just  because  some  good  man  or  woman  has  pro- 
duced them.  But  when  some  one  is  raised  up  who  has  the 
taste  and  the  faculty  for  the  right  kind  of  literary  work,  the 
Mission  should  make  the  fullest  use  of  such  gifts.  Only  eter- 
nity will  show  the  results  of  the  amazing  contribution  which 
Dr.  W.  F.  Johnson  has  made  to  the  literature  of  the  Church 
in  northern  India.  It  is  possible  that  some  of  the  apologetic 
literature  for  Moslems  which  has  been  published  in  India  and 

570 


Egypt  might  be  translated  in  Persia.  It  is  more  probable, 
however,  that  the  literature  needed  for  work  with  Shiah  Mo- 
hammedans will  have  to  be  produced  by  men  and  women 
engaged  in  this  work,  and  ultimately,  of  course,  the  best  of 
it  by  converted  Mohammedans  themselves.  We  urged  upon 
both  Missions  that  some  of  the  individuals  who  seemed  best 
adapted  to  this  work  should  be  encouraged  and  even  required' 
to  undertake  it. 

The  people  who  can  read  in  Persia  are  eager  to  read,  but 
good  reading  material  is  very  scarce.  It  was  pathetic  to  see 
the  eagerness  with  which  tracts  would  be  received  and  Scrip- 
ture portions  purchased.  A  boy  came  running  after  Mr.  Wil- 
son, as  we  went  through  the  Tabriz  bazaar  selling  Scriptures 
without  any  hindrance  or  difficulty  in  the  tea  houses  and  in 
the  shops  and  desired  to  buy  a  Gospel.  "Can  you  sell  me  the 
Gospel  of  Matthew?"  said  he.  "I  already  have  the  Gospel  of 
Jolin."  Bible  Society  reports  will  not  show  any  such  quantity 
of  sales  in  Persia  as  can  be  shown  in  the  densely  populated 
fields,  but  nowhere  will  the  copies  that  are  sold  be  more  genu- 
inely appreciated  or  more  extensively  read.  It  would  be  a 
good  thing  if  the  Missions  were  able  to  supply  a  monthly 
Christian  paper  published  in  Persian  and  Turkish  editions, 
and  the  evangelical  Church  in  Urumia  should  be  encouraged 
and  helped  to  resume  the  publication  of  the  "Rays  of  Light" 
in  Syriac,  that  in  some  new  form  it  may  illumine  and  mold 
the  people  as  it  did  in  its  old  form  for  a  generation. 

The  present  edition  of  the  Bible  in  Azerbaijan  Turkish  is 
exhausted,  and  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  and  the 
Mission  have  been  in  doubt  as  to  the  wisdom  of  republishing 
it  without  complete  revision.  The  conclusion  of  the  Mission 
Conference  in  Tabriz  was  that  it  was  better  not  to  undertake 
a  revised  version  at  the  present  time  but  to  ask  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society  to  print  immediately  a  new  edi- 
tion of  the  present  version  of  the  New  Testament  of  2,500 
copies  with  additional  portions.  A  revision  is  needed,  but  it 
ought  to  be  postponed  until  it  can  be  thoroughly  made  with 
the  aid  of  competent  native  scholars  as  well  as  missionaries. 
A  partial  revision  now  which  would  have  to  be  followed  by 
a  further  revision  later  would  be  confusing  to  the  Church 
and  a  satisfaction  to  its  Moslem  adversaries,  who  buy  up  all 
the  different  versions  they  can  and  argue  from  them  that  the 
Christians  have  found  errors  in  their  Scriptures  and  have 
been  obliged  to  change  them. 

I  have  spoken  elsewhere  of  the  arguments  which  some  of 
the  converts  from  Mohammedanism  advance  in  behalf  of  the 

571 


translation  and  the  publication  of  the  Koran  in  Persia.  There 
is  a  large  volume  containing  the  Koran  in  Arabic  and  Persian 
in  parallel  columns,  but  it  is  too  expensive,  and  the  Moham- 
medan converts  urge  that  a  more  satisfactory  Persian  trans- 
lation should  be  made  and  issued  in  cheap  popular  form.  They 
were  convinced  that  this  would  result  in  a  destruction  of  popu- 
lar respect  for  the  book  and  in  many  conversions  to  the  re- 
ligion of  the  Bible.  We  asked  them  why  the  publication  of 
the  Koran  in  the  vernacular  would  have  this  effect  in  Persia, 
when  such  effects  had  not  followed  the  circulation  of  the  Koran 
in  Arabic,  in  Syria,  Arabia,  or  Egypt  where  Arabic  is  the 
vernacular.  They  replied  that  in  those  countries  the  people 
had  a  deep  reverence  for  the  Arabic  language  and  that  they 
did  not  test  the  book  as  a  religious  document  but  viewed  it 
patriotically  as  a  great  national  monument  written  by  their 
greatest  Arab.  Persians,  however,  felt  no  such  pride  either 
in  its  language  or  in  its  nationalism,  but  considered  it  only 
as  the  Word  of  God,  and  once  they  were  able  to  read  it  they 
would  repudiate  it  altogether  in  this  character.  They  had 
already  come  to  distrust  Islam  and  to  regard  it  as  responsible 
for  having  degraded  Persia  from  its  old  position  of  intelli- 
gence and  power  to  its  present  state  of  illiteracy  and  weak- 
ness. Let  them  see  what  a  futile  and  foolish  book  the  Koran 
is,  and  their  growing  disposition  to  reject  its  authority  would 
be  increased.  Probably  it  would,  and  one  would  like  to  see 
the  plan  carried  out  which  these  converts  are  urging.  But  in 
the  first  place  it  would  be  no  easy  task  to  get  a  proper  trans- 
lation, and  in  the  second  place  it  might  be  questioned  whether 
this  would  be  a  proper  use  of  Mission  funds. 

It  is  very  difficult  at  present  to  get  paper  in  Persia.  All 
printing  paper  has  to  come  from  Russia  or  India,  and  for  a 
long  time  the  Russian  supply  has  been  cut  off.  Old  American 
magazines  and  periodicals  can  be  sold  in  Teheran  for  more 
than  the  subscription  price,  to  be  used  for  wrapping  paper. 
Many  of  the  bags  used  in  the  bazaar  are  hand-made  from  old 
Russian  letters  pasted  together.  Bibles  even  have  been  bought 
for  wrapping  paper  or  in  order  that  their  covers  may  be  used 
for  Persian  books.  We  picked  up  in  a  shop  in  the  Kerman- 
shah  bazaar  what  looked  like  an  English  book.  It  was  bound 
in  cloth  covers  bearing  the  title  "The  Secret  Cave."  The  old 
shop-keeper  at  once  showed  signs  of  distress  and  motioned 
to  us  to  replace  the  book.  We  did  so  at  once  with  apologies, 
having  discovered  upon  opening  it  that  it  was  a  copy  of  the 
Koran  clad  in  the  garments  of  an  English  novel.  One  of  the 
converts  in  Meshed  was  converted  through  reading  a  page  in 

572 


the  New  Testament  wrapped  around  a  package  of  tea.  Dr. 
Cook  was  accustomed  deliberately  to  wrap  up  medicines  in 
New  Testament  pages,  knowing  that  each  one  of  them  would 
be  read  and  re-read.  It  seems  clear  to  us  that  in  many  ways 
a  much  larger  evangelistic  use  should  be  made  in  Persia  of 
Bibles,  books,  tracts  and  periodicals. 

5.  Presbyterial  Organization.  The  Assyrian  Evangelical 
Church  was  organized  as  an  independent  Church  body  having 
no  ecclesiastical  relationship  to  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  U.  S.  A.  It  had  its  own  general  synod  or  knushya,  with 
three  presbyteries  named  after  the  three  rivers  which  divided 
the  plain,  Sulduz,  City  and  Baranduz,  with  its  synodical  boards 
caring  one  for  the  evangelistic  and  educational  work  of  the 
Church  and  the  other  for  the  legal  affairs  of  the  Church  and 
its  people.  All  ecclesiastical  functions  were  discharged  effi- 
ciently by  this  Church,  and  the  station  was  free  to  carry  out 
its  distinctively  missionary  work  without  any  ecclesiastical 
authority,  in  full  and  happy  co-operation  with  the  Church. 
Elsewhere  in  Persia  the  only  ecclesiastical  body  was  the  East 
Persia  Presbytery  connected  with  the  Synod  of  New  York. 
When  it  was  formed  in  1890  and  for  some  years  all  the  mis- 
sionaries joined  it.  It  was  such  an  unreal  body,  however, 
that  its  missionary  members  had  misgivings  regarding  the 
wisdom  of  its  continuance  and  advised  the  younger  men  com- 
ing out  to  retain  their  connection  for  the  present  with  their 
home  presbyteries  in  America.  The  Presbytery  has  now  four 
missionary  (Mr.  Hawkes,  Dr.  Jordan,  Dr.  Schuler  and  Dr. 
Stead)  and  three  native  members  (Badvali  Kaspar  of  Te- 
heran, Baron  Ossitur,  and  Mirza  A.  Hyeem  of  Hamadan). 
The  Presbytery  has  been  able  to  meet  only  at  the  time  of 
Mission  meetings,  and  at  one  recent  meeting  only  three  mis- 
sionaries and  no  natives  were  present.  At  the  time  of  our 
visit  three  of  the  missionary  members  were  away  on  furlough. 
There  are  only  three  organized  Churches  in  the  Presbytery, 
no  one  of  them  with  a  settled  pastor.  The  missionaries  raised 
the  question  whether  it  was  not  desirable  to  dissolve  the  Pres- 
bytery or  whether  it  was  better  to  ask  the  Synod  of  New 
York  to  allow  it  to  rest  in  a  quiescent  state  in  the  hope  that 
before  long  the  organization  of  new  churches  and  the  instal- 
lation of  pastors  may  make  it  possible  to  revive  the  Presby- 
tery and  to  organize  it  as  a  genuine  Persian  body.  The  gen- 
eral view  was  that  the  latter  course  is  the  wiser  one.  Mean- 
while the  missionaries  at  Meshed  have  been  obliged  to  dis- 
charge some  of  the  functions  naturally  belonging  to  a  Pres- 
bytery although  they  have  no  such  status.     It  seemed  to  us 

573 


that  they  might  be  forgiven  for  this,  and  that  it  was  better 
that  the  work  in  Meshed  should  grow  to  the  point  where  it 
needs  a  genuine  Persian  presbyterial  organization  rather  than 
that  an  American  Presbytery  should  now  be  imposed  upon  it. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  work  in  the  Tabriz  field  also  will 
develop  necessities  which  cannot  longer  be  met  by  the  simple 
processes  which  appear  for  the  present  to  be  sufficient. 

6.  Indemnity  for  War  Losses.  The  Urumia  and  Tabriz 
missionaries  lost  a  great  part  or  all  of  their  personal  property 
during  the  war  as  a  result  of  the  occupation  of  the  station  by 
the  Turkish  forces  and  the  exposure  of  all  the  missionary 
property  to  looting  at  the  hands  of  Turks  and  Kurds  and  Per- 
sians. All  the  Mission  property  also  in  Urumia  was  destroyed 
and  heavy  damages  were  done  to  some  of  the  property  in 
Tabriz,  especially  the  hospital,  standing  on  the  edge  of  the 
city.  Later  the  Bolshevik  invasion  which  reached  Resht  and 
which  threatened  Tabriz  and  Meshed  led  to  the  withdrawal 
of  all  the  missionaries  from  Resht  and  most  of  the  mission- 
aries from  Tabriz  and  Meshed,  involving  additional  sacrifices, 
and  in  the  case  of  Resht  the  actual  looting  of  some  of  the 
Mission  property. 

In  accordance  with  instructions  from  the  State  Department 
a  statement  of  the  losses  of  the  Board's  property  was  pre- 
sented to  Washington,  and  the  missionaries  have  sent  in  or 
are  sending  in,  as  required,  statements  of  their  personal  losses 
on  the  forms  provided  by  the  Government.  All  these  are 
just  indemnity  claims  and  must  be  left  to  the  American  Gov- 
ernment to  be  dealt  with  in  the  manner  that  is  appropriate 
and  right. 

Meanwhile  the  Board  has  sought  through  the  special  Persia 
Rehabilitation  Fund  to  secure  gifts  from  the  Churches  ade- 
quate to  provide  (a)  such  reimbursement  of  the  missionaries 
for  their  personal  losses  as  might  be  equitable  and  just,  so 
that  they  could  reestablish  their  homes,  pending  the  receipt 
of  any  indemnity  through  the  Government,  and  (b)  the 
amount  required  to  restore  necessary  Mission  property  in 
Tabriz  and  Urumia  and  to  provide  other  essential  property 
equipment  for  the  Persia  Missions.  The  Board  Treasurer's 
Office  reports  that  the  total  amount  received  toward  the  Re- 
habilitation Fund  up  to  March  31,  1922  is  $47,566.26,  most 
designated  for  special  property  objects.  This  amount  is 
divided  between  the  two  Missions  as  follows:  East  Persia 
$24,657.88,  ($15,356  for  specified  property  and  $9,031.88  un- 
specified) ;  West  Persia  $22,908.38,  ($10,971.48  for  specified 
objects  and  $11,936.90  for  unspecified). 

574 


The  East  Persia  Mission  has  disposed  of  all  personal  losses 
of  its  missionaries  in  the  following  action  taken  at  the  Mission 
meeting  in  August,  1921: 

"We  recommend  that  the  funds  appropriated  under  Treas- 
ury Notices  Nos.  3459  and  3466  for  rehabilitation  should  JDe 
distributed  as  follows: 

For  reimbursement  of  missionaries  or  personal  losses  in  Resht,  as 
follows : 

Dr.   Frame    $2000  00 

Miss  Amerman    400  00 

Mr.    Wilson    200  00     $2600  00 

Reimbursement  of  personal  losses  in  Meshed  due  to  evacuation 

Mr.  Donaldson   300  00 

Dr.    Hoffman    300  00 

Dr.   Lichtwardt    300  OO' 

Mr.   Miller    100  00     $1000  00 

Reimbursement  of  losses  due  to  fire  in  Meshed,  Jan.  1919 

Mr.  Murray   500  00 

Dr.    Hoffman    250  00         750  00 

Resht  Medical  Equipment  looted    724  93 

Resht   School   Equipment    276  95 

Hamadan    Repairs    1550  00 

Finish  Doulatabad  Residence    1100  00 

Additions   Kermanshah   Hospital 1300  00 


$9301  88 


"In  regard  to  the  sums  assigned  above  for  reimbursement 
for  personal  losses  we  recommend  that  the  mission  treasurer 
be  directed  to  pay  out  to  the  missionary  if  the  latter  so  desires 
one-half  of  the  sum  indicated  above  at  once,  the  balance  to 
be  paid  only  after  presentation  and  approval  by  the  Executive 
Committee  of  detailed  statements  of  losses  of  each  missionary. 
It  is  not  to  be  assumed  that  the  amount  indicated  above  is  to 
be  drawn  unless  it  is  needed  to  replace  actual  loss  nor  is  it  to 
be  assumed  that  the  above  action  will  preclude  the  missionary 
from  presenting  a  request  for  a  total  in  excess  of  that  in- 
dicated." 

The  personal  losses  of  the  West  Persia  missionaries  on  fur- 
lough were  not  a  matter  of  record,  so  that  the  total  amount 
of  personal  losses  sustained  by  members  of  this  Mission  could 
not  be  ascertained  at  the  time  of  our  visit.  Reports  from 
eleven  families,  however,  showed  a  loss  of  tomans  36,000, 
equivalent,  when  the  toman  costs  eighty-five  cents,  to  $30,600. 
A  small  committee  with  Dr.  Packard  as  chairman  was  ap- 
pointed to  review  the  new  lists  that  were  to  be  made  upon  a 
uniform  basis  and  to  see  what  could  be  done  at  once  to  relieve 

575 


the  missionaries  who  had  been  carrying  as  overdrafts  the 
amounts  they  had  expended  for  absolutely  necessary  house- 
hold equipment,  and  to  make  funds  available  for  those  who 
had  not  furnished  their  present  homes  in  any  adequate  way. 
Dfiring  the  last  days  of  the  Tabriz  conference  it  was  not  pos- 
sible to  secure  all  the  lists,  to  make  all  the  necessary  compari- 
sons and  adjustments  and  to  report  recommendations  to  the 
conference.  Dr.  Packard  assured  us,  however,  that  he  would 
follow  the  matter  through  as  speedily  as  possible  and  report 
to  the  Mission  and  to  the  Board  in  New  York.  His  committee 
estimated  that  the  final  figures  for  personal  losses  of  West 
Persia  missionaries  might  be  $45,000  to  $50,000.  Towards 
this,  judging  from  the  list  of  unspent  appropriations  that  we 
had  taken  with  us  from  New  York,  it  appeared  that  there  was 
only  some  $13,000  available.  Some  of  the  missionaries  called 
attention  to  the  fact  that  they  had  received  from  the  churches 
supporting  them,  or  from  other  sources,  certain  sums  for  re- 
establishing themselves  upon  the  field.  These  gifts  were  to 
be  reported  to  Dr.  Packard  in  connection  with  the  revised  list 
of  losses.  But  making  allowance  for  such  items  it  was  ap- 
parent that  not  more  than  30  per  cent  of  the  losses  could  be 
paid  from  funds  in  hand.  Some  families  need  the  full  sum  or 
approximately  the  full  sum  now.  Others  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that,  though  they  expected  full  indemnity  through 
the  Government,  they  did  not  need  full  reimbursement  imme- 
diately through  the  Board,  as  their  lists  included  lost  equip- 
ment for  which,  in  view  of  their  present  work  and  under  their 
present  household  arrangements,  they  could  wait. 

It  is  understood  of  course  that  all  payments  for  personal 
losses  from  the  Rehabilitation  Fund  are  to  be  regarded  as 
advances  to  be  returned  in  case  of  Government  indemnifica- 
tion. 

S.  S.  Constantinople, 

Mediterranean  Sea,  May  5,  1922. 


576 


VI.     PROPERTY  AND  FINANCIAL 
MATTERS 

INDIA 

We  were  very  much  pleased  to  see  that  the  properties  which 
the  Missions  are  enjoying  in  India  are  so  adequate  and  satis- 
factory. Land  is,  of  course,  relatively  cheap  and  with  fore- 
thought our  early  missionaries  secured,  either  through  gov- 
ernment grant  or  by  purchase,  or  long  term  lease,  large  plots 
of  ground  admirably  located  for  Mission  purposes.  The  titles 
to  these  properties  stand  in  the  name  of  the  Board.  The  deeds 
are  in  the  possession  of  the  Treasurers  of  the  Missions.  In 
most  cases  these  plots  have  been  well  treated,  shade  trees 
planted,  and  buildings  well  placed. 

There  are  many  beautiful  compounds  such  as  the  one  at 
Mainpuri  where  there  are  magnificent  old  trees,  and  where 
the  residences  and  school  buildings  are  well  spaced,  and  are 
either  to  the  side  or  rear  so  that  there  is  a  fine  stretch  of  un- 
broken campus  in  front  similar  to  the  front  campus  at  Prince- 
ton; or  the  one  at  Rakha,  where  there  is  a  similar  grouping, 
though  the  school  buildings  are  too  congested,  and  where  at 
one  end  of  the  great  campus  the  fine  old  church  building  is 
seen  in  its  beautiful  setting;  or  the  one  at  Ferozepur,  where 
in  the  ample  nine  acre  compound  you  approach  the  bungalows 
and  hospital  buildings  by  a  driveway  that  winds  through 
stately  trees  and  beautiful  palms.  At  Allahabad  the  Ewing 
Christian  College  is  located  on  a  tract  of  twenty  acres  on  the 
banks  of  the  Jumna  River,  and  the  College  buildings,  the  resi- 
dences, and  the  Jumna  High  School  have  been  happily  located 
around  the  sides  of  this  tract  so  that  there  are  acres  of  turf 
playing  ground  in  the  center  unbroken  by  anything  except 
one  immense  banyan  tree  with  its  aerial  roots  (under  a  great 
sweeping  mass  of  foliage  that  must  be  one  hundred  feet  across) 
and  the  old  community  church  where  we  had  a  sweet  com- 
munion service  ministered  to  by  Indian  elders. 

The  compound  at  Saharanpur  is  a  glorious  one  of  fifty-four 
acres  and  very  centrally  located,  but  you  cannot  quite  throw 
off  the  feeling  that  it  is  not  being  adequately  used.  In  the 
industrial  school  there  were  only  thirty  boys  whereas  its 
capacity  is  one  hundred  and  fifty;  and  in  the  seminary  there 
were  only  sixteen  students,  though  it  can  accommodate  one 
hundred.     These  two  groups  of  buildings  were  erected  espe- 

577 

19— IncliH   and  Persia 


cially  for  their  respective  purposes  and  are  well  adapted  to 
them.  The  industrial  plant  represents  an  outlay  of  some 
$15,000.00  and  the.  seminary  buildings  even  more.  With  so 
few  students  there  is  not  money  enough  in  the  reduced  budgets 
to  keep  up  the  repairs  on  the  buildings.  Only  one  of  the  three 
wings  in  the  dormitory  of  the  industrial  plant  was  in  use,  and 
the  roof  timbers  and  roofs  of  the  other  two  were  in  complete 
disrepair.  The  Punjab  and  North  India  Missions  discussed 
frankly  the  future  of  these  schools  and  full  report  is  made 
elsewhere.  The  Government  has  taken  over  by  condemnation 
proceedings  a  strip  of  the  compound  lying  next  to  the  railway, 
and  one  could  not  altogether  wonder  at  it  as  one  saw  the  rela- 
tively small  use  to  which  these  beautiful  and  extensive  grounds 
are  being  put. 

At  Lahore  we  are  sorry  to  say  the  general  effect  is  not 
pleasing  to  the  eye  or  satisfactory  to  those  who  are  adminis- 
tering the  work.  The  College  is  very  centrally  located  and 
has  recently  acquired  quite  a  strip  of  land  adjacent  to  its 
former  holdings  which  will  enable  it  in  time  to  remedy  the 
situation  somewhat.  But  at  present  the  existing  buildings 
are  very  congested  and  there  seems  to  have  been  no  well 
considered  plan  in  locating  them.  Again,  they  are  limited  on 
one  side  by  a  Moslem  cemetery  and  on  another  by  valuable 
business  properties.  To  properly  enlarge  the  site  is,  therefore, 
an  expensive  and  difficult  matter.  The  redeeming  features 
are  the  beautiful  new  Ewing  Hall,  a  model  in  style  and  execu- 
tion, and  the  attractive  approach  past  the  president's  house. 

We  were  completely  carried  away  with  Dehra.  It  is  a 
beautiful  compound,  retired  and  restful,  with  the  largest  vari- 
ety of  trees  we  saw  anywhere,  with  roses  and  chrysanthe- 
mums in  abundance,  and  well  kept  vegetable  and  fruit  gardens. 
The  buildings  are  well  planned,  well  kept,  with  ample  light 
because  the  buildings  are  detached  and  they  have  that  glorious 
view  from  the  windows  and  housetops  off  towards  the  foot 
hills  of  the  Himalayas  that  ought  to  inspire  anyone  to  do  good 
work. 

In  general,  we  would  say  that  the  India  Missions  are  very 
well  provided  for  in  the  way  of  land,  and  in  looking  over  the 
India  Council's  preferred  list  we  see  that  the  only  places  where 
additions  to  present  compounds  are  asked  for  are  at  Moga 
and  Jagraon,  amounting  to  only  some  $3,500.00.  The  other 
land  askings  amount  to  only  $15,000.00  and  are  necessary 
not  because  of  any  shortage  of  land,  but  because  it  has  been 
thought  wise  to  change  locations.  The  old  sites  should  be 
sold  in  time  to  cover  in  whole  or  in  part  the  cost  of  the  new 

578 


sites.  In  general,  too,  we  have  found  the  buildings  very  satis- 
factory. In  some  places  it  looks  as  if  in  times  past  mission- 
aries have  been  given  too  much  latitude  in  planning  and 
building  according  to  their  individual  ideas,  but  the  building 
committees  of  the  Missions  are  now  giving  these  matters 
more  careful  attention,  and  it  is  definitely  understood  that  no 
building  will  be  started  until  the  plans  have  the  full  approval 
of  the  committee. 

It  was  a  very  great  satisfaction  and  joy  to  see  the  mission- 
aries so  well  housed.  The  residences  are  of  the  bungalow 
type,  usually  built  of  hard  burned  bricks,  so  that  the  exterior 
can  be  brick  or  stucco.  The  walls  are  very  thick  to  keep  on' 
the  heat,  and  the  ceilings  high,  sixteen  to  twenty  feet.  The 
roofs  are  usually  flat  and  of  mud  and  have  to  be  kept  well 
rolled  to  prevent  leakage.  These  flat  roofs  afford  cool  sleeping 
quarters  in  the  summer  months.  In  Western  India,  where 
the  rainfall  is  excessive,  the  roofs  are  pitched  and  covered 
with  tile.  Now  that  most  of  our  missionaries  get  away  to 
Landour  or  Kodaikanal  or  Mahableshwar  for  the  hot  season 
it  may  be  that  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  make  the  rooms  so 
large  or  the  ceilings  so  high,  thus  effecting  something  of  a 
saving  to  offset  in  part  the  increased  cost  of  building.  Some 
of  the  residences  appeared  to  us  to  be  unnecessarily  spacious, 
but,  of  course,  we  were  there  in  the  cool  season.  There  are 
eleven  new  residences  asked  for  on  the  India  Council's  pre- 
ferred list  of  new  property  estimated  to  cost  186,000  rupees; 
this  in  a  list  of  fifty-three  items  totaling  550,000  rupees.  We 
are  very  happy  to  say  that  in  only  two  of  these  eleven  stations 
was  there  any  doubling  up,  that  is,  two  families  in  one  house, 
when  we  were  on  the  field ;  the  other  nine  requests  repre- 
sented future  needs.  We  think  we  can  safely  say,  therefore, 
that  our  missionaries  in  India  are  comfortably  and  almost 
adequately  housed,  and  for  this  we  were  profoundly  thankful 
as  we  visited  with  them  from  station  to  station.  This  is  due 
largely  to  the  new  buildings  erected  by  the  more  than  $800,- 
000.00  set  aside  for  property  from  the  munificent  Kennedy 
bequest  and  by  subsequent  generous  gifts  through  the  Wo- 
man's Board  and  from  individuals  and  churches.  Now  there 
should  be  from  three  to  five  new  residences  provided  each 
year  to  keep  abreast  of  the  situation. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  generalize  as  to  school  buildings. 
The  college  groups  of  buildings  are  the  usual  miscellaneous 
lot,  neither  college  having  a  uniform  treatment  or  style  of 
architecture.  But  they  have  established  themselves  with  so 
little  money  directly  from  the  Board  and  have  built  so  eco- 

579 


nomically  and  are  doing  such  a  magnificent  work  that  one  is 
not  disposed  to  be  at  all  critical.  He  only  wishes  at  Lahore 
that  there  was  better  light  and  air  in  the  buildings  and  that 
at  Allahabad  the  really  fine  buildings  were  all  of  one  style 
of  architecture.  The  primary  and  middle  school  buildings 
erected  within  the  last  ten  years  seem  very  well  adapted  to 
requirements,  and  we  were  happy  to  see  that  there  is  more 
light  and  air  being  introduced.  Some  of  the  best  of  the  late 
buildings  have  been  planned  or  the  building  overseen  by  wo- 
men. The  new  school  building  at  Kodoli  was  a  delight  with 
its  large  windows  to  the  north  giving  fine  light,  yet  avoiding 
the  glare  and  heat  of  the  direct  sunlight.  Too  much  credit 
cannot  be  given  to  our  women  in  charge  of  schools.  You  could 
tell  before  you  had  gone  far  whether  a  woman's  hand,  with 
its  orderly  and  delicate  touches,  was  responsible  for  the  up- 
keep. 

We  were  agreeably  surprised  to  find  the  buildings  in  such 
good  repair.  Not  that  the  Missions  are  able  to  put  aside  from 
present  appropriations  what  is  needed  for  upkeep,  but  they 
seem  to  be  using  effectively  what  they  have  and  they  were 
quite  in  accord  with  our  suggestion  that  out  of  the  next 
increase  given  to  the  Missions  in  Classes  IV-X  an  attempt 
should  be  made  to  provide  for  upkeep  more  adequately.  The 
amount  specified  for  repairs  should  be  kept  intact,  not  subject 
to  transfer,  and  any  balance  unspent  should  be  carried  over 
to  the  next  fiscal  year.  The  India  Missions  were  very  sympa- 
thetic to  the  Board's  request  that  a  reasonable  limit  be  placed 
upon  the  amount  of  new  property  approved  by  the  Missions 
and  took  such  action  this  year,  following  the  suggestion  that 
until  some  other  ratio  be  agreed  upon  the  amount  be  limited 
to  the  total  of  the  appropriations  to  the  Missions  for  native 
work  classes. 

We  left  New  York  purposing  to  secure  a  complete  number- 
ing of  all  our  properties  in  India  and  Persia,  so  that  reference 
could  be  made  to  them  by  number  instead  of  name,  and  the 
photographs  and  plans  in  the  Board's  property  files  be  given 
corresponding  numbers.  Those  in  the  Missions  and  the  vari- 
ous stations  best  advised  in  property  matters  have  given  their 
hearty  co-operation,  and  this  work  has  been  completed  for 
every  station.  The  plan  of  numbering  that  met  with  approval, 
and  which  was  followed,  was  to  give  number  1  to  the  land 
in  a  station  and  the  following  numbers,  say,  2-9,  to  the  various 
principal  buildings  on  that  plot.  If  there  was  a  second  com- 
pound in  the  station,  to  give  to  that  tract  the  next  number, 
in  this  case  number  10,  and  the  following  numbers  to  the 

580 


buildings  upon  that  tract,  and  so  on.  In  some  stations  there 
were  from  two  to  five  different  compounds  and  it  did  not  seem 
wise  to  number  the  buildings  chronologically,  according  to 
the  date  of  erection,  for  this  would  not  permit  of  consecutive 
numbering  on  a  given  compound;  building  number  2  would 
be  on  land  number  1,  whereas  building  number  3  might  be 
on  a  tract  in  another  part  of  the  city.  All  the  photographs 
and  plans  in  the  Board  files  will  now  be  numbered  in  accord- 
ance with  these  lists  made  on  the  field,  and  copies  of  the  lists 
of  property,  plans  and  photographs  will  be  sent  to  the  field. 
These  reports  will  make  it  very  apparent  where  we  lack 
photographs  or  plans  of  important  buildings  and  there  has 
been  agreement  on  the  field  to  try  to  make  these  shortages 
good  as  soon  as  possible. 

Note  should  be  made  of  the  fact  that  we  are  losing  or  have 
already  lost  a  strip  of  land,  say  30  to  75  feet  in  width  across 
the  front  of  our  property  at  Dehra,  between  the  edge  of  the 
stream  and  the  top  of  the  bank,  because  the  boundaries  of 
our  property  were  not  plainly  marked.  Those  who  worked 
the  property  and  were  next  door  owners  were  allowed  to  do 
so  without  a  clear  understanding  as  to  ownership  and  now 
claim  the  property.  On  another  side  a  roadway  jointly  owned, 
and  no  longer  required  as  a  roadway,  has  all  been  taken  over 
and  put  under  cultivation  by  a  zealous  neighbor.  And  we 
are  also  forced  to  allow  a  right  of  way  over  a  portion  of  the 
property  because  care  was  not  taken  to  indicate,  when  certain 
ones  were  allowed  to  pass  over  it  because  they  were  friends 
of  the  Mission,  that  it  was  private  property.  We  appreciate 
the  fact  that  in  a  small  station  and  where  there  is  frequent 
change  in  the  personnel,  it  is  easj^  to  lose  sight  of  property 
rights.  But  this  one  instance  makes  it  clear  that  the  property 
committees  of  the  Mission  must  be  alert  in  such  matters  as 
these,  considering  them  a  part  of  their  responsibility,  if  it  is 
not  safe  to  leave  them  in  the  hands  of  the  station. 

We  feel,  too,  that  the  Missions  should  carefully  consider 
the  question  as  to  whether  there  are  properties  now  held  un- 
used that  might  better  be  disposed  of.  We  have  in  mind  such 
properties  as  the  city  properties  at  Hoshyarpur  and  some  of 
the  properties  at  Jullundur.  We  recognize  that  in  some  of 
our  Missions  it  is  becoming  very  diflficult  to  acquire  land  and 
that  there  is  a  natural  hesitancy  about  selling  property  now 
owned.  It  seems,  however,  as  though  the  Mission  should  face 
the  question  as  to  whether  it  is  likely  to  use  for  Mission  pur- 
poses the  properties  formerly  used  as  a  preaching  center  at 
Hoshyarpur  and  not  now  so  used  but  rented.    On  general  prin- 

581 


ciples  we  do  not  believe  that  it  is  a  good  thing  for  the  Mission 
to  retain  properties  for  rental  purposes. 

PERSIA 

We  have  v^^ork  today  in  Persia  in  seven  cities.  From  the 
south  to  the  north  as  we  traveled,  Kermanshah,  Doulatabad, 
Hamadan,  Teheran,  Resht;  to  the  east,  Meshed;  to  the  w^est, 
Tabriz.  In  only  five  of  these  seven  does  the  Board  own  prop- 
erty. There  are  funds  available,  however,  for  the  purchase 
of  property  in  the  other  two,  Meshed  and  Resht,  and  we  spent 
considerable  time  in  the  study  of  the  various  possibilities  at 
Resht,  and  went  over  the  large  tract  of  land  they  were  consid- 
ering purchasing  at  Meshed. 

Kermanshah.  We  have  there  a  compound  of  seven  acres 
containing  a  residence,  a  group  of  three  buildings  for  the 
orphanage  work,  and  the  new  hospital  building  started  by 
Mrs.  Stead  and  now  completed  by  Dr.  Packard.  The  residence 
is  a  roomy,  square,  two-storied  building  very  much  in  need 
of  repairs.  The  ceilings  in  the  second  story  are  badly  disfig- 
ured where  the  plaster  has  fallen  because  the  roofs  were  not 
kept  tight,  and  the  house  needs  freshening  up  all  over  if  it 
is  to  be  made  at  all  inviting  for  young  people  coming  out  from 
America  and  setting  up  their  first  home.  The  house  is  well 
located  on  high  ground  and  fine  orchards  have  been  estab- 
lished. The  plot  was  laid  out,  we  fear,  without  any  definite 
thought  of  a  second  residence  and  it  is  going  to  require  some 
good  planning  to  locate  satisfactorily  the  second  house  now 
needed  and  for  which  the  funds  are  available. 

Buildings  in  Persia  are  made  largely  of  bricks  sun  dried 
only,  not  kiln  dried,  and  the  walls  are  very  thick,  sometimes 
three  and  a  half  feet,  and  plastered  on  the  outside  with  mud. 
Sometimes  the  corners  of  the  buildings  are  of  hard  burned 
brick,  giving  a  little  finish  as  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Funk's  hos- 
pital building  at  Hamadan  and  the  new  hospital  building  at 
Kermanshah.  They  use  fine  cut  straw  in  the  mixing  of  the 
mud  and  sometimes  there  are  kernels  of  grain  left  in  the 
straw.  These  prove  an  attraction  to  mice,  and  holes  in  walls 
and  roofs  are  started  by  these  creatures  which  lead  to  serious 
damage  unless  detected  and  filled  up.  They  say  that  a  Persian 
mud  building  will  last  a  hundred  years  or  more  provided  the 
roof  is  kept  in  repair.  Poplar  trees,  which  are  fast  growers, 
are  grown  and  used  for  roof  timbers.  In  fact,  in  the  2,100 
miles  which  we  traveled  in  J^ersia,  we  saw  in  only  a  few 
places  any  other  varieties  of  trees  than  the  willow,  grown  for 
firewood,  and  the  poplar,  for  timbers.  In  the  native  houses 
these  round  poplar  roof  beams  show  overhead,  and  also  the 

582 


cross  strips  and  thatch  upon  which  is  built  the  thick  roof  of 
mud.  These  roofs  are  made  with  only  a  slight  pitch  so  that 
they  can  be  used  summer  evenings.  This  means  that  the  mud 
must  be  pounded  hard  when  the  roof  is  made  and  must  be 
kept  well  rolled  after  rains.  All  snow  has  to  be  shoveled  off 
immediately  after  a  storm,  and  as  the  streets  are  usually  very 
narrow,  in  most  cases  only  eight  to  twelve  feet  wide,  many 
of  them  become  impassable  for  carts  for  weeks  at  a  time  in 
winter.  In  buildings  erected  by  foreigners  these  mud  walls 
are  usually  plumb  with  clean  edges  and  angles,  and  they  look 
very  trim.  Some  garden  walls  have  copings  of  kiln-dried 
bricks  to  protect  them  which  gives  a  good  finish,  but  ordinarily 
native  mud  walls  are  poor  looking  affairs.  They  mix  the  mud 
and  put  it  up  in  layers,  stamping  it  down  with  their  feet, 
and  the  various  layers  are  very  apparent.  Sometimes  these 
cheaper  made  walls  are  improved  by  rubbing  them  down  or 
coating  them  over  with  a  mud  finish.  As  all  streets  are  lined 
with  such  walls  and  all  yards  are  surrounded  with  them  they 
give  the  character  to  a  village.  With  village  buildings  all 
made  of  the  soil  and  generally  only  one  story  high,  it  would 
be  difficult  when  traveling  to  distinguish  villages  at  any  dis- 
tance were  it  not  for  the  few  trees  aiong  the  water  courses. 
These  catch  the  eye  when  nothing  else  can  be  seen. 

At  Hamadan  they  have  a  beautiful  site  for  the  hospital  and 
two  residences  just  outside  the  southwest  corner  of  the  city 
wall.  There  is  nothing  between  the  compound  and  the  snow- 
capped range  of  mountains,  which  includes  Mt.  Elvend,  12,000 
feet  high,  and  which  stretches  away  indefinitely  to  the  north 
and  south.  This  compound  appealed  to  us  as  one  of  the  choic- 
est spots  in  Persia  to  live.  The  Hamadan  plain  lies  at  an 
elevation  of  from  6,000  to  6,200  feet,  and  there  is  no  need  of 
summer  resorts  for  any  except  those  who  live  in  the  more 
crowded  quarters  of  the  city.  Our  work  in  Hamadan  is  in 
six  different  localities  and  is  pretty  well  scattered  through 
the  city.  The  day  school  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  boys  has 
a  good  auditorium  and  several  class  rooms  in  separate  build- 
ings. The  additional  ground  recently  purchased  was  badly 
needed  by  the  school,  and  it  serves  the  further  purpose  of 
connecting  the  school  property  with  the  residence  property 
where  formerly  the  head  of  the  school  lived.  That  residence 
was  low  and  old  and  became  unfit  for  use  longer  as  a  residence. 
The  site  was  admirable,  however,  and  the  Easter  offering 
of  the  Sunday  schools  makes  it  possible  now  to  erect  a  new 
residence  which  will  be  convenient  to  the  school.  Mr.  Allen, 
the  present  head  of  the  school,  is  living  in  the  residence  con- 
'>«  583 


nected  with  the  building  that  was  both  dispensary  and  wo- 
men's hospital.  This  is  on  a  third  plot  of  ground  ten  or  fifteen 
minutes'  walk  from  the  school.  The  house  is  old,  but  the 
rooms  are  good  and  have  a  fine  exposure  and  there  is  ample 
playground  for  the  children.  Dr.  Funk  has  found  that  patients 
will  not  come  out  to  the  dispensary  which  he  fitted  up  in  the 
basement  of  the  hospital  on  the  new  site  outside  of  the  city, 
so  he  comes  into  the  city  daily  to  this  old  dispensary  and 
there  ministers  to  some  nine  thousand  patients  a  year.  The 
rooms  above  the  dispensary  are  the  ones  formerly  used  for  a 
woman's  hospital ;  not  very  satisfactory  quarters. 

The  fourth  compound  at  Hamadan  is  that  of  the  Faith  Hub- 
bard School  in  the  Armenian  section  of  the  city.  This  build- 
ing needs  some  repairs  badly.  It  is  a  rambling  building  and 
gives  every  evidence  of  having  been  added  to  from  time  to 
time.  It  is  as  difficult  on  the  Mission  field  as  elsewhere  to 
enlarge  an  old  plant  satisfactorily.  Perhaps  lack  of  ground 
was  a  handicap  here,  or  possibly  those  advised  in  building 
matters  should  have  carried  this  end  of  the  burden.  St.  Ste- 
phen's Church,  the  Armenian  Church  is  on  its  own  plot  of 
ground  adjoining  the  Faith  Hubbard  School,  and  a  sixth  plot 
carries  what  formerly  was  Mr.  Hawkes'  residence,  now  used 
by  the  Jewish  Church  and  Sunday  school.  There  is  a  seventh 
plot  with  a  building  on  it  formerly  used  by  the  evangelist, 
Kaka,  but  now  rented  and  which  some  think  should  be  sold. 
When  we  were  there  we  felt  that  the  Hamadan  property  needed 
improvement.  The  central  properties  looked  run  down.  The 
building  of  the  new  residence  and  the  opening  up  of  the  addi- 
tional land  will,  however,  go  a  good  ways  toward  what  is 
needed. 

We  did  not  go  out  to  Doulatabad  as  the  roads  were  bad  and 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Zoeckler  kindly  came  in  for  the  station  meeting 
at  Hamadan.  The  Boys'  School  building  there  was  erected 
by  the  people  and  the  property  does  not  stand  in  the  Board's 
name,  so  that  all  the  Board  owns  there  is  the  residence  in 
which  the  Zoecklers  live. 

The  property  at  Teheran  is  very  satisfactory  indeed.  The 
central  compound  is  admirably  located  and  accommodates  the 
Girls'  School  with  its  present  staflt  of  four  American  teachers 
and  two  hundred  and  fifty  girls,  all  but  the  boarding  depart- 
ment of  the  Boys'  School,  the  church  and  two  good  residences. 
The  Boys'  School  with  its  nearly  five  hundred  boys  is  too  con- 
gested. It  would  relieve  the  situation  greatly  if  money  could 
be  found  to  erect  a  class  room  building  on  the  fine  college 
site  of  sixty  acres  outside  the  city  walls  and  facing  the  great 

584 


mountain  range  topped  by  beautiful  Demavend  almost  20,000 
feet  high.  This  would  enable  them  to  move  the  high  school 
out  to  the  college  site  where  as  yet  they  have  had  money  to 
build  only  two  residences,  and  a  dormitory  for  the  fifty  boys 
in  the  boarding  department.  It  is  a  great  sight  to  see  almost 
five  hundred  boys  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  girls  pouring 
out  of  this  central  compound.  These  are  the  best  schools  in 
the  city,  and  these  boys  and  girls  the  best  that  the  capital  of 
Persia  has.  We  had  the  pleasure,  too,  of  joining  in  the  con- 
ference as  to  the  site  for  the  Woman's  College  and  were  very 
glad  to  see  that  the  station  decided  to  abandon  the  thought  of 
building  next  to  the  Girls'  School.  We  went  over  the  new 
site  in  the  Legation  district  and  near  the  Boys'  College,  and 
were  delighted  with  it.  The  third  compound  is  the  attractive 
one  of  the  hospital,  almost  thirty  minutes'  walk  from  the  cen- 
tral compound.  This  has  a  well-equipped  hospital  plant  and 
two  good  residences.  There  are  five  acres  here,  beautiful 
trees  and  flowers,  capable  doctors,  a  good  nurse  and  winsome 
little  Martha  Ann  McDowell,  and  you  feel  that  if  you  are 
going  to  be  sick  at  all  you  would  like  to  be  sick  here. 

At  Tabriz  there  are  four  compounds,  and  everything  is  very 
attractive.  The  Memorial  School  (boys)  compound  is  cen- 
trally located.  It  has  two  good  two-story  brick  residences,  one 
for  the  director  of  the  school,  the  second  for  a  doctor;  the 
dispensary  building,  with  wing  now  used  as  a  residence;  and 
the  main  school  buildings.  All  are  good  except  the  school 
buildings,  and  Mr.  Gifford  now  has  the  money  in  hand  to 
put  the  main  school  building  in  shape.  The  hospital  compound 
of  several  acres  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city  is  also  most  satis- 
factory. The  building  is  admirably  planned,  there  is  money 
in  hand  and  bricks  on  the  ground  for  a  second  story,  and  there 
is  a  skillful,  happy  and  very  much  liked  doctor  with  an  un- 
usually competent  American  nurse.  On  this  plot  are  two 
good  brick  residences,  both  two-story,  one  for  the  doctor,  and 
one  for  a  touring  evangelist.  It  does  you  good  to  go  over  the 
school  property  on  the  third  compound.  Miss  Beaber  has  that 
planned  and  kept  to  please  the  most  exacting.  The  school 
rooms  are  fine,  well  lighted  rooms,  and  it  all  bespeaks  order 
and  efficiency.  The  Church  is  on  a  fourth  plot  nearby,  and 
the  Sunday  school  offering  has  now  provided  a  much-needed 
Sunday  school  room  and  pastor's  house.  This  will  give  them 
a  good  working  plant.  A  fifth  plot  in  the  heart  of  the  city 
contains  two  old  residences,  one  used  by  the  Station  and  Mis- 
sion and  Relief  Work  Treasurer,  the  other  by  Kasha  Moor- 
hatch,  Moslem  evangelist.     Not  much  can  be  said  for  these 

585 


buildings  except  that  they  have  helped  greatly  during  these 
months  when  the  Urumia  missionaries  were  in  Tabriz.  The 
one  building  is  quite  roomy  and  has  housed  the  Dilleners  and 
Miss  Gillespie  in  addition  to  the  Muller  family.  Practically 
all  the  residences  in  Persia  are  two-story  buildings. 

The  properties  in  these  four  stations  are  simple  and  sub- 
stantial, and  they  house  a  group  of  workers  doing  a-fiine  solid 
piece  of  work.  Our  thoughts  are  with  them  daily  with  ever- 
increasing  admiration  as  we  journey  homewards  and,  amongst 
other  things  on  shipboard,  write  this  report.  The  Board  can- 
not take  title  in  its  own  name  to  properties  in  Persia,  but 
the  title  is  taken  in  the  name  of  some  of  its  missionaries  and 
they  execute  "Declarations  of  Trust,"  indicating  that  they 
are  holding  the  property  for  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 
These  "Declarations  of  Trust"  have  now  been  executed  in  all 
cases  except  where  the  missionaries  concerned  are  on  fur- 
lough in  the  United  States,  and  arrangements  were  made  to 
have  these  completed  as  soon  as  these  missionaries  return  to 
the  field. 

We  should  have  said  that  although  the  Meshed  missionaries 
were  not  in  Board-owned  property,  they  were  most  happily 
located.  They  have  been  able  to  secure  three  adjoining  houses 
in  a  very  desirable  locality.  The  houses  looked  to  us,  and 
the  missionaries  said  they  were  well  adapted  to  their  require- 
ments, well  arranged,  with  good  exposure,  and  attractive 
little  gardens.  The  hospital  is  located  directly  across  the 
street  in  quite  new  buildings  and  so  exactly  adapted  to 
its  needs  that  the  cutting  of  one  extra  doorway  was  the  only 
change  made. 

At  Resht  Dr.  Frame  thought  so  well  of  the  property  he  is 
using  for  dispensary  and  hospital  purposes,  that  he  is  likely 
to  buy  it  if  satisfactory  terms  can  be  made. 

MISSION  AND  STATION  TREASURERS 
We  had  many  very  satisfactory  conferences  with  Mission 
and  Station  Treasurers  in  India  and  Persia.  They  were  good 
enough  to  help  us  to  a  far  better  understanding  of  the  finan- 
cial questions  of  the  field,  and  they  were  very  responsive  to 
any  suggestions  or  help  that  we  could  give.  There  seemed 
to  be  no  matters  in  which  we  did  not  come  to  a  full  and  com- 
plete understanding.  The  Board  has  as  its  treasurers  in  these 
fields  men  who  are  very  competent  and  faithful  and  very 
much  liked  by  the  missionaries.  In  fact,  we  could  not  help 
feeling  that  it  was  partly  this  personal  element  that  influenced 
the  Punjab  and  North  India  Missions  to  vote  against  a  com- 
mon treasurer  in  Bombay.     Mr.  Smith,  for  example,  is  not 

586 


only  Treasurer,  but  also  Secretary  of  the  North  India  Mission, 
and  he  knows  thoroughly  and  intimately  all  the  conditions 
bearing  upon  the  questions  of  the  various  stations  and  con- 
cerning every  missionary.  The  Mission  feels  that  there  would 
be  a  very  distinct  loss  to  its  work,  as  well  as  in  the  enjoyment 
the  missionaries  now  have  in  their  transactions  with  their 
treasurer,  to  have  to  deal  with  a  man  in  Bombay  who  they 
naturally  think  would  not  be  so  familiar  with  their  life  and 
work.  It  was  found  in  one  Mission  that  one  or  two  consider- 
able payments  had  been  made  by  the  treasurer  on  order  of 
the  executive  committee  of  the  Mission  in  excess  of  appropria- 
tions and  without  any  authority  from  the  Board,  and  in  an- 
other Mission  that  loans  had  been  made  without  authority, 
but  these  matters  were  all  handled  promptly  and  wisely  by 
the  Missions  and  by  the  India  Council  and  reference  need  not 
be  made  to  them  here  in  detail. 

We  were  quite  ready  to  acquiesce  in  the  judgment  of  the 
India  Council  that  there  should  not  be  a  common  treasurer 
for  the  three  Missions  located  at  Bombay,  though  we  were 
not  quite  convinced  that  it  would  not  be  the  best  thing  to  do. 
We  can  see  some  decided  advantages  in  having  a  Board  repre- 
sentative in  Bombay.  The  treasurers  of  the  three  Missions 
have  found  that  they  could  secure  better  rates  on  their  bills 
of  exchange  by  selling  through  a  representative  in  Bombay. 
His  commissions  on  what  our  India  Missions  sell  in  a  year 
amount  to  approximately  the  India  salary  of  a  married  man. 
Again,  it  w^ould  be  a  very  distinct  advantage  if  the  Missions 
could  have  their  representative  in  Bombay  to  secure  trans- 
portation to  America,  help  missionaries  as  they  pass  through 
Bombay,  and  expedite  the  forwarding  of  freight.  The  last  is 
important,  for  as  yet  we  have  not  been  able  to  find  a  satisfac- 
tory forwarding  agent,  and  other  societies  report  the  same 
difficulty.  Bombay  is,  for  most  people,  a  trying  climate,  and 
rents  are  high,  and  we  recognize  the  difficulty  of  having  a 
one-man  office,  for  it  is  difficult  to  cover  the  work  of  the  office 
when  furlough  time  comes.  Also,  it  would  take  a  good  ex- 
perienced all-around  man  to  fill  this  position  well;  but  we 
venture  to  think  that  it  is  coming.  There  are  twenty-two 
exchange  banks  in  Bombay  and  our  experience  in  Shanghai 
and  elsewhere  has  demonstrated  that  there  is  quite  a  margin 
of  difference  between  the  rates  quoted  on  the  same  day  by  the 
various  banks  according  as  they  are  in  need  that  particular 
day  of  exchange  on  New  York  or  London.  This  saving  should 
be  effected,  and  is  quite  a  different  thing  from  the  attempt 
to  make  money  on  exchange  by  selling  in  anticipation  of  re- 

587 


quirements.  This  latter  the  New  York  office  acquiesced  in 
once  when  we  were  cabled  for  permission,  though  it  was  really 
against  our  judgment,  because  no  very  large  sum  was  involved 
and  we  wished  the  field  to  have  the  experience  for  itself,  as 
the  good  judgment  of  the  Board  in  these  matters  is  sometimes 
called  a  question.  We  make  record  of  the  outcome  of  the  trans- 
action only  because,  when  on  the  field,  we  were  surprised  to 
hear  of  it  several  times,  as  though  it  had  been  quite  a  money- 
saving  venture,  and  the  inference  was  that  if  the  usual  policy 
of  the  Board  had  been  followed  there  would  have  been  this 
loss.  The  rate  of  sale  did  look  attractive  as  compared  with 
the  rates  that  had  prevailed  for  sometime,  but  the  fall  in 
price  of  the  rupee  continued  and  the  rates  grew  still  more 
favorable.  The  result  was  that  by  this  one  sale  the  Mission 
was  loaded  up  with  funds  bought  at  Rs.  3.63  to  the  dollar 
which  met  its  requirements  for  almost  a  year,  and  yet  there 
was  not  a  time  during  those  months  when  a  better  rate  than 
3.63  could  not  have  been  secured.  The  other  Missions  sold 
against  their  requirements  at  rates  from  3.80  to  as  high  as 
4.30  Rupees  to  the  dollar.  Instead  of  a  gain,  therefore,  there 
was  a  very  considerable  loss  on  this  transaction.  When  the 
Mexican  dollar  was  climbing  from  47  cents  to  $1.20  the 
Board's  Finance  Committee  considered  very  seriously  the 
question  as  to  whether  it  was  justified  in  putting  money  into 
China  in  anticipation  of  its  needs,  but  the  highest  financial 
authorities  advised  that  we  were  likely  to  lose  as  much  when 
the  price  fell  as  we  had  made  on  the  rise,  that  it  would  even 
up  in  the  end,  and,  what  was  more,  they  felt  that  neither  the 
Board  nor  its  agents  on  the  field  should  speculate  in  exchange. 
So  we  are  all  of  us  still  to  follow  the  policy  of  selling  only  as 
there  is  need. 

We  have  ourselves  now  been  over  the  main  roads  of  Persia. 
We  have  seen  the  patient  little  donkeys  toiling  up  the  Assada- 
bad  and  Aveh  Passes  suffering  all  kinds  of  inhuman  treat- 
ment, falling  by  the  roadside,  and  we  fully  realize  why  pack- 
ages should  be  limited  in  weight.  We  have  seen  the  loads 
of  the  camels  when  going  through  a  bog  put  upon  the  wet 
ground,  and  we  have  seen  the  cart  driver  when  he  could  not 
make  the  evening's  caravanserai  because  the  horses  could  not 
pull  the  loads  through  the  mud  or  up  the  grades  throw  off 
half  of  the  loads  by  the  roadside  to  lie  there,  in  whatever 
weather  should  prevail,  until  he  could  send  other  carts  for 
them,  and  we  realize  that  goods  should  be  packed  in  water- 
proof wrappers.  We  have  seen  Mrs.  Allen's  stove,  which 
arrived  in  Hamadan  in  56  pieces  (and  only  a  patient  and  a 

588 


resourceful  woman  could  have  put  the  picture  puzzle  together) 
all  beautifully  riveted  (at  a  cost  of  $30)  and  at  work  in  her 
kitchen,  of  which  we  had  many  most  satisfactory  proofs,  and 
we  appreciate  why  goods  should  be  carefully  and  securely 
packed. 

Both  property  and  financial  matters  seemed  to  be  of  intense 
interest  to  the  missionaries,  but  it  was  difficult  for  us  often- 
times to  tear  ourselves  away  from  the  things  of  living  interest 
to  give  sufficient  time  to  these  things.  What  gripped  us  was 
the  children  in  the  schools,  sometimes  with  faces  old  and  care- 
worn beyond  their  years,  but  always  bright  and  intent  upon 
their  work  and  with  real  love  for  those  who  were  devoting 
themselves  to  them;  the  native  teachers,  whose  beautiful 
strong  faces  revealed  the  love  and  capacity  which  beget  love ; 
the  sick  men  and  women  and  little  children  in  the  hospitals 
to  whom  men  and  women  of  Christ's  spirit  were  making 
known  His  healing  power ;  and  above  all,  perhaps,  those  groups 
of  Christian  believers  and  workers  whose  answers  to  questions 
and  whose  prayers  made  it  very  clear  that  the  love  of  God 
as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus  and  as  it  is  revealed  by  His  missionary 
servants  today  had  been  welcomed  into  their  hearts.  Our 
joy  increased  from  day  to  day  as  we  beheld  and  felt  it  all. 
We  were  subdued  and,  we  trust,  prepared  by  it  to  render  to 
Him  and  to  His  missionaries  a  fuller  and  better  service. 

Russell  Carter. 


589 


VII.    SOME  CONCLUDING  GENERAL 
OBSERVATIONS 

1.  We  bore  with  us  two  letters  from  the  Moderator  of  the 
General  Assembly: 

"St.  Paul,  Minn.,  June  28,  1921. 
"To  the  Missionaries  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 

States  of  America  Laboring  in  India  and  Persia. 
"Dear  Brethren: 

"I  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity  to  write  you  in  the  name 
of  the  Church  which  you  represent  on  foreign  soil,  and  to 
assure  you  of  the  joy  and  pride  which  the  Church  has  in  each 
one  of  you  and  in  your  work.  And  for  this  purpose  I  am 
asking  Dr.  Speer  and  Mr.  Carter  to  be  the  bearers,  of  this 
greeting  from  the  home  land.  The  perplexities  and  distresses 
which  have  fallen  upon  the  world  during  tlie  past  few  years 
have  affected  you  in  a  special  way,  no  doubt,  and  have  created 
for  you  new  problems  peculiarly  vexing  in  character  and  try- 
ing to  faith.  We  wish  you  to  know  that  while  you  have  been 
bearing  these  unusual  burdens  you  have  not  been  forgotten 
at  home.  The  tide  of  missionary  interest  among  the  churches 
of  America  has  never  run  fuller,  and,  though  other  activities 
have  languished,  God's  people  have  never  been  so  ready  as 
now  to  consecrate  their  persons  and  their  means  to  the  work 
of  spreading  the  Gospel  throughout  the  world.  The  Church 
at  home  has  not  faltered  in  the  face  of  new  difficulties,  but 
her  faith  and  enthusiasm  have  increased  steadily. 

"This  gratifying  result  has  been  due,  in  no  small  degree,  to 
the  record  which  our  missionaries  have  made  on  the  field. 
News  of  your  devoted  faithfulness  has  stimulated  us  greatly 
and  the  Church  is  now  realizing,  more  fully  than  ever,  that 
the  courage  and  steadfastness  of  those  who  represent  it  at 
the  front,  must  be  answered  by  a  loyalty  and  sacrifice  at  home, 
which  will  prove  some  adequate  response  to  the  noble  example 
which  is  being  set  for  us  overseas. 

"Could  you  have  witnessed,  at  our  last  General  Assembly, 
the  fervor  and  optimism  of  the  commissioners  when  this  great, 
world-wide  interest  was  presented,  your  hearts  would  have 
been  cheered  and  your  faith  renewed.  Every  Sunday  in  our 
churches  and  in  myriads  of  meetings  through  the  week  and 
at  quiet  altars  in  Christian  homes,  you  are  being  borne  above 
in  the  fellowship  of  prayer  to  the  bosom  of  Him  whose  death- 
less love  and  infinite  merit  and  irresistible  might  will  yet  avail 
for  the  world's  redemption. 

590 


"Commending  you  to  Him  and  to  the  tender  ministry  of 
His  boundless  grace  and  to  the  unchanging  comfort  and  pro- 
tection of  His  presence,  I  remain,  in  behalf  of  the  whole 
Church, 

"Very  faithfully  yours, 

"Henry  Chapman  Swearingen, 
"Moderator  General  Assembly,  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
United  States  of  America." 

"St.  Paul,  Minn.,  June  28,  1921. 
"To  the  Churches  in  India  and  Persia, 

"Dear  Brethren: 

"I  have  just  learned  that  Dr.  Robert  E.  Speer  and  Mr. 
Russell  Carter  will  visit  your  countries  this  summer  as  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  the  United  States  of  America.  I  am  asking 
them,  therefore,  to  be  the  bearers  of  a  message  of  greeting 
to  you  from  the  Church  in  America. 

"The  Church  in  this  land  has  its  own  problems  which  test 
both  its  courage  and  its  faith,  but  these  only  serve  to  make 
it  more  conscious  of  its  fellowship  with  the  Churches  in  coun- 
tries abroad  that  are  facing  their  own  struggles,  sometimes 
with  a  martyr  spirit  and  always  with  a  fidelity  which  wit- 
nesses to  the  grace  of  God  in  them.  We  wish  you  to  know 
how  our  hearts  have  gone  out  to  you  in  affectionate  sympathy 
as  news  has  come  of  the  trials  to  which  some  have  been  sub- 
jected, and  how  earnestly  we  have  besought  the  throne  of 
grace  in  your  behalf. 

"Your  perseverance,  in  the  face  of  many  afflictions,  has 
heartened  us  here  in  America  and  has  taught  us  how  needful 
it  is  that  we,  too,  shall  show  a  similar  devotion  and  stead- 
fastness. 

"We  are  looking  to  you  to  build  a  Church  which  shall  be  a 
true  light  in  your  respective  countries,  and  to  raise  up  a  Chris- 
tian leadership  that  shall  know  the  mind  of  God  and  that  shall 
exemplify,  both  in  personal  experience  and  in  missionary 
policy,  the  love  and  power  of  Christ. 

"Joining  our  voices  with  yours  in  prayer  to  God  for  the 
redemption  of  the  world  whose  fundamental  needs  are  not 
different  in  any  land,  and  of  which  Christ  alone  is  the  sure 
and  sufficient  hope,  and  assuring  you  again  of  our  love  and 
unity  in  this  fellowship  of  service,  and,  if  need  be,  of  suffer- 
ing, we  remain,  in  the  bonds  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
"Faithfully  yours, 

"Henry  Chapman  Swearingen, 

"Moderator  General  Assembly,  Presbyterian  Church  in 
United  States  of  America." 

591 


These  letters  met  with  warm  acceptance,  and  we  were 
charged  to  bring  back  to  the  Moderator,  to  the  Board,  and  to 
the  Church  at  home  the  assurance  of  the  gratitude,  confidence 
and  affection  of  the  Missions  and  the  Churches  both  in  India 
and  Persia. 

2.  We  considered  with  the  three  Missions  in  India  and 
with  the  stations  in  Persia  the  Findings  of  the  Post  War 
Conference,  the  Report  of  the  Chosen  Commission  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  and  the  matter  of  the  fidelity  of  our  mission- 
aries to  the  fundamental  doctrinal  convictions  of  the  Church. 

The  North  India  Mission  had  already  considered  at  a  special 
meeting  held  in  the  hills,  June  27-29,  1921,  the  findings  of  the 
Post  War  Conference  and  had  taken  action  on  all  save  the 
section  on  "The  Church  on  the  Mission  Field."  A  report  on 
this  section  was  considered  but  laid  over  for  action  at  the 
Mission  meeting  which  we  attended  in  October.  The  full 
actions  of  the  Mission  at  that  time  and  also  the  actions  of  the 
Punjab  and  Western  India  Missions  have  been  reported  to 
the  Board  in  their  Mission  meeting  minutes.  In  the  minutes 
of  the  special  June  meeting  of  the  North  India  Mission  there 
was  no  mention  whatever  of  the  section  of  the  Post  War  Con-  ■ 
ference  Findings  dealing  with  Union  and  Co-operation.  We 
were  informed  by  the  Mission  that  this  entire  section  was 
covered  by  the  general  action  of  the  Mission  "that  unless  ex- 
ceptions or  additions  are  indicated  a  finding  be  considered 
as  approved  in  general." 

The  actions  of  all  the  India  and  Persia  Missions  with  regard 
to  the  Report  of  the  Chosen  Commission  have  been  reported 
to  the  Commission.  The  only  point  to  which  I  would  refer 
in  these  actions  is  a  phrase  in  the  action  of  the  Western  India 
Mission,  which  had  been  taken  by  circular  letter  prior  to  the 
Mission  meeting.  The  phrase  was  quoted  from  the  action 
of  the  Japan  Mission,  namely,  "wherever  it  (an  organized 
Mission)  is  established  certain  inherent  rights  and  powers 
exist."  We  ventured  to  suggest  to  the  Mission  the  view  that 
the  individual  missionary  had  inherent  rights  of  the  most 
sacred  character,  but  that  as  regards  the  Mission  and  the 
Board  the  General  Assembly  might  naturally  and  properly 
hold  that  their  rights  were  not  inherent  but  delegated,  com- 
mitted to  them  by  the  Church  at  home  through  the  General 
Assembly. 

The  doctrinal  question  we  discussed  with  the  three  India 
Missions,  the  China  and  India  Councils,  the  West  Persia  Mis- 

592 


sion  Conference  in  Tabriz,  and  all  the  stations  of  the  East 
Persia  Mission.  We  explained  the  action  of  the  last  General 
Assembly  and  the  incidents  which  had  led  to  it.  We  reported 
the  attitude  of  the  Church  and  the  Board  in  the  matter,  as 
expressed  in  their  past  official  actions,  and  stated  as  clearly 
and  positively  as  we  were  able  the  unswerving  conviction  of 
the  Church  and  of  the  Board,  and,  as  we  well  knew,  of  our 
Missions,  that  our  Mission  work  could  be  carried  forward  on 
no  other  foundation  than  the  great  evangelical  faith  of  the 
Church,  and  that  it  was  not  to  be  thought  of  that  any  mission- 
aries would  be  sent  out  or  maintained  by  the  Board  who  were 
not  true  to  that  faith.  None  such  were  known  to  us  in  any 
of  our  Missions,  but  if  any  were  known  to  the  Missions  it  was 
their  duty  to  see  that  the  matter  was  brought  to  the  attention 
of  the  proper  courts  of  the  Church.  Both  the  China  and  the 
India  Councils  took  action  in  the  matter  as  follows: 

"Through  two  communications  and  a  statement  from  the 
Board  (Board  letters  Nos.  7,  11,  12)  and  more  recently  through 
the  Board's  deputation  to  India  the  Council  has  learned  with 
surprise  that  the  evangelical  loyalty  of  some  of  the  Board's 
missionaries  in  the  various  foreign  fields,  India  included,  has 
been  questioned  in  some  quarters.  The  Council  knows  of  no 
missionary  in  the  Board's  service  in  India  who  does  not 
heartily  accept  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Christian 
faith  as  laid  down  in  the  Standards,  including  the  deity  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  His  sacrificial  death  on  behalf  of  sinners, 
and  the  inspiration  and  authority  of  the  Bible  as  the  Word 
of  God.  The  Council  holds  strongly  that  the  evangelical  loy- 
alty of  the  missionary  body  is  its  most  precious  asset,  and 
must  be  guarded  with  all  care.  All  missionaries,  both  ordained 
and  unordained,  are  members  either  of  Presbyteries  or  of 
Churches  in  India  or  America,  and  are  thus  amenable  to  dis- 
cipline. 

"Mgst  or  all  of  the  members  of  the  Council  have  received 
copies  of  a  proposed  Bible  League  of  India,  Burma  and  Ceylon. 
The  Council  is  in  sympathy  with  the  general  purpose  of  the 
League,  namely,  the  defence  of  the  divine  authority  of  the 
Bible  as  the  Word  of  God,  but  believes  that  the  responsibility 
for  establishing  doctrinal  tests  belongs  to  the  proper  ecclesi- 
astical authority.  The  following  reply  of  Rev.  J.  J.  Lucas, 
D.D.,  to  an  invitation  to  join  the  League  expresses  also  the 
opinion  of  the  Council  and  shows  that  membership  of  such  an 
association  is  not  indispensable  as  an  evidence  of  evangelical 
loyalty : 

•  593 


"  'Landour,  Mussoorie,  U.  P. 
July  21,  1921. 
"  'Rev.  Watkin  R.  Roberts, 

Scripture  Gift  Mission,  Calcutta. 

"  'Dear  Mr.  Roberts  : — 

"  'Your  letter  inviting  me  to  join  the  Bible  League  of  India, 
Burma  and  Ceylon  came  duly  to  hand.  I  have  read  the  paper 
accompanying  the  invitation,  which  gives  the  reasons  which 
have  led  to  the  proposal  to  form  the  League.  There  is  a  state- 
ment in  the  paper  "very  many  young  missionaries  have  al- 
ready had  their  faith  destroyed  or  their  service  for  Christ 
rendered  inoperative  by  the  modern  destructive  criticism  of 
the  Bible." 

"  'I  belong  to  the  Presbyterian  Mission  which  has  more  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  missionaries  in  Western  India,  the 
Union  Provinces  and  the  Punjab.  If  I  were  called  on,  as  I 
would  be  if  I  signed  this  paper,  to  name  the  young  missionaries 
who  have  already  had  their  faith  destroyed  or  their  service 
for  Christ  rendered  inoperative  by  the  modern  destructive 
criticism  of  the  Bible,  I  would  be  unable  to  bring  that  charge 
against  even  one  of  them,  and  so  you  see  how  impossible  it 
is  for  me  to  sign  such  a  serious  charge  against  many  young 
missionaries. 

"  'I  have  read  the  charges  made  in  American  papers  against 
our  young  missionaries  in  China,  that  they  have  largely  given 
up  their  faith  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible,  and  I  have  also 
read  the  reply  of  Dr.  Robert  E.  Speer,  Secretary  of  our  Board 
in  New  York,  denying  the  charge. 

"  'Several  years  ago  I  gave  my  pamphlet  entitled  "How  the 
Death  of  Christ  Differs  from  the  Death  of  Prophets  and  Mar- 
tyrs" to  a  missionary  who  was  supposed  to  belong  to  the  school 
of  higher  critics  and  he  not  only  commended  the  pamphlet,  but 
read  it  as  a  sermon  to  a  congregation  to  which  he  was  min- 
istering. Thirty  years  ago  a  young  missionary  of  my  acquaint- 
ance was  considered  a  higher  critic,  and  yet  he  is  today  ^mong 
the  conservatives.  I  feel  that  we  ought  not  to  stir  up  contro- 
versy by  instituting,  even  indirectly,  discussions  as  to  the 
orthodoxy  or  heterodoxy  of  our  missionaries.  Our  Board  in 
America  certifies  that  they  hold  to  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of 
God,  and  that  they  love  the  Lord  Jesus  as  their  Saviour  and 
Deliverer  from  sin. 

"  'I  have  no  doubt  that  lack  of  prayer,  and  with  it  the  fail- 
ure to  meditate  day  and  night  on  the  Scriptures  as  God's  very 
message  to  us,  and  through  us  to  others,  are  the  chief  reasons 
why  our  service  of  Christ  is  not  far  more  fruitful  than  it  is, 

594  • 


but  I  do  not  think  controversy  is  the  way  to  make  our  younger 
brethren  love  the  Scriptures  and  interpret  them  just  as  we  do. 
"  'With  great  regard, 

"  'Yours  sincerely, 

(Sd.)   J.  J.  Lucas.'" 

So  much  for  India.  As  to  Persia,  the  suspicions  and  care- 
less charges  which  have  been  abroad  are  simply  incomprehen- 
sible in  face  of  the  facts  as  to  the  personnel,  spirit,  conviction 
and  character  of  the  two  Missions  in  that  land  and  their 
members. 

We  have  not  the  slightest  misgiving  as  to  the  evangelical 
fidelity  of  our  foreign  missionaries.  If  ever  exceptions  arise, 
there  will  be  no  question  of  their  discovery.  If  the  few  sor- 
rows of  the  past  may  be  taken  as  a  criterion,  it  may  be 
expected  that  any  rare  individual  who  may  become  uncertain 
in  his  faith  will  be  the  first  to  seek  to  withdraw  from  a  com- 
pany to  which  he  will  recognize  that  he  does  not  belong.  Those 
who  spread  general  rumors  of  distrust  with  regard  to  the 
missionary  body  are  guilty  of  a  grave  wrong.  As  we  moved 
to  and  fro  among  the  missionaries  of  India  and  Persia  and 
saw  them  in  the  most  intimate  unveilings  of  their  lives,  the 
home  originators  of  distrustful  rumors  seemed  to  us  like  the 
men  who  in  a  time  of  war,  amid  the  peace  and  security  of 
their  own  firesides,  question  the  loyalty  of  those  who,  under 
the  free  constraint  of  their  faith  and  love,  have  gone  out  upon 
the  battle  field  to  live  or  to  die  for  the  cause  that  is  more  to 
them  than  life. 

3.  The  supreme  and  essential  factor  in  the  missionary 
enterprise  is  the  spiritual  and  practical  efficiency  of  the  in- 
dividual missionary.  The  whole  machinery  of  missionary 
organization, — Board,  Council,  and  Mission, — exists  only  to 
help  the  individual  missionary  and  to  make  it  possible  for  him 
to  do  his  fullest  work  as  an  ambassador  of  God  in  Christ 
reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself.  Our  Missions  and  our 
missionary  enterprise  are  just  as  weak  or  strong  as  the  weak- 
ness or  strength  of  the  missionaries  whom  our  Church  sends 
out  to  the  field.  We  have  known  the  missionary  representa- 
tives of  our  Church  well  for  many  years.  I  have  seen  most 
of  them  go  out  to  the  field  and  have  watched  them  from  their 
college  days.  Of  our  260  missionaries  in  India  all  but  a  score 
have  gone  to  the  field  since  I  became  secretary  of  the  Board 
in  1891.  There  are  only  four  missionaries  in  the  East  Persia 
Mission  who  were  members  of  the  Mission  at  the  time  of  my 
visit  in  1896-7  and  only  five  missionaries  in  the  West  Persia 
Mission.     But  in  spite  of  all  past  acquaintance  this  visit  has 

595 


given  a  new  understanding  and  deepened  our  respect  and  trust 
and  love.  It  has  been  inspiring  to  see  the  position  which  the 
missionaries  have  won  and  hold  both  in  India  and  in  Persia. 
Every  one  places  implicit  and  unlimited  confidence  in  their 
character.  At  Mianeh  a  Persian  who  wished  to  go  to  Tabriz 
attached  himself  to  our  caravan.  He  had  some  fifty  or  sixty 
tomans  in  money  which  he  did  not  wish  to  carry  but  which 
he  wanted  in  Tabriz.  Mr.  Pittman  needed  some  money  for 
the  journey,  and  he  took  over  the  man's  bag  of  coins  and  sat 
down  to  write  him  a  receipt.  "What  is  that  for,"  the  man 
asked.  Mr.  Pittman  explained  that  it  was  a  receipt  for  the 
money.  "Why  do  I  need  that,"  the  man  asked  suspiciously. 
"Haven't  you  got  my  money?  Isn't  that  all  the  receipt  I 
want?"  And  Mr.  Pittman  had  some  difficulty  in  prevailing 
upon  him  to  accept  a  proper  acknowledgment.  We  went  to 
and  fro  in  the  company  of  missionaries  everywhere.  There 
was  no  one  to  whom  they  were  not  able  to  take  us  from  the 
highest  Government  officials,  European  or  native,  down  to 
the  humblest  out-caste.  I  have  spoken  elsewhere  of  our 
three  months'  trip  with  Dr.  Ewing  through  India  and  of  the 
opportunity  which  we  had  of  seeing  the  affection  and  esteem 
with  which  he  is  regarded  everywhere.  Those  ignorant  critics 
who  speak  of  missionaries  as  intruders,  unwelcome  to  the 
people  to  whom  they  have  gone,  know  nothing  of  the  real 
facts. 

At  the  same  time  and  just  because  they  are  the  good  men 
and  women  that  I  have  described,  no  one  is  readier  than  the 
missionaries  themselves  to  acknowledge  failure  and  short- 
comings, the  need  of  securing  the  best  young  men  and  women 
of  the  home  Church  as  recruits  and  of  giving  them  the  best 
preparation  for  the  work,  and  the  need  of  the  spiritual  and 
intellectual  enrichment  of  the  life  and  character  of  each  mis- 
sionary now  in  the  service  that  he  may  wield  a  still  wider  and 
more  creative  influence.  As  we  have  talked  with  the  mission- 
aries and  native  Christians  there  have  been  two  points  es- 
pecially on  which  they  were  ever  laying  emphasis.  One  was  the 
need  of  power  and  the  other  was  the  need  of  love.  In  part, 
no  doubt,  power  is  a  matter  of  gift  beyond  our  own  wills. 
Men  have  one  or  five  or  ten  talents  according  as  the  Lord 
has  apportioned  them,  but  talents  can  be  buried  or  multiplied, 
an^  we  have  seen  and  rejoiced  in  the  visible  growth  in  power 
of  men  or  women  who  have  met  the  painful  conditions  which 
must  be  met  if  old  horizons  are  to  be  enlarged  and  old  limita- 
tions transcended.  Many  missionaries  are  resolutely  submit- 
ting their  brains  to  the  disciplines  which  God  has  ordained 

596 


for  their  growth.  Every  one  of  our  missionaries  ought  to  be 
doing  this.  But  in  the  matter  of  love,  though  here  too  en- 
dowments differ,  everything  is  within  the  reach  of  each.  And 
we  see  more  clearly  than  ever  how  love  controlling  the  lives 
of  men  and  women  in  little  things  and  in  common  human  con- 
tacts is  the  great  missionary  power.  One  of  the  foremost 
Christian  laymen  in  one  of  our  India  Mission  stations,  a  man 
holding  important  official  position  and  a  stalwart  friend  of 
the  Mission,  told  us  how  he  had  first  come  to  Christ.  He 
was  a  boy  of  twelve  in  a  distant  station  when  two  of  the  early 
missionaries,  husband  and  wife,  came  to  establish  the  work. 
It  was  a  great  day  for  the  small  boys  of  the  town.  They  joined 
in  pelting  the  newcomers  with  sticks  and  refuse.  They  were 
met  with  no  anger  or  retaliation,  and  the  boy  went  home  that 
night  thoughtful  and  ashamed.  And  the  restraint  of  Christian 
love  exercised  by  those  who  were  unconscious  of  their  influence 
set  his  feet  on  the  path  to  Christ.  We  could  cite  a  score  of 
instances  that  came  to  us  on  this  trip  of  the  power  of  love  in 
little  things  to  communicate  Christ  and  of  harshness  and  of 
heedlessness  in  little  things  to  obscure  Him.  I  have  a  letter 
from  one  of  the  ablest  native  Christian  women  in  one  of  the 
Missions  we  visited  written  in  the  fullest  love  and  sympathy 
but  with  trenchant  and  unsparing  exposure  of  the  weak  points 
in  our  American  missionary  character.  "Missionaries  sacri- 
fice in  large  things,"  she  writes,  "often  their  precious  lives, 
but  they  do  not  realize  the  need  of  sacrifice  in  small  actions 
which  effects  far  more."  One  of  our  American  women  sent 
me  this  letter,  writing  with  it:  "Alas,  this  criticism  is  only 
too  just.  1  have  given  much  thought  to  the  effort  to  analyze 
this  grave  stumbling  block  to  usefulness  on  the  foreign  field, 
this  fault  which  is  almost  universal  though  in  degree  it  varies 
immensely.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  compounded  of  the  fol- 
lowing unpleasant  ingredients: 

"Lack  of  willingness  to  sacrifice  in  the  precious  small  things. 

"Lack  of  consecration  sufficient  to  reach  through  the  whole 
life. 

"A  rigidity  in  individual  temperaments. 

"Our  ugly  un-Christlike  race  prides  and  prejudices. 

"May  those  who  under  God  have  charge  of  the  young  men 
and  women  who  are  to  be  missionaries  preparing  them  for 
richer  service  and  holier  living  among  those  who  know  not 
Christ  be  enabled  to  lay  upon  their  souls  as  never  before  the 
absolute  necessity  of  forgetting  themselves  and  their  Anglo- 
Saxonhood.  The  enclosed  verse  gives  my  deep  feeling  on  the 
subject  of  adaptable  missionaries  that  came  to  me  not  many 

597 


weeks  ago."    These  were  the  verses  that  she  had  written  out 
of  living  experience : 

''The  Test 
I 

"I  cross  four  seas  to  come  to  you. 
What  is  it  that  I  bear? 
A  faith-evaporated  creed, 
A  bait  of  life  to  snare 
A  not  too  steadfast  Hindu  foot 
With  Bread  that  satisfies, 
Then  give  a  mouldy  crust  (once  Life), 
Long  napkined  from  fresh  eyes? 

"I  cross  four  seas  to  come  to  you. 
And  is  it  just  to  rant 
An  Oxford  wisdom,  Hull  House  path, 
Augustine,  Calvin,  Kant? 
At  touch  of  Shakespeare  leaps  my  blood, 
Ramayan  calls  your  soul  to  flood. 
Can  it  be  true  the  Christ  I  bring 
Is  but  an  English  Spirit-King? 

II 
"How  can  I  unmake  myself  now  made, 
Unform  myself  formed,  my  soul  unprayed, 
Unthink  the  thoughts  that  have  tracked  my  brain, 
Unravel  habits  of  joy  and  pain. 
Be  mere  warm  human  creature,  there 
With  the  Gift  of  Life  to  show  and  share? 

"When  I  have  stripped  off  the  outer  self 
And  western  ways  are  dust  on  the  shelf, 
I  build  up  my  life  to  meet  the  mood 
And  tense  by  the  Hindu  understood, 
I  school  my  building  self — God  can — 
To  be  a  servant  of  Hindustan. 

Ill 

"At  last  I  can  know  the  Christ  of  God, 
At  last  I  can  bring  the  Christ  of  God 
To  the  Christless  hearts  of  Hindustan. 
Now,  they  can  find  Heaven's  Lord  made  Man." 

What  we  saw  and  heard  impressed  upon  us  anew  the  im- 
portance of  the  work  of  the  Board  in  the  appointment  and 
assignment  of  new  missionaries  of  deaHng  as  carefully  and 
sympathetically  with  candidates  as  though  they  were  children 
of  the  secretaries  who  are  dealing  with  them  and  of  the  Board 
members  who  are  disposing  of  their  lives,  of  seeking  for  and 

598 


helping  to  develop  the  right  missionary  character  and  fitness 
in  those  who  are  to  be  sent,  of  sending  promptly  to  Missions 
the  information  that  will  help  them  most  in  welcoming  and 
locating  the  new  missionaries,  of  watching  health  qualifica- 
tions and  precautions  with  increased  vigilance,  of  filling  the 
relationship  of  Board  and  missionary  with  the  fullest  measure 
of  understanding  and  trust,  of  keeping  the  missionary  enter- 
prise on  the  highest  level  of  courage,  of  true  sacrifice,  of 
energy,  and  of  faith. 

One  of  the  foremost  moral  qualities  of  foreign  mission 
work  has  been  its  tenacity.  "What,"  exclaimed  one  of  the 
Turkish  officials  in  Mosul  in  1895,  when  the  slates  which  had 
been  ordered  for  the  use  of  the  mission  school  arrived,  "What, 
here  are  slates  and  pencils  for  200  children,  and  yet  we  are 
trying  to  drive  the  Mission  out !  It  is  of  no  avail."  At  Yeung 
Kong  in  the  South  China  Mission  when  they  were  digging 
recently  for  the  foundations  for  the  new  mission  house  which 
was  going  up,  they  came  on  old  foundations  and  discovered 
that  they  had  unwittingly  chosen  the  very  site  on  which  Dr. 
J.  C.  Thompson  had  started  a  dispensary  a  generation  before. 
Chinese  opposition  had  expelled  him  and  obliterated  the  build- 
ing, but  the  spirit  that  is  in  the  missionary  enterprise  and 
that  never  lets  go  had  brought  its  agents  back  to  the  very  spot 
to  rebuild.  One  is  anxious  that  the  shorter  terms  of  service, 
the  more  frequent  furloughs,  the  easier  travel,  the  spirit  of 
probation  and  of  experiment  shall  not  be  allowed  to  relax  the 
ancient  deathless  grip  of  the  missionary  enterprise  upon  its 
undertakings. 

Many  of  the  missionaries  discussed  with  us  the  compara- 
tive merits  of  the  policies  of  permanence  and  mobility  in  the 
location  of  missionary  personnel.  It  is  the  rule  of  the  Punjab 
Mission  that  missionaries  when  they  go  home  on  furlough 
relinquish  any  claim  on  continued  assignment  to  the  station 
and  work  in  which  they  have  been  engaged,  and  are  to  be  re- 
assigned afresh  by  the  Mission  upon  their  return.  There  are 
good  reasons  for  this  policy.  It  seems  to  be  called  for  by 
fairness  to  the  missionaries  who  are  put  in  charge  of  the 
work  which  the  furloughed  missionary  lays  down.  It  gives 
the  Mission  a  free  hand  and  malleable  use  of  its  force.  It 
makes  maladaptations  easier  to  handle.  In  the  Persia  Mis- 
sions on  the  other  hand  the  tenure  of  missionaries  in  their 
first  station  has  often  been  life  long.  Such  a  policy  allows  the 
accumulation  of  influence.  It  conserves  all  the  assets  of 
acquaintance  and  confidence  which  a  good  missionary  acquires. 
In  actual  working  eff"ect  the  two  policies  have  not  resulted 

599 


in  as  great  a  divergence  as  might  have  seemed  probable.  There 
have  been  transfers  from  station  to  station  in  Persia,  and 
there  have  been  permanent  assignments  in  India.  The  Punjab 
policy  would  seem  to  be  the  only  practicable  one  v^here  there 
are  so  many  stations  staffed  by  only  one  or  two  families, 
but  it  is  certainly  desirable  to  seek  with  it  the  largest  con- 
tinuity of  service  for  each  missionary  in  one  community 
where  his  life  can  be  woven  into  all  the  interests  of  the  com- 
munity. 

I  have  spoken  elsewhere  of  the  danger  of  excessive  develop- 
ment of  overhead  organization.  Mission  committees  and  con- 
ferences and  interdenominational  agencies  are  for  their 
appropriate  purposes  and  within  their  appropriate  limits  in- 
dispensable. It  is  a  good  thing  that  they  have  been  developed 
in  correction  of  the  ultra-individualism  of  the  earlier  days. 
But  those  missionaries  and  native  Christians  are  justified 
who  feel  apprehensive  lest  this  overhead  conferential  and 
supervisory  organization  should  be  developed  beyond  the 
necessities  of  the  work  and  should  absorb  and  ineffectually 
use  missionary  energy  which  ought  to  be  spent  not  in  the 
manipulation  of  the  Christian  forces,  far  too  scanty,  which 
have  as  yet  been  called  into  existence,  but  in  the  creation  of 
new  Christian  forces.  I  have  seen  a  great  deal  of  the  work 
of  overhead  agencies,  and  a  great  deal  of  one's  time  at  home 
is  given  to  them.  I  believe  in  them,  but  I  believe  still  more 
in  the  fundamental  cellular  work  of  the  individual  pastor  at 
home,  making  his  local  church  a  power  of  salvation  to  the  in- 
dividual and  to  the  community,  and  of  the  individual  foreign 
missionary  abroad,  winning  definite  persons  to  Christian  faith 
and  hfe  and  bringing  into  being  the  beginnings  of  Christian 
churches.  In  this  work  every  institutional  agency  is  justified 
that  is  in  any  way  serviceable  to  the  end  in  view,  but  the 
first  and  last  agency  is  human  intercourse,  the  communica- 
tion of  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  through  word  and  deed  by 
one  man  to  one  man.  "Preaching,"  said  Herzen,  the  Russian 
thinker,  speaking  of  another  gospel  than  the  Gospel,  "is  neces- 
sary for  mankind,  incessant  preaching,  provided  it  be  rational, 
preaching  directed  alike  to  worker  and  employer,  to  burgher 
and  to  tiller  of  the  soil.  We  have  more  need  of  apostles  than 
of  officers  of  the  advance  guard  or  sappers  of  destruction. 
We  need  apostles  who  will  preach  to  opponents  as  well  as 
to  sympathizers.  Preaching  to  the  enemy  is  a  great  deed 
of  love." 

4.      Next  to  the  individual  missionary  is  the  Native  Church 
as  a  fundamental  missionary  factor.     Just  as  Boards  anc 

600 


Missions  exist  for  the  sake  of  the  individual  missionary,  so 
his  end  is  found  in  establishing  and  assisting  a  living  native 
Church.  I  use  the  word  "native"  without  hesitation.  It  is  a 
current  fashion  in  missionary  literature  to  eschew  it  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  a  reproachful  term.  What  makes  it  re- 
proachful? Not  its  history.  It  is  a  good  and  honest  word, 
one  of  the  best  and  honestest  words  in  the  English  language. 
If  it  has  been  tainted  by  any  conditions  existing  in  the  mis- 
sion work,  the  right  course  is  to  change  the  conditions  and 
not  to  allow  a  noble  word  to  be  degraded.  So  long  as  the 
conditions  exist  they  will  taint  any  other  word  that  may  be 
substituted  for  it.  They  will  taint  "indigenous"  faster  than 
they  tainted  "native."  They  will  taint  "Church"  as  they  are 
already  beginning  to  do.  They  will  even  taint  the  word 
"Christian."  What  needs  to  be  changed  is  not  the  good  word 
"native"  but  the  facts  of  dependence  and  subservience  in  the 
native  Church.  It  is  desirable  that  there  should  be  clear 
thinking  and  straight  speaking  in  this  matter,  because  there 
is  danger  that  in  some  countries  the  mission  enterprise  will 
be  led  into  a  morass  in  which  both  Missions  and  Churches 
will  be  bogged  to  their  detriment  and  confusion. 

The  supreme  and  determining  aim  of  missions  in  any  coun- 
try, India  for  example,  is  to  get  Jesus  Christ  made  known 
and  accepted  in  India.  Elemental  to  this  aim  is  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Christian  Church  in  India,  but  the  establishment  of 
the  Church  in  any  land  is  not  a  matter  of  terminology.  It 
is  a  matter  of  fact.  And  a  Church  that  is  a  Church  in  fact 
and  not  merely  in  term  will  be  self-dependent,  self-governed, 
and  most  of  all  a  force  of  living  and  spontaneous  propaganda. 
I  do  not  say  that  it  must  be.  I  simply  say  that  it  will  be. 
To  give  up  the  idea  of  financial  self-dependence  is  to  accept 
the  fact  of  dependence,  and  that  fact,  no  matter  how  it  may 
be  obscured  by  mergers  or  by  agreements,  will  keep  the 
Church,  so  long  as  it  remains  a  fact,  from  fulfilling  its  func- 
tions or  wielding  its  power.  The  spirit  of  race  superiority 
on  the  part  of  Missions  in  whatever  way  it  displays  itself, 
in  temper  or  in  policy,  as  to  money,  relationships,  or  anything 
else,  is  a  baneful  thing,  a  barrier  to  be  overcome  in  the  effort 
to  plant  and  develop  an  efficient  and  sovereign  native  Church. 
But  the  fact  of  financial  dependence  is  a  barrier  also,  and  the 
Indian  Church  ought  resolutely  to  set  itself  to  overcome  that 
barrier.  Until  it  does  so,  no  subordination  of  missionaries 
to  it  nor  any  merging  of  Missions  with  it  will  make  it  inde- 
pendent or  set  it  in  its  rightful  place  of  national  religious 
leadership. 

601 


The  emergence  of  leadership  hke  Mr.  Gandhi's  in  India  is 
in  many  respects  an  encouraging  and  an  inspiring  sign.  His 
is  a  free  voice,  morally  and  economically  free.  The  Church 
in  India  is  not  without  such  leadership.  It  has  men  as  free 
as  Mr.  Gandhi  and  freer.  With  a  spirit  of  good  will  and 
trust  and  co-operation  they  are  seeking  to  bring  foreigner  and 
native  alike  into  the  unity  of  Christ  and  of  the  universal 
Church  of  Christ,  at  the  same  time  that  they  are  seeking  to 
make  the  Church  in  India  independent  and  national.  Would 
that  there  were  more  such  men  who  would  do  for  the  Church 
in  India  what  Paul  Sawayama,  of  whom  I  have  spoken  al- 
ready and  whose  biography  every  leader  of  the  Church  in 
India  would  do  well  to  read,  did  for  Japan. 

5.  The  world  with  which  we  have  to  deal  today  and 
through  whose  shadows  we  have  moved  these  past  months  is 
a  hungry,  weary  and  divided  world. 

It  is  a  hungry  world.  The  compassion  which  our  Lord  felt 
for  physical  hunger  when  he  was  upon  the  earth  would  be 
deepened  into  anguish  if  he  were  abroad  in  the  flesh  among 
the  nations  today.  There  are  millions  of  men  who  have  plenty 
and  to  spare,  but  there  are  millions  more  who  hunger  for 
daily  bread  and  who  suffer  from  sickness  and  pain.  I  have 
been  in  Japan  many  times  and  have  always  heretofore  come 
away  with  the  thought  of  the  nation's  comfort  and  health, 
but  the  impression  with  which  the  visitor  comes  away  today 
is  of  the  nation's  sickness  and  need.  20  per  cent  of  the  young 
women  who  return  from  the  industrial  world  every  year  die 
of  tuberculosis.  According  to  the  Tokyo  "Asahi"  of  1,800,000 
children  born  each  year  140,000  are  still-born  and  300,000 
die  in  infancy.  "The  Christian  Movement  in  Japan"  cites 
the  director  of  one  of  the  national  schools  as  stating  "that 
over  95  per  cent  of  his  pupils  were  suffering  from  some  form 
of  nervous  disease  upon  entering  school."  "The  Christian 
Movement"  continues,  "The  squalid  and  crowded  condition 
of  the  three  and  four  mat  homes,  the  home  industries  carried 
on,  sickness,  quarreling,  carousing  and  incessant  turmoil  in 
his  own  or  adjacent  hovels  make  impossible  the  normal  sleep, 
quiet  and  development  of  the  child.  Lack  of  chance  for  play 
and  for  following  out  his  own  ideas  and  childish  pursuits  un- 
molested also  stunts  him  mentally  and  physically.  The  total 
absence  of  pictures,  books,  helpful  conversation,  educational 
trips  and  uplifting  atmosphere  still  further  hinders  the  de- 
velopment. The  school  is  faced  with  the  difficult  task  of 
injecting  into  the  child  physical,  mental  and  moral  training 

602 


and  stimulus  to  enable  him  to  go  out  into  the  world  at  the 
age  of  twelve  or  fourteen  with  a  fair  equipment  for  life." 

In  China  even  the  children  of  upper  class  homes  are  in- 
sufficiently nourished.  One  of  the  handicaps  which  China 
bears  today  is  the  physical  weakness  of  its  upper  class  men 
due  to  a  number  of  causes,  but  insufficient  nutrition  is  one  of 
the  chief  of  them.  One  of  the  most  prominent  business  men 
in  Shanghai,  of  excellent  family,  told  me  that  as  a  boy  he  had 
never  been  adequately  fed,  that  their  evening  meal  had  con- 
sisted only  of  weak  tea  and  bread.  As  to  the  poor  and  the 
conditions  under  which  they  live  one  may  quote  the  testimony 
of  an  old  resident  and  lover  of  China: 

"There  is  no  country  where  the  struggle  for  existence  is 
harder  and  where  those  who  do  work  approach  nearer  to 
slavery.  The  carpenter,  the  tinsmith,  the  shoemaker,  and 
other  artisans  labor  early  and  late  for  the  pittance  which 
keeps  soul  and  body  together.  Sunrise  sees  such  men  at  bench 
or  anvil,  and  sometimes  at  ten,  eleven  or  even  twelve  o'clock 
at  night  they  are  still  occupied.  What  a  smile  of  mingled 
wonder,  admiration,  longing  and  despair  would  pass  over  the 
features  of  a  Chinese  artisan  were  the  Western  movement 
for  an  'eight-hour  day'  clearly  explained  to  him! 

"If  the  Chinese  workman  after  his  sixteen  or  eighteen 
hours'  labor  had  a  comfortable  home  to  go  to,  a  cheery  fireside 
to  sit  by,  a  dining  table  on  which  were  set  tempting  viands 
fitted  for  the  support  and  the  consolation  of  man,  then  there 
would  be  some  recompense  for  his  daily  grind;  but  there  are 
none  of  these  things.  His  workshop  is  his  home,  his  only 
fireside  the  earthen  pot  which  holds  the  bits  of  charcoal  to 
melt  his  glue,  and  the  tempting  viands — save  the  mark! — 
what  are  they?  The  cheapest  grade  of  rice,  a  little  salt  cab- 
bage, and  maybe  a  bit  of  fish  now  and  then,  and,  for  drink, 
hot  water  with  a  few  tea-leaves  of  the  cheaper  kind  infused 
in  it.  This  for  the  artisan.  For  the  many  grades  below  him, 
the  English  language,  rich  as  it  is,  falls  short  in  descriptive 
power.  Rats,  mice,  dogs,  cats,  and  everything  with  fins  that 
may  be  available  find  welcome  on  the  menu.  The  condition 
of  these  people  with  regard  to  cleanliness  is  a  subject  which 
it  is  impossible  to  discuss. 

"What  of  the  surroundings?  What  of  the  means  of  sani- 
tation, of  supplies  of  clean  water  and  fresh  air?  Visits  both 
to  country  villages  and  crowded  cities  are  necessary  before 
these  questions  can  be  answered.  And  then  what  do  we  find? 
We  find  that,  until  the  foreigner  arrived  in  China,  the  nation, 
as  it  is,  seemed  to  care  little  or  nothing  about  the  need  either 

603 


for  pure  water  or  fresh  air,  and,  if  they  knew  their  value 
either  would  not  or  could  not  do  anything  practical  for  their 
provision.  The  cities  depend  on  their  water  supply  from  a 
filthy  river  if  there  be  one,  from  filthier  creeks,  or  from  sur- 
face wells  into  which  there  is  every  facility  for  the  infiltration, 
sometimes  for  the  direct  draining,  of  sewage.  In  the  country, 
things  are  sometimes  better.  Nature  amongst  the  hills  pro- 
vides a  purling  stream  perhaps,  though  even  there,  there  is 
no  law  to  prevent  man  from  doing  his  worst  for  its  befoul- 
ment.  On  the  plains,  especially  in  dry  weather,  the  water  sup- 
ply is  far  less  ideal  than  this.  It  seems  incredible  that  at 
the  very  spot,  in  stagnant  water,  where  the  household  foecal 
utensils  have  been  faithfully  scrubbed  in  the  morning,  there 
the  evening  rice  will  be  'cleaned.'  Yet  so  it  is.  One  degree 
lower  even  than  this  is  the  sanitary,  or  rather,  insanitary 
condition  of  a  permanent  beggar's  camp.^  Ever  since  the  For- 
eign Settlement  of  Shanghai  began  there  have  been  some  of 
these  just  outside  the  limits.  They  could  not  be  tolerated 
within.  At  the  moment,  the  most  populous,  though  not  per- 
haps the  most  offensive,  is  in  the  district  of  Chapei.  We  will 
not  introduce  the  reader  to  it  for  obvious  reasons,  but  we  do 
desire  him  to  consider  for  a  moment  wh«t  moral  conditions 
are  likely,  in  the  majority  of  instances,  to  result  from  birth 
and  breeding  in  such  an  environment.  That  physical  weakness 
must  be  common  is  plain.  Inferior  parentage  and  bad  food 
have  never  yet  produced  a  perfect  physique.  The  only  wonder 
to  Western  residents  in  China  is  that  in  some  surroundings 
it  is  possible  to  live  at  all,  and  the  only  explanation  offered  is 
that,  after  ages  of  elimination,  all  who  could  be  affected  by 
dirt  diseases  have  already  died,  and  those  that  remain  are 
immune.  One  saving  factor  in  the  situation  has  been  the 
wretched  construction  of  the  Chinese  house,  made,  as  it  is, 
so  flimsily  and  loosely  as  to  admit  a  large  amount  of  outside 
air,  which  may  sometimes  be  pure."  (Lanning,  "Old  Forces  in 
New  China,"  p.  43f.) 

In  India  many  millions  of  people  live  on  one  meal  a  day 
and  never  know  what  it  is  to  have  enough  to  eat.  In  the 
United  Provinces  covering  one  of  the  most  fertile  areas  in 
India  only  one-third  of  the  population  has  as  much  daily  food 
as  is  given  to  the  prisoners  in  the  Naini  jail  near  Allahabad. 
This  is  the  bare  amount  really  required  by  the  body,  and 
two-thirds  of  the  people  of  the  United  Provinces  do  not  aver- 
age even  three-fourths  of  this  ration.  30  per  cent  of  the 
babies  in  the  United  Provinces  die  under  twelve  months  of 
age.     In  America  50  per  cent  of  the  babies  live  to  be  60;  in 

604 


the  United  Provinces  50  per  cent  die  before  they  are  10.  The 
probability  of  Hfe  in  India  for  a  ten  year  old  boy  is  60  per 
cent  of  the  probability  of  an  American  boy.  A  census  of  beg- 
gars in  the  city  of  Bombay  in  November,  1921,  counting  only 
those  w^ho  were  "following  their  avocations  in  the  streets, 
in  the  compounds  of  temples,  and  other  holy  places  showed 
6,883.  About  one-fourth  of  them  were  children  under  16, 
including  infants  in  arms." 

In  Persia  we  were  always  within  sight  of  human  misery, 
and  the  beggar's  cry  was  never  far  away.  In  some  places  it 
was  impossible  to  stand  on  the  street  because  of  their  impor- 
tunity. Thousands  of  men  and  women  and  children  were  clad 
only  in  shreds  of  rags  in  bitter  winter  time.  When  we  crossed 
.into  the  Caucasus,  the  poverty  was  deeper  still.  Consider 
the  conditions  that  prevailed  in  Russia  before  the  war.  Three- 
fourths  of  the  peasant  families  had  insufficient  land.  70.7 
per  cent  of  the  peasants  secured  less  from  the  land  than  would 
suffice  for  a  decent  living.  20.4  per  cent  could  feed  themselves, 
but  not  their  stock.  Only  8.9  per  cent  could  buy  anything 
more  than  the  bare  necessaries  of  daily  consumption.  On  the 
fruitful  black  soil  of  southern  Russia,  after  all  taxes  had 
been  paid  by  a  Russian  family  of  five,  not  more  than  82  rubles 
remained  for  the  whole  year's  subsistence.  (Masaryk,  ''The 
Spirit  of  Russia,"  Vol.  I,  p.  163,)  The  Agrarian  Committee 
appointed  by  Witte  in  1903  reported,  "When  the  harvest  is 
normal,  the  amount  of  nutriment  obtainable  by  the  peasant 
is  on  the  average  30  per  cent  below  the  minimum  physiologi- 
cally requisite  to  maintain  an  adult  worker  on  the  land."  And 
today  this  dark  picture  must  be  replaced  by  one  still  darker, 
black  with  famine  and  death. 

"Then  Jesus  said,  I  have  compassion  on  the  multitude  be- 
cause they  have  nothing  to  eat." 

It  is  a  sad  and  weary  world  with  which  we  have  to  do.  I 
read  in  the  Caucasus  the  report  of  an  English  visitor  to  those 
hungry  peoples,  who  wrote  that  even  the  little  children  could 
no  longer  play.  Alas,  that  was  true  of  many.  All  they  could 
do,  unless  relief  reached  them,  was  to  lay  their  wasted  little 
limbs  down  by  the  wayside  and  wait  the  end.  But  so  long 
as  their  little  legs  would  carry  them  they  would  play  their 
childish  games.  It  was  a  woeful  play  to  watch,  and  one 
could  not  watch  it  and  wonder  at  the  sadness  of  the  world. 
And  the  world  knows  very  well  that  it  is  not  by  bread  alone 
that  men  live.  It  is  sad  with  other  sadness  than  that  of 
hunger  or  of  seeing  little  children  hungry.  Some  Hindu  poet 
set  it  forth  in  some  lines  in  a  paper  in  Madras: 

605 


"Weary  are  we  of  empty  creeds, 
Of  deafening  calls  to  fruitless  deeds; 
Weary  of  priests  who  cannot  pray, 
Of  guides  who  show  no  man  the  way: 
Weary  of  rites  wise  men  condemn, 
Of  worship  linked  with  lust  and  shame; 
Weary   of   Custom,   blind,   enthroned, 
Of  conscience  trampled,  God  disowned; 
Weary  of  men  in  sections  cleft, 
Hindu  life  of  love  bel-eft; 
Woman  debased,  no  more  a  queen 
Nor   knowing  what  she  once  hath   been; 
Weary  of  babbling  about  birth. 
And  of  the  mockery  men  call  mirth; 
Weary  of  life  not  understood, 
A  battle,  not  a  brotherhood; 
Weary  of  Kali  Yvga  years. 
Freighted  with  chaos,  darkness,  fears; 
Life  is  an  ill,  the  sea  of  births  is  wide, 
And  we  are  weary;  who  shall  be  our  guide?" 

t 

It  is  not  only  a  hungry  and  weary  world.  It  is  a  divided 
and  a  distracted  world.  "A  battle  not  a  brotherhood,"  the 
Hindu  poet  says.  And  who  is  responsible  for  this  battle? 
There  are  some  who  lay  the  responsibility  upon  the  Asiatic 
people,  who  speak  of  a  "Rising  Tide  of  Color"  threatening 
the  white  race,  or  "a  revolt  of  the  colored  races  against  the 
ascendancy  of  the  white  races."  "The  Times  of  India"  of 
November  17,  1921,  reported  the  debate  in  the  House  of  Lords 
on  the  Outlook  in  India.  Lord  Curzon  had  been  followed  by 
the  late  viceroy  of  India,  Lord  Chelmsford,  who  said:  "The 
dominating  factor  in  the  present  situation  in  India  was  the 
race  and  color  issue.  There  was  a  revolt  of  the  colored  races 
going  on  all  over  the  world  against  the  ascendancy  of  the 
white  races.  But  though  it  was  not  merely  an  Indian  Prob- 
lem, it  met  them  in  almost  every  Indian  question  which  came 
up — it  was  an  all-pervading  issue.  Two  consequences  had 
flowed  from  this.  In  the  past,  we  governed  India  on  the  basis 
of  the  acknowledged  superiority  of  the  British  race.  That 
superiority  was  now  challenged,  and,  in  surveying  the  situa- 
tion, they  could  not  ignore  that  the  challenge  had  been  made. 
The  color  issue  had  becojne  a  unifying  force  in  India,  and 
through  all  the  diversity  of  creeds  and  races  it  was  creating 
union.  That,  again,  was  a  fact  that  they  could  not  ignore  in 
a  survey  of  the  situation  in  India  at  the  present  moment." 
Now  there  was  a  day  when  the  Asiatic  races  resisted  the  as- 
cendancy of  the  white  races.  There  was  a  day  when  they 
fought  against  this  ascendancy.  It  is  significant  that  all  the 
battles   were  fought  in   Asiatic   waters   or   on   Asiatic   soil. 

606 


Who  was  the  aggressor?  All  that  is  past  and  with  one  notable 
exception  the  Asiatic  nations  have  accepted  the  military  as- 
cendancy of  the  white  races  and  have  even  assisted  in  main- 
taining it.  And  the  one  exceptional  nation  has  been  entirely 
willing  to  accept  a  minor  ratio  in  naval  development.  And 
intellectually  the  yellow  races  have  not  rebelled  against  white 
ascendancy.  They  have  paid  it  the  greatest  tribute  they  could. 
They  have  gone  to  its  schools.  They  have  imported  its  teach- 
ers. They  have  sought  to  master  its  knowledge.  Wherein 
are  they  waging  any  battle  or  proposing  any  conflict?  What 
are  they  asking  for  that  is  not  absolutely  just  and  right, 
neither  ascendancy  nor  subserviency,  but  simply  the  recog- 
nition of  human  brotherhood,  the  right  of  every  race  to  fulfill 
its  duty,  and  the  duty  of  every  race  to  possess  its  rights?  We 
did  not  meet  in  Asia,  and  I  have  never  met  in  any  land  in 
Asia,  any  disposition  whatever  to  invade  the  rights  of  the 
white  races,  any  claim  to  an  unfair  share  in  the  world  which 
God  has  made  for  all  His  children.  If  there  is  racial  discord 
because  the  peoples  of  Asia  accept  as  valid  for  themselves, 
subject  to  the  actual  political  facts  that  condition  them,  the 
great  principles  on  which  our  own  national  life  is  based, 
the  guilt  is  not  to  be  laid  at  their  doors. 

6.  Across  these  confusions  and  necessities  great  forces  are 
moving,  to  one  or  another  of  which  men  fasten  their  hope 
of  a  better  and  happier  world.  Men  are  approaching  the  task 
with  new  and  larger  conceptions  of  the  function  of  govern- 
ment. One  afternoon  as  I  sat  in  front  of  a  woe-begone  road- 
side tea  house  in  Persia  I  read  a  clipping  from  "The  New 
York  Times,"  containing  a  speech  which  Mr.  Vanderlip  made 
at  a  dinner  of  the  Economic  Club  last  November  on  his  return 
from  a  study  of  the  financial  and  economic  conditions  in  east- 
ern Europe.  He  was  arguing  that  government  activity  is  as 
legitimate  in  building  up  the  new  world  as  in  tearing  down 
the  old.  "Curiously,"  he  said,  "as  governments  are  organized 
in  this  world  and  time,  they  find  it  impossible  to  make  expen- 
ditures for  those  very  objects  which  would  be  of  the  greatest 
possible  value  in  improving  civilization.  Moved  as  we  are, 
governed  as  we  are,  it  is  possible  for  nations  to  raise  by 
taxation  huge  sums,  provided  those  sums  are  devoted  to  cer- 
tain purposes.  Without  much  grumbling  a  nation  will  tax 
itself  to  build  at  frequent  intervals  a  $40,000,000  battleship. 
It  will  tax  itself  to  support  a  great  army  and  to  maintain  a 
too  numerous  civil  service.  As  a  matter  of  course  European 
nations  tax  themselves  vast  sums  to  pay  for  the  costs  of  past 
wars  and  to  provide  against  the  possibilities  of  future  wars. 

607 


"While  a  nation  will,  with  prodigal  hands,  spend  money  on 
those  things  which  have  furnished  the  chief  items  of  national 
budgets  for  a  thousand  years,  it  will  at  the  same  time  refrain 
from  doing  an  endless  number  of  things  which,  if  done,  would 
profoundly  affect  for  the  better  the  nation's  future  and  pro- 
foundly influence  for  the  better  the  course  of  civilization. 

"Most  of  such  admirable  projects  are  now  left  to  be  worked 
out  in  a  puny  way  by  an  occasional  philanthropist  or,  far  more 
often,  left  altogether  undone.  Any  one  with  wide  experience 
and  awakened  imagination  knows  that  it  would  be  possible 
to  make  expenditures  of  a  character,  now  rarely,  if  ever, 
sanctioned  by  the  taxpayer,  the  return  upon  which  in  terms 
of  the  welfare  of  mankind  would  be  incalculably  greater  than 
is  the  return  from  most  of  the  objects  upon  which  government 
incomes  are  lavished." 

Mr.  Vanderlip  proceeded  to  argue  for  a  like  new  mind  in 
international  relationships  and  to  describe  a  humane  method 
of  handling  Europe's  war  indebtedness  to  the  United  States. 
I  laid  Mr.  Vanderlip's  speech  down  and  looked  out  over  poor 
Persia.  Upon  war  with  Persia,  with  adequate  cause,  other 
nations  would  spend  to  Persia's  destruction  and  their  own 
certain  loss  enough  money  if  rightly  expended  to  make  Persia 
a  new  land,  a  home  of  new  happiness  to  the  Persian  people, 
and  a  source  of  new  wealth  and  prosperity  to  other  nations. 
According  to  the  old  notions  of  government  the  destructive 
expenditure  would  have  been  legitimate;  the  creative  expen- 
diture chimerical.  The  whole  national  income  of  Persia  for 
three  years  would  barely  build  one  modern  battleship.  The 
cost  of  the  War  for  one  day  would  have  supplied  Persia  with 
roads,  schools,  sanitation,  unsealed  her  national  resources, 
and  opened  the  industries  appropriate  to  her  economic  life. 
Some  day  quixotic  ideas  like  these  and  Mr.  Vanderlip's  may 
creep  into  men's  thoughts  about  the  functions  of  government 
and  be  seen  to  be  not  quixotic  at  all  but  only  Christianity  and 
common  sense.  Meanwhile  there  is  the  hungry  and  weary 
and  distracted  world. 

There  are  two  functions,  however,  which  governments  are 
using  today  in  the  influence  of  human  life  which  in  one  view 
may  be  regarded  as  new  but  which  in  another  view  are  very 
old.  One  is  the  use  of  religion  in  a  political  interest.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  of  such  a  present  day  use  of  Islam  both  by 
governments  and  by  political  movements  seeking  to  acquire 
governmental  control.  "Islam,"  said  one  of  the  shrewdest 
and  most  competent  observers  of  life  in  Irak,  "has  now  be- 
come politics  even  more  than  religion.     Moslems  know  that 

608 


Christianity  is  right  and  that  Islam  is  unfit  to  be  the  religion 
either  of  individuals  or  of  the  state.  Nevertheless  they  stick 
to  it  as  politics.  The  Moslems  of  Irak  are  Arabs.  Arabic 
is  their  tongue.  They  have  no  future  save  in  the  preserva- 
tion of  Arabic  traditions  and  institutions,  or  so  they  believe. 
And  this  present  day  stiffening  of  Mohammedanism  is  not  an 
utterance  of  religious  devotion  or  conviction.  It  is  a  manipu- 
lated political  development."  We  quoted  this  view  to  a  group 
of  leading  young  men  in  one  of  the  cities  of  Mesopotamia 
and  asked  them  whether  they  thought  it  well  founded.  "Yes 
and  no,"  they  answered.  "Politicians  are  using  the  Islamic 
revival  for  political  ends,  but  it  is  our  conviction  that  there 
is  more  true  religious  feeling  in  Turkish  and  Arab  Moham- 
medanism today  than  there  has  been  for  a  long  time.  Moslems 
pray  in  all  the  mosques  for  the  Sultan  as  the  true  Caliph  of 
Islam,  and  they  pray  with  a  deeper  and  warmer  religious 
faith  than  before  'the  war."  I  asked  a  group  of  the  most  in- 
telligent men,  bankers,  merchants,  doctors  and  others  in  one 
of  the  Persian  cities  what  they  thought  of  this  view.  "The 
Mohammedans  of  Persia."  they  replied,  "are  Shiahs,  or  as 
the  name  implies  schismatics.  The  schism  between  them  and 
the  rest  of  the  Mohammedan  world  is  real.  They  are  not 
interested  in  the  Khilafat  or  in  Pan-Islam.  They  care  nothing 
for  the  Sultan,  and  they  distrust  Turkey.  Many  of  them  are 
very  poor  Mohammedans.  One  reason  why  Bahaism  has  spread 
so  in  Persia  is  that  it  serves  for  a  cloak  for  Moslems  and  Jews 
who  do  not  care  much  for  their  own  religion,  but  who  want 
still  to  have  a  pretence  of  religion  and  at  the  same  time  to  be 
free  to  do  as  they  please.  Nevertheless  we  believe  that  in 
Persia,  also,  Mohammedanism  is  being  used  in  a  nationalistic 
interest  and  that  men  in  positions  of  political  leadership,  who 
have  no  faith  in  Mohammedanism  at  all  for  themselves,  are 
still  trying  to  use  it  to  stiffen  Persian  nationalism,  without 
at  the  same  time  releasing  forces  of  fanaticism  that  would 
prejudice  Persia's  good  name  for  tolerance."  In  India  the 
nationalistic  spirit  has  unquestionably  stiffened  Hinduism, 
and  Hinduism  has  been  used  as  the  instrument  of  nationalism. 
And  it  is  hard  to  see  hpw  more  effective  use  could  be  made 
than  has  been  made,  both  in  India  and  in  Great  Britain,  of 
Mohammedan  religious  feeling  to  forward,  by  the  Khilafat 
movement,  the  political  ends  both  of  the  Turkish  Government 
and  of  the  Indian  nationalists.  The  Hindu-Mohammedan  alli- 
ance has  made  it  impossible  to  use  any  one  religion  as  a  politi- 
cal rallying  cry  in  India,  however,  and,  on  this  account  as 
well  as  on  others,  the  consequences  of  that  alliance  will  be 

609 

20 — India   aiitl  Persia 


very  far  reaching  and  by  no  means  of  the  character  which 
the  manipulators  of  the  movement  will  have  foreseen  or  de- 
sired. The  effort  to  use  Confucianism  as  a  patriotic  and 
exclusive  political  force  in  China  was  boldly  and  ably  made 
several  years  ago  under  the  leadership  of  men  who  had  been 
educated  in  American  universities,  but  was  defeated  in  part 
by  the  Chinese  secular  temper,  in  part  by  Chinese  good  sense, 
and  in  part  by  the  influence  of  Christianity.  In  Japan  the 
State  has  used  Shintoism  in  the  most  skillful  and  persistent 
way  to  buttress  the  authority  of  the  throne  and  to  produce 
the  political  temper  among  the  people  which  was  believed  to 
be  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  the  national  character  and 
the  accomplishment  of  the  national  destiny.  The  King  of 
Siam  has  followed  zealously  in  the  same  pathway  and  sought 
to  make  use  of  Buddhism  as  an  agency  for  the  creation  of  a 
national  consciousness  and  the  preservation  of  national  tra- 
ditions. 

The  other  of  the  two  forms  of  government  influence  to  which 
I  have  referred  is  the  deliberated  use  of  education  in  a  political 
interest.  Germany  was  the  outstanding  illustration  of  this 
policy  in  the  West  and  Japan  in  the  East.  Professor  Monroe 
has  described  present  day  tendencies  in  this  direction  in  his 
article  on  "Missionary  Education  and  National  Policy"  in  the 
"International  Review  of  Missions"  in  July,  1921.  It  cannot 
be  said  that  this  tendency  is  as  yet  of  any  appreciable  conse- 
quence in  some  countries,  Persia  for  example.  In  other  coun- 
tries, such  as  India,  where  governmental  influence  in  education 
has  been  supreme,  it  cannot  be  said  that  it  has  been  exercised 
in  a  distinctly  political  interest,  and  it  is  significant  that  in 
India  education  has  been  one  of  the  first  departments  of  gov- 
ernment of  which  the  national  government  has  divested  itself, 
committing  it  to  the  provincial  governments,  and  which  in 
the  provincial  governments  has  been  transferred  under  the 
Montague-Chelmsford  Reforms  to  Indian  administration  and 
control.  It  is  not  to  be  doubted,  and  it  is  surely  to  be  desired, 
that  governments  will  feel  an  increasing  responsibility  to  pro- 
vide adequate  education  for  all  their  people.  Nothing  surely 
is  more  clearly  the  duty  and  privilege  of  a  government,  unless 
it  be  the  maintenance  of  order  and  the  protection  of  rights, 
and  to  both  of  these  ends  popular  education  is  the  indispens- 
able means. 

But  no  use  of  religion  or  of  education  by  government  can 
ever  go  far  enough  to  meet  human  need,  to  reform  human 
character,  or  to  renew  the  broken  world.  Such  use  can  go  so 
far  as  to  hinder  the  achievement  of  these  ends,  but  it  can 

610 


never  go  far  enough  to  accomplish  them.  Nor  will  economic 
forces  avail.  They  too  have  gone  abroad  over  the  world,  and 
no  small  part  of  the  hunger  and  the  weariness  and  the  discord 
of  the  earth  are  due  to  the  way  in  which  man  has  violated 
economic  laws,  whose  rational  and  docile  use,  in  obedience  to 
God  who  ordained  them,  would  have  helped  to  bring  in  a  new 
paradise,  but  which  disobeyed  have  turned  upon  men  in  judg- 
ment. The  redemption  of  the  world  is  not  to  be  found  in  any 
gospel  of  government  or  of  education  or  of  trade. 

7.  Nor  is  the  gospel  of  America  to  save  the  world.  It  is 
pathetic  to  see  the  way  in  which  many  of  the  Asiatic  people 
grasp  at  this  gospel.  To  escape  to  America  is  the  one  longed- 
for  deliverance  of  the  Persian  Assyrians.  They  desire  their 
old  homes  in  Urumia,  but  if  the  doors  of  America  had  opened 
to  them  they  would  have  gone  forth  from  the  camp  at  Bakuba 
in  a  solid  body.  If  they  cannot  go  to  America,  they  asked 
next,  "Cannot  America  come  to  us  and  bring  security  and 
prosperity  with  her?"  Wherever  we  went  in  Persia,  from 
Meshed  to  Tabriz,  and  from  Tairuk  to  Resht,  we  heard  but  one 
sentiment  from  the  Persian  Mohammedans,  Why  would  not 
America  come  to  help  them?  They  believed  in  her  disinterest- 
edness, that  she  wanted  no  territory  and  no  authority.  Did 
she  not  know  how  eagerly  she  was  desired,  not  with  her 
capital  only  but  with  her  counsel  and  with  her  friendship? 
Even  in  Turkey  where  the  Christian  populations  have  longed 
for  America's  coming  in  acceptance  of  the  mandate  which  had 
been  offered  to  her,  there  were  Christian  men  who,  in  spite  of 
the  refusal  of  that  mandate,  trusted  America's  unselfishness 
and  even  saw  in  the  refusal  an  evidence  both  of  unselfishness 
and  of  wisdom.  They  did  not  believe  that  the  mandate  had 
been  offered  in  a  form  or  with  a  territorial  range  that  would 
have  made  it  possible  for  America  to  deal  with  the  whole 
problem.  It  had  been  nothing,  they  thought,  but  a  scheme 
on  the  part  of  European  governments,  who  had  already  helped 
themselves  to  all  that  they  wanted  of  the  Turkish  EmDire. 
to  unload  the  rest  in  an  impossible  form  upon  America.  These 
men  were  glad,  so  they  said,  that  America  had  not  taken 
even  in  the  form  of  a  mandate  one  single  acre  of  the  territory 
of  the  defeated  nations.  They  did  not  go  back  to  our  earlier 
wars,  and  they  were  not  advocating  the  little  American  spirit. 
On  the  contrary,  they  were  appealing  for  an  American  service 
of  the  world  in  the  spirit  of  the  address  which  Mr. 
Vanderlip  had  made  to  the  Economic  Club.  The  good-will 
which  we  met  towards  America  everywhere  made  us  tremble 
for  the  future  and  the  answer  which  America  will  make  to 

611 


the  expectations  of  the  peoples.  Certainly  we  shall  not  alto- 
gether fail  them,  and  there  are  immeasurable  services  whichf 
we  can  render  by  a  just  example  in  all  our  international  deal- 
ings, by  purity  of  social  and  political  life  within  our  own 
borders,  by  the  unboastful  use  of  our  great  strength,  by 
expanding  our  trade  with  all  peoples  and  conducting  it  in 
honor  and  through  men  of  honorable  lives,  by  helping  people 
wherever  they  need  help  and  are  willing  to  accept  it  from  a 
nation  which  offers  it  on  terms  of  respect  and  righteousness. 
Never  did  any  nation  have  such  an  opportunity  for  human 
service  on  a  scale  as  wide  as  human  need  as  our  nation  has 
today.  Such  service  must  certainly  be  a  part  of  God's  pro- 
gram for  the  good  of  His  children  and  of  His  earth. 

8.  But  the  force  which  is  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  world 
is  not  in  the  keeping  of  any  government  to  wield.  There 
is  an  old  word  of  St.  Paul's  which  seems  ludicrous  to  many 
today,  but  which,  the  Church  knows,  holds  the  one  solution 
of  the  problem  of  this  hungry,  weary,  and  disordered  world. 
"It  was  God's  good  pleasure  through  the  foolishness  of  the 
preaching  to  save  them  that  believe.  Seeing  that  the  Jews 
ask  for  signs,  and  the  Greeks  seek  after  wisdom;  but  we 
preach  Christ  crucified,  unto  Jews  a  stumbling  block  and  unto 
Gentiles  foolishness,  but  unto  them  that  are  called,  both  Jews 
and  Greeks,  Christ  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God." 
Neither  Hinduism  nor  Mohammedanism  nor  government  nor 
education  nor  trade  nor  national  service  will  avail.  The  mis- 
sionary enterprise  rests  upon  the  conviction  that  Jesus  Christ 
alone  is  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  and  that,  while  in  the  end 
His  salvation  will  include,  as  on  the  way  to  the  end  it  will 
use,  all  the  good  that  there  is  in  human  purpose  and  endeavor, 
still  the  root  of  all,  the  one  fundamental  necessity,  is  the  per- 
sonal relationship  of  individuals  to  Jesus  Christ  as  their 
Lord  and  Saviour.  This  report  is  simply  a  body  of  facts  sus- 
taining and  validating  this  conviction. 

This  view  is  undeniably  at  variance  with  all  religious  syn- 
cretism, with  the  easy  modern  view  that  all  religions  are 
essentially  alike.  It  might  not  be  hard  to  bring  the  world 
to  this  view.  Beginning  with  the  first  Christian  century  other 
religions  have  again  and  again  offered  to  compromise  with 
Christianity  on  these  terms.  Hinduism  is  very  ready  to  recog- 
nize Christ  as  the  avatara  for  Christians  in  the  same  sense 
in  which  Krishna  is  the  avatara  for  Hindus.  "Pandit  Sivanath 
Sastry  in  his  book  'Men  I  Have  Seen'  relates  that  a  Christian 
preacher  who  was  the  Pandit's  friend,  once  accompanied  him 
on  a  visit  to  Ramkrishna.    When  he  introduced  his  friend  to 

612 


the  Paramahamsa,  Ramkrishna  bowed  his  head  to  the  ground 
and  said,  'I  bow  again  and  again  at  the  feet  of  Jesus.'  The 
Christian  gentleman  asked :  'How  is  it,  Sir,  that  you  bow  at 
the  feet  of  Christ?  What  do  you  think  of  Him?'  'Why,  I 
look  upon  him  as  an  incarnation  of  God — an  incarnation  like 
our  Rama  or  Krishna.  Don't  you  know  there  is  a  passage  in 
the  Bhagwat  where  it  is  said  that  the  incarnations  of  Vishnu 
or  the  Supreme  Being  are  innumerable?'  "  ("The  Indian  Social 
Reformer,"  Sept.  14,  1919.)  Even  Mohammedanism  is  pre- 
pared for  a  new  comprehension.  I  have  reported  in  an  earlier 
chapter  the  conversation  with  a  little  group  of  Mohammedans 
in  a  Persian  village  who  agreed  that  they  were  prepared  to 
abandon  any  claim  to  superiority  of  character  in  Mohammed 
over  Christ,  and  I  remember  a  striking  expression  of  an  old 
Mohammedan  teacher  in  a  Persian  city  who  told  me  that  he 
knew  the  New  Testament  well,  that  he  thought  he  had  the 
whole  of  it  by  heart.  "And  do  you  believe  it,"  I  asked  him. 
"Sir,"  said  he,  "I  am  a  banker  in  words.  Just  as  the  banker 
in  money  knows  the  true  coin  from  the  false,  so  I  know  words, 
and  I  declare  to  you  that  these  words  of  the  New  Testament 
are  true."  And  yet  he  has  not  given  up  Islam.  Not  in  the 
East  only  but  in  the  West  as  well,  this  tolerant  syncretism 
is  gathering  strength.  I  read  in  India  in  an  Indian  magazine 
an  address  by  Viscount  Haldane  delivered  in  London  on  July 
3,  1921,  applying  the  doctrine  of  relativity  to  the  ideals  of  a 
university  and  incidentally  to  religion.  It  was  a  moving  ad- 
dress, on  the  high  plane  and  in  the  great  spirit  characteristic 
of  Lord  Haldane,  but  the  doctrine  of  relativity  appeared  with 
new  significance  as  a  leveling  and  syncretising  theological  in- 
fluence. The  note  is  more  than  familiar  in  books,  new  and 
old,  on  Asia  and  Asia's  religions.  One  out  of  a  hundred 
paragraphs  will  suffice  for  illustration: 

"The  differences  between  us  lie  less  in  the  fundamental 
teaching  of  the  'holy  sages,'  be  they  Confucian,  Buddhist, 
Taoist  or  Christian,  and  more  in  the  narrowness  of  the  super- 
structure which  their  respective  followers  have  built  on  it. 
We  can  easily  imagine  the  loving  friendliness  with  which 
Christ  and  Confucius,  Lao-tsz  and  Gautama,  Zoroaster  and 
Mahomet  might  have  met  and  discussed  the  broad  foundations 
of  a  system  of  moral  teaching  in  which  all  could  have  agreed. 
Side  by  side  they  might  have  worked,  stone  by  stone  they 
might  have  built,  each  giving  to  other  his  aid,  his  sympathy, 
his  love.  The  lower  portions  of  the  spacious  edifice  doubtless 
would  have  comprised  a  number  of  separate  rooms,  but  none 
secluded.     Hand  in  hand  the  sages  would  have  traversed  the 

613 


corridors  in  friendly  converse,  and  had  they  done  so,  and 
had  their  followers  kept  strictly  to  their  teaching,  there  might 
have  been  peace  on  earth."  (Lanning,  "Old  Forces  in  New 
China,"  p.  39f.) 

The  contrary,  missionary  view  of  Christianity  and  of  the 
world  may  be  called  narrow.  Very  well,  let  men  call  it  what 
they  please.  This  is  the  view  on  which  the  missionary  enter- 
prise rests,  the  view  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  one  incarnation 
of  God,  that  He  is  the  only  Saviour  of  the  World,  that  what- 
ever truth  there  is  in  any  other  religion  is  only  a  broken  light 
of  Him,  that  He  is  the  real  "desire  of  the  nations,"  and  that 
all  that  they  are  feeling  after  is  to  be  found  in  Him  and  in 
Him  alone,  that  the  world  for  which  men  long  or  ought  to 
long  can  only  come  as  individuals  pass  into  His  purifying 
power  and  as  through  them  His  Kingdom  comes  upon  the 
earth.  This  was  the  way  the  early  Church  conceived  the 
Christian  faith,  and  this  is  the  way  the  missionary  enterprise 
conceives  it.  On  the  way  from  Shanghai  to  Singapore  I  read 
Bishop  Westcott's  "Commentary  on  the  Epistles  of  St.  John" 
and  the  accompanying  essays,  and  I  copied  two  extracts  from 
them  to  quote  at  the  close  of  this  report.  One  referred  to 
the  impossibility  of  any  compromise  between  Christianity 
and  Roman  religion: 

"The  martyrs  might  have  escaped  tortures  and  death  by  the 
affectation  or  semblance  of  conformity  to  popular  customs,  but 
such  conformity  would  have  involved  a  complete  sacrifice 
of  their  faith.  Christians  were  not  contented  with  permission 
to  exercise  their  personal  religion  without  molestation:  they 
demanded  freedom  for  expansion  and  conquest.  If  indeed  a 
distinct  conception  be  formed  of  what  Christianity  is,  it  will 
be  evident  that  a  sincere  and  zealous  pagan  could  not  but 
persecute  it.  The  Christian  Faith  is  universal :  it  is  absolute : 
it  is  aggressive;  and  once  more,  it  is  spiritual  and  not  only 
temporal.  On  all  these  grounds  it  necessarily  came  into  col- 
lision with  the  Roman  laws 

"Here  then  lies  the  second  difference  between  imperial 
paganism  and  Christianity  which  made  persecution  inevitable. 
Christianity  is  absolute.  It  can  admit  no  compromise.  It  is 
essentially  grounded  upon  personal  conviction  and  not  ac- 
cepted as  an  accident  of  descent.  It  is  embodied  in  a  Church 
which  is  held  together  by  unity  of  faith ;  and  not  in  a  Nation 
which  represents  at  least  unity  of  race. 

"Nothing  struck  the  apologists  with  more  amazement  than 
the  first  natural  consequence  which  followed  from  this  differ- 
ence between  the  Christian  and  heathen  conceptions  of  re- 
ligion.    They  saw  the  popular  gods  held  up  to  mockery  upon 

614 


the  stage,  degraded  in  the  works  of  poets,  ridiculed  by  philoso- 
phers, and  they  could  not  reconcile  such  license  and  sarcasm 
with  resolute  devotion.  But  to  the  polytheist  of  the  empire — 
and  to  all  later  polytheists — the  offices  of  worship  were  an 
act  of  public  duty  and  not  of  private  confession.  Outward 
conformity  in  act  was  owed  to  the  State,  complete  freedom  in 
opinion  and  word  was  allowed  to  the  worshiper.  There  was 
no  complete  and  necessary  correspondence  between  the  form 
and  the  thought.  With  the  Christian  it  was  otherwise.  His 
religion  in  every  detail  was  the  expression  of  his  soul.  So 
it  was  that  the  Christian  confessor  would  make  no  compro- 
mise. This  phenomenon  was  a  novel  one;  and  we  can  see  in 
the  records  of  the  martyrdoms  how  utterly  the  magistrates 
were  incapable  of  understanding  the  difficulty  which  Chris- 
tians felt  in  official  conformity.  In  their  judgment  it  was 
perfectly  consistent  with  religious  faith  to  drop  the  morsel 
of  incense  on  the  fire,  and  still  retain  allegiance  to  Christ. 
All  that  they  required  was  the  appearance  of  obedience  and 
not  the  distinct  expression  of  conviction."  (Westcott,  "The 
Epistles  of  St.  John,"  pp.  255,  261.) 

But  the  conviction  of  the  Christian  Church  was  set  for  life 
or  death  the  opposite  way.  Hinduism  is  entirely  ready  to 
make  the  same  terms  with  Christianity  today  that  Roman 
religion  was  ready  to  make.  Such  a  triumph  of  Christianity 
in  India  might  be  speedy,  but  it  certainly  would  be  fatal. 
Christian  missions  have  gone  out  not  to  compromise  but  to 
achieve  Christ's  absolute  supremacy. 

9.  It  may  seem  to  some  that  the  view  set  forth  in  this 
report  has  leaned  too  strongly  to  an  individualistic  interpre- 
tation of  the  aim  and  methods  of  Christian  missions.  I  have 
nothing  to  take  back  of  anything  that  has  been  said  that 
might  support  this  impression;  for  I  believe  that  in  the  end 
it  will  be  found  that  this  is  the  broadest  social  principle  and 
that  all  social  movements  that  cheapen  the  significance  of  in- 
dividual personality  and  of  the  relationship  of  individual  char- 
acter and  action  to  social  progress  will  prove  shallow  and 
ineffectual.  But  side  by  side  with  the  steady  effort  to  hold 
fast,  in  the  interest  of  reality,  to  the  principle  of  personal 
action  pursued  by  our  Lord  and  dominating  all  the  great  move- 
ments in  human  history,  I  haiie  striven  to  do  full  justice  to 
the  significance  of  corporate  influence  and  to  the  value  of  all 
the  institutional  and  collective  forces  which  are  both  personal 
and  impersonal,  and  also  to  the  tendencies  which  are  often 
so  impersonal  as  to  elude  our  sight  though  they  operate  with 
tremendous  power.  Chapter  after  chapter  of  this  report 
has  shown  the  pervading  and  transforming  social  energy  of 

615 


the  missionary  enterprise.  It  is  affecting  in  the  most  radical 
way  the  East's  conceptions  of  society,  of  the  relationship  of 
man  to  man  and  of  man  to  woman,  of  industry,  of  the  treat- 
ment of  poverty,  of  popular  education,  of  hygiene  and  sanita- 
tion and  the  conservation  of  public  health,  of  the  care  of 
children,  of  marriage  and  of  the  institution  of  the  family, 
of  patriotism  and  the  interrelations  of  races  and  of  nations, 
of  the  possibility,  the  method  and  the  goals  of  human  progress. 
The  place  and  influence  of  foreign  missions  and  of  the  native 
churches  in  the  movement  of  human  life  is  immeasurably 
out  of  proportion  to  their  numerical  strength.  They  are  the 
most  powerful  single  social  force  in  Asia.  And  their  strength 
as  a  force  of  social  redemption  is  fundamentally  due  to  their 
gospel  of  personal  redemption  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
the  only  Saviour  of  man  and  of  men. 

There  is  no  conflict  between  the  individual  and  the  social 
principle,  and,  as  I  have  shown  elsewhere,  they  have  been 
recognized  and  interwoven  from  the  beginning  of  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise.  "Faithful  is  the  saying  and  worthy  of 
all  acceptation,  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save 
sinners."  "And  we  have  beheld  and  bear  witness  that  the 
Father  has  sent  the  Son  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world." 
There  is  no  discord  between  these  statements.  There  will 
be  no  saving  of  the  world  without  the  saving  of  sinners,  and 
the  saving  of  sinners  is  to  the  end'  of  the  saving  of  the  world. 

It  is  a  saved  world  that  allures  the  imagination  and  hope 
of  men  today.  In  one  of  his  papers  on  the  Washington  Dis- 
armament Conference,  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells  drew  an  engaging 
picture  of  "a  world  at  peace  with  mankind  striving  for  and 
accomplishing  only  the  best  things."  As  the  colors  were 
drying  on  the  picture,  he  added,  "this  is  no  idle  prophecy; 
this  is  no  dream.  Such  a  world  is  ours  today — if  we  could 
but  turn  the  minds  of  men  to  realize  that  it  is  here  for  the 
having.  These  things  can  be  done ;  this  finer  world  is  within 
reach."  Why  then  do  we  not  have  it?  Is  there  one  man 
out  of  a  hundred  or  a  hundred  thousand  in  the  world  who 
does  not  want  it?  How  are  we  to  get  it?  Mr.  Wells  answers 
as  best  he  can,  "I  must  needs  go  about  this  present  world 
of  disorder  and  darkness  like  #n  exile  doing  such  feeble  things 
as  I  can  towards  the  world  of  my  desire,  now  hopefully,  now 
bitterly,  as  the  moods  may  happen  until  I  die."  This  is  a 
much  more  individualistic  attitude  than  any  that  I  have  set 
forth  in  this  report.  We  must  look  for  some  larger  prescrip- 
tion. I  would  close  this  report  with  three  of  these  picked 
out  of  the  reading  that  it  was  possible  to  do  in  these  crowded 

616 


months.    Let  any  one  answer  which  of  the  three  holds  in  it 
the  hope  of  the  world. 

The  first  is  from  a  book  which  I  read  crossing  the  continent 
to  San  Francisco,  an  old  and  germinal  book,  Galton's  "In- 
quiries Into  Human  Faculty": 

"It  is  clear  from  what  has  been  said,  that  men  of  former 
generations  have  exercised  enormous  influence  over  the  human 
stock  of  the  present  day,  and  that  the  average  humanity  of 
the  world  now  and  in  the  future  years  is  and  will  be  very 
different  to  what  it  would  have  been  if  the  action  of  our  fore- 
fathers had  been  different.  The  power  in  man  of  varying 
the  future  human  stock  vests  a  great  responsibility  in  the 
hands  of  each  fresh  generation,  which  has  not  yet  been  recog- 
nized at  its  just  importance,  nor  deliberately  employed.  It 
is  foolish  to  fold  the  hands  and  to  say  that  nothing  can  be 
done,  inasmuch  as  social  forces  and  self-interests  are  too 
strong  to  be  resisted.  They  need  not  be  resisted ;  they  can 
be  guided.  It  is  one  thing  to  check  the  course  of  a  huge 
steam  vessel  by  the  shock  of  a  sudden  encounter  when  she  is 
going  at  full  speed  in  the  wrong  direction,  and  another  to 
cause  her  to  change  her  course  slowly  and  gently  by  a  slight 
turn  to  the  helm.  Nay,  a  ship  may  be  made  to  describe  a 
half  circle,  and  to  end  by  following  a  course  exactly  opposite 
to  the  first,  without  attracting  the  notice  of  the  passengers.  .  . 

"While  recognizing  the  awful  mystery  of  conscious  exist- 
ence and  the  inscrutable  background  of  evolution,  we  find  that 
as  the  foremost  outcome  of  many  and  long  birth-throes,  in- 
telligent and  kindly  man  finds  himself  in  being.  He  knows 
how  petty  he  is,  but  he  also  perceives  that  he  stands  here  on 
this  particular  earth,  at  this  particular  time,  as  the  heir  of 
untold  ages  and  in  the  van  of  circumstance.  He  ought  there- 
fore, I  think,  to  be  less  diffident  than  he  is  usually  instructed 
to  be,  and  to  rise  to  the  conception  that  he  has  a  considerable 
function  to  perform  in  the  order  of  events,  and  that  his  exer- 
tions are  needed.  It  seems  to  me  that  he  should  look  upon 
himself  more  as  a  freeman,  with  power  of  shaping  the  course 
of  future  humanity,  and  that  he  should  look  upon  himself  less 
as  the  subject  of  a  despotic  government,  in  which  case  it  would 
be  his  chief  merit  to  depend  wholly  upon  what  had  been  regu- 
lated for  him,  and  to  render  abject  obedience. 

"The  question  then  arises  as  to  the  way  in  which  man  can 
assist  in  the  order  of  events.  I  reply,  by  furthering  the  course 
of  evolution.  He  may  use  his  intelligence  to  discover  and 
expedite  the  changes  that  are  necessary  to  adapt  circum- 
stance to  race  and  race  to  circumstance,  and  his  kindly  syin- 

617 


pathy  will  urge  him  to  effect  them  mercifully."  (Galton,  "In- 
quiry Into  Human  Faculty,"  pages  206  and  218.) 

The  second  is  from  an  article  in  the  "Yale  Review,"  Janu- 
ary, 1922,  by  Prof.  Flinders  Petrie,  on  "The  Outlook  for 
Civilization,"  read  in  a  box  car  between  Alexandropol  and 
Tiflis: 

"If  we  were  able  to  mould  the  future,  the  reasonable  course 
would  be  to  look  around  for  a  race  which  would  best  counteract 
the  deficiencies  of  ourselves,  and  to  favor  a  mixture  in  isola- 
tion. We  need  to  remedy  the  unrest  and  excitability  of  the 
present  population  by  producing  a  more  stolid  and  hard-work- 
ing people;  to  counteract  the  lack  of  security  by  a  sense  of 
permanence  and  commercial  morality;  to  hinder  the  prevalent 
waste  by  the  development  of  a  frugal  and  saving  habit;  to 
keep  our  knowledge  to  its  right  uses  by  a  peace-loving  people 
who  do  not  glorify  fighting;  to  turn  our  intellectual  frivolity 
into  a  love  of  solid  reading  and  literature.  We  need  a  race 
less  sensitive  in  nerves,  though  not  less  perceptive  in  thought ; 
and,  above  all,  it  must  be  a  race  which  commands  the  respect 
and  affection  of  those  who  have  lived  among  it  and  know  it 
best.  I  leave  it  to  the  reader  to  think  what  cultivated  race 
of  the  present  world  would  fulfill  these  conditions." 

The  Chinese  people  are  the  only  race  which  answers  this 
description. 

A  third  quotation  is  from  the  essay  of  Bishop  Westcott's  to 
which  I  have  alreadv  referred,  on  "The  Two  Empires:  The 
Church  and  the  World:" 

"The  burden  of  St.  Paul's  first  teaching  in  Europe  was  that 
there  was  'another  King  than  Caesar,  even  Jesus.'  The  same 
apostle  when  he  sums  up  his  work  describes  himself  as  having 
gone  about  'preaching'  'the  Kingdom  of  God;'  and  the  last 
glimpse  which  is  given  of  his  labors  at  Rome  shows  him  there 
still  preaching  the  Kingdom. 

"Everywhere  the  same  idea  is  prominent  in  the  history  of 
the  Acts  and  in  the  Apostolic  letters.  At  one  time  it  excites 
the  hostility  of  unbelievers ;  at  another  time  it  gives  occasion 
to  mistaken  hopes  in  Christians.  But  however  the  truth  was 
misrepresented  and  misunderstood,  however  much  it  gave 
occasion  to  unjust  attacks  and  visionary  expectations,  it  was 
still  held  firmly.  The  idea  may  have  grown  somewhat  un- 
familiar to  us  now,  but  it  is  clearly  impressed  upon  the  New 
Testament.  The  distinctness  with  which  we  have  learned  to 
realize  our  personal  responsibility  and  personal  relationship 
to  God  in  this  last  age  of  the  Church  has  brought  with  it  some 

618 


drawbacks,  and  this  is  one  of  them,  that  the  sense  of  a  visible 
Kingdom  of  God  on  earth  established  in  righteousness  and 
embracing  all  the  fullness  of  humanity  has  been  deadened.  .  . 
"The  Christian  creed  cannot  stop  short  of  a  social  realiza- 
tion. It  deals  with  men  not  as  isolated  units  but  as  members 
of  a  commonwealth.  Opinions  may  differ  as  to  the  form  in 
which  the  society  will  be  revealed,  but  the  fact  that  Christi- 
anity must  issue  in  the  perfection  of  social  life,  and  must 
manifest  its  power  in  dealings  with  social  relations,  cannot 
be  lost  sight  of  without  peril  to  the  dignity  and  essence  of 
Faith. 

"It  is.  then,  quite  true  to  say  that  two  Empires,  two  social 
organizations,  designed  to  embrace  the  whole  world,  started 
together  in  the  first  century.  The  one  appeared  in  the  com- 
pleteness of  its  form ;  the  other  only  in  the  first  embodiment 
of  the  vital  principle  v/hich  included  all  aftergrowth.  But 
the  two  Empires  had  nothing  in  common  except  their  point 
of  departure  and  their  claim  to  universality.  In  principle,  in 
mode  of  action,  in  sanctions,  in  scope,  in  history  they  offer 
an  absolute  contrast.  The  Roman  Empire  was  essentially 
based  on  positive  law ;  it  was  maintained  by  force ;  it  appealed 
to  outward  well-doing;  it  aimed  at  producing  external  co- 
operation or  conformity.  The  Christian  Empire  was  no  less 
essentially  based  on  faith;  it  was  propagated  and  upheld  by 
conviction ;  it  lifted  the  thoughts  and  working  of  men  to  that 
which  was  spiritual  and  eternal ;  it  strove  towards  the  mani- 
fold exhibition  of  one  common  life.  The  history  of  the  Roman 
Empire  is  from  the  first  the  history  of  a  decline  and  fall, 
checked  by  many  noble  efforts  and  many  wise  counsels,  but 
still  inevitable.  The  history  of  the  Christian  Empire  is  from 
the  first  the  history  of  a  victorious  progress,  stayed  and  sad- 
dened by  frequent  faithlessness  and  self-seeking,  but  still 
certain  and  assured  though  never  completed." 

Where  else  than  in  the  completion  of  this  Empire  is  the 
hope  of  the  world  to  be  found?  And  how  is  its  completion  to 
be  achieved?  By  many  forces  wielded  by  the  purpose  of  God, 
— good  government  and  honorable  trade  and  true  education, 
care  for  human  health,  the  production  and  conservation  and 
just  distribution  of  wealth,  man's  fuller  knowledge  of  himself 
and  of  his  brothers  and  of  the  world.  The  Mission  enterprise 
does  not  speak  slightingly  of  these  or  of  any  of  the  unnum- 
bered ways  in  which  God  is  advancing  His  purpose  of  right- 
eousness and  unity  upon  the  earth.  But  it  believes  that  it 
is  doing  His  work  in  the  most  central  and  fundamental  way 
of  all.    "How  do  you  plan  to  help  Persia?"  we  asked  a  young 

619 


Christian  man  in  Tabriz.  In  his  own  English  he  replied, 
"By  preaching  Christ  in  the  crucified  style."  That  is  the 
one  supreme  business  of  missions,  "Preaching  Christ  in  the 
crucified  style," — "Crucified  and  Risen;"  for  we  believe  that 
He  is  the  one  Hope-  of  the  world,  and  that  the  completion 
of  His  Kingdom  upon  the  earth  depends  upon  man's  accept- 
ance of  Him  as  King. 

S.  S.  Constantinople, 

Mediterranean  Sea,  May  13,  1922. 


620 


APPENDICES 


PAGE 

Appendix  I.  Report  of  the  Committee  on  the  Relation  of  the 
Mission  and  the  Indian  Church  and  vice  versa, 
Punjab  Mission  Meeting,  October  1917 623 

Appendix       II.     Letter  of  N.  K.  Murkerji,  June  15,  1920 628 

Appendix  III.  Letter  of  J.  M.  David,  A.  Ralla  Ram,  N.  C.  Mur- 
kerji and  N.  K.  Murkerji,  June  15,  1920 629 

Appendix     IV.     Letter  of  N.  K.  Murkerji,  July  8,  1920 649 

Appendix       V.     Letter  of  N.  K.  Murkerji,  July  22,  1920   649 

Appendix     VI.     Letter  of  Robert  E.  Speer  to  J.  M.  David,  et  al., 

Sept.  21,  1920    650 

Appendix    VII.     Letter  of  Robert  E.  Speer  to  N.  K.  Murkerji, 

July  18,   1921    658 

Appendix  VIII.     Letter  of  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  Feb.  26, 

1906    665 

Appendix      IX.     Letter  of  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  July  3,  1906        675 

Appendix       X.     Report  of  Saharanpur  Conference 680 

Appendix      XL     Action  of  North  India  Mission,  Oct.  1921    ....        684 

Appendix    XII.     Paper  of  Shivramji  Masoji  on  "Indian  Church 

and   India's    Crisis"    687 

Appendix  XIII.     "God,  the  Crown  and  the  Nation,"  from  "Nur 

Afshan,"   Nov.    15,   1921    690 

Appendix  XIV.     An  Indian  Christian  Manifesto  on  Church  Union        693 


621 


APPENDICES 

APPENDIX  I 

Report  of  the  Punjab  Mission's  Committee,  October,  1917,  on  the  Re- 
lation of  the  Mission  and  the  Indian  Church,  and  vice  versa : 

The  members  of  this  Committee  were  first  of  all  supplied  with  con- 
siderable information  collected  by  the  Chairman  concerning  the  relation 
of  Foreign  Missionary  Societies  to  Indigenous  Churches  both  in  India  and 
in  other  lands.  The  members  of  the  Committee  were  also  asked  to  read 
Mr.  Fleming's  book  on  "Devolution  in  Missionary  Administration," 
as  well  as  other  pamphlets  and  articles. 

After  this  preliminary  preparation,  the  four  Lahore  Members  of  the 
Committee  had  several  meetings  and  framed  a  tentative  scheme.  Prac- 
tically the  whole  Committee  met  at  Saharanpur  on  June  27th  and  largely 
approved  the  work  of  the  Lahore  Sub-Committee.  A  meeting  of  three 
members  of  the  Committee  was  held  in  Mussourie  on  August  25th  and 
the  final  meeting  in  Lahore  on  October  19,  1917. 

The  following  are  the  report  and  recommendations  of  the  Committee : — 

Part  I 

General  Statemeyit 

(1)  The  Task  and  Functions  of  the  Church  and  Mission. 

(a)  We  believe  that  the  fundamental  purpose  of  both  the  Church 
and  the  Mission  is  to  bring  India  to  Christ  and  to  establish  a  society  of 
Christian  men  and  women  through  whom  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth 
may  be  advanced  and  realized. 

(b)  That  the  functions  of  the  Foreign  Mission  and  the  Indian  Church 
in  attaining  these  ends  are  different  and  that,  therefore,  right  lines  of 
distinction  should  be  observed  between  the  two. 

To  illustrate  the  above  (1)  The  Foreign  Mission  is  a  Standing  Com- 
mittee of  the  Board  in  America  and  is  responsible  for  the  control  of  the 
work  of  the  missionaries  and  the  administration  of  the  money  furnished 
by  the  Board.  Its  function  is  to  establish  a  Church  in  India,  carrying  on 
Evangelistic  and  Educational  work,  etc.,  until  the  Church  is  able  to  do 
this  for  itself.  (2)  The  Indian  Church  is  responsible  for  the  training 
and  government  of  its  membership,  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  and 
the  administration  of  whatever  funds  are  either  raised  by  itself  or  re- 
ceived as  grants-in-aid.  It  is  an  independent  and  self-governing  institu- 
tion and  responsible  to  neither  the  Board  in  America  nor  the  Mission. 

(2)  We  believe  that  the  Church  is  the  permanent  organization  in 
the  evangelization  of  India,  the  building  up  of  Christians  in  the  faith 
and  the  establishment  of  God's  Kingdom  on  earth,  the  Mission  only  to 
exist  as  long  as  its  help  is  necessary  in  strengthening  the  hands  of  the 
Church  in  securing  these  ends. 

(3)  The  fundamental  aim  of  the  Mission  and  the  Church  being  thus 
the  same,  we  believe  that  the  interests  of  the  Kingdom  in  India  will  be 
conserved,  not  by  separation  between  the  Mission  and  the  Church,  but 
rather  by  full  and  hearty  mutual  co-operation.  For  example,  missiona- 
ries to  co-operate  with  the  pastor  and  session  of  the  local  Church,  to 
lend  their  sjinpathy  and  support  to  all  efforts  of  the  Church  and  Pres- 
bytery to  express  themselves  in  training  and  service.     The  Mission  also 

623 


to  secure  the  advice  and  co-operation  of  qualified  Indians  in  connection 
with  its  affairs,  e.  g.,  representation  on  the  Departmental  and  Special 
Committees  of  the  Mission  and  also  in  the  Mission  meetings. 

(4)  We  believe  that  as  a  corollary  to  2  above,  the  plans  and  organi- 
zation on  the  part  of  both  Church  and  Mission  should  be  such  as  to  de- 
velop an  Indian  leadership  and  a  self-propagating,  self-supporting  and 
self-governing  Church;  the  Mission  constantly  tending  to  decrease  and 
the  Church  to  increase. 

(5)  We  believe  that  the  Church  can  best  be  magnified  at  present 
through  great  interest  and  zeal  in  self-propagation,  the  members  of  the 
Church  working  individually  and  collectively  for  the  propagation  of  the 
Gospel.  We  also  believe  that  this  is  a  very  necessary  means  towards 
securing  a  self-supporting,  self-governing  Church. 

e.g.  Through  the  present  Evangelistic  Campaign,  enlarging  the 
parish  of  each  church,  churches  undertaking  the  support  of  evangelistic 
workers;  through  greater  interest  on  the  part  of  each  member  in  the 
Home  Missions,  The  National  Missionary  Society  and  through  taking 
over  definite  evangelistic  work  from  the  Mission. 

Nevertheless  it  is  our  conviction  that  machinery,  however  good,  is 
not  sufficient  without  the  energizing  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and 
that  it  is  not  by  might  nor  by  power,  but  by  the  "Spirit  of  God"  that  the 
co-operation  of  Church  and  Mission  will  be  harmonious  and  fruitful  in 
the  evangelization  of  India  and  the  building  up  of  Christians  in  character 
and  service.  Hence  we  would  put  the  emphasis  upon  the  need  on  the 
part  of  both  the  Church  and  the  Mission  (1)  of  realizing  more  fully  the 
nature  and  magnitude  of  the  common  task,  and  (2)  the  need  of  the  deep- 
ening of  the  spiritual  life  of  all  the  members  of  Church  and  Mission. 

(6)  We  believe  that  positions  of  responsibility  in  the  conduct  and 
government  of  the  Indian  Church  and  in  committees  of  the  same  in  Ses- 
sion, Presbytery,  Synod  and  General  Assembly  should  be  so  far  as  pos- 
sible in  the  hands  of  Indians,  the  missionaries  heartily  co-operating  with 
these  officers  in  every  way  possible. 

(7)  We  believe  that  the  work  now  carried  on  by  the  Mission,  es- 
pecially evangelistic  and  pastoral  work,  should  be  transferred  gradually 
to  the  Church  as  they  have  qualified  and  capable  men  available  to 
superintend  and  direct  the  work,  and  as  they  furnish  a  fair  proportion  of 
the  cost  of  carrying  on  and  developing  this  work.  In  this  matter  greater 
emphasis  should  be  laid  upon  the  securing  and  developing  of  Indian 
leaders,  as  we  believe  that  this  is  at  the  present  time  the  greatest  need 
of  the  Indian  Church. 

The  following  definite  proposals  were  approved  and  recommended  to 
the  consideration  of  the  Presbytery  and  Mission: — 

Part  II 
General  Recommendations 
(a)  The  City  Church 
(I)      The  relationship  between   the   pastor,   session   and  missionaries 
should  be  that  of  the  fullest  and  heartiest  co-operation,   (a)   Missionaries 
on   their   part  should  attend  the   Church,  co-operate   in   every   possible 
way  with   the  pastor,   session   and   congregation   and   assist  both   sym- 
pathetically  and    actively   whenever    possible    in    all    efforts   and    work 
undertaken  by  them.     They  should,  however,  keep  in  the  back  ground 
giving  prominence  to  the  pastor  and  session  and  avoiding  all  unnecessary 
interference,      (b)    The  pastor  and  session  on  their  part  should   make 

624 


full  use  of  the  missionary's  outlook  and  experience  and  should  confer 
with  him  and  seek  his  help  as  need  arises. 

(II)  In  order  to  develop  a  self-propagating  and  self-supporting 
Church :  — 

(1)  The  Church  should  be  magnified  and  every  effort  should  be 
made  to  have  the  men  and  women  of  the  congregation  become  members 
and  not  attendants  only.  The  Church  should  also  through  the  Sunday 
School,  Bible  Classes,  Christian  Endeavor,  Mission  Study  Classes,  etc., 
and  also  through  the  efforts  of  both  pastor  and  session,  seek  to  train 
each  member  of  the  Church  in  the  development  of  Christian  character 
and  in  preparing  them  to  engage  in  the  various  forms  of  Christian 
service. 

(2)  If  possible,  the  City  Church  should  enlarge  its  parish  and  be 
responsible  for  all  villages  and  communities  within  a  definite  radius,  say, 
3  to  5  miles.  It  should  enlist  the  co-operation  of  as  many  lay-members 
as  possible  in  this  work. 

(3)  For  this  work  the  Churches  in  addition  to  the  above  might  also 
undertake  the  support  of  one  or  more  workers,  they  to  be  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  session  and  to  report  through  them  to  the  congregation  and 
Presbytery.  It  is  to  be  understood,  however,  that  this  work  is  not  in  any 
way  to  interfere  with  or  take  the  place  of  the  contributions  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  Home  Mission  Work. 

(4)  Through  Campaigns  and  special  evangelistic  efforts  as  well  as 
through  definite  organization  for  steady,  continuous  work,  seek  to  get 
every  member  of  the  Church  interested  and  working  in  some  definite 
form  of  Christian  service   (evangelistic,  educational  and  social  service). 

The  object  of  these  recommendations  is  to  develop  the  evangelistic  or 
missionary  spirit  in  the  Indian  Church  and  to  give  each  congregation 
definite  work  it  can  do. 

(5)  Seek  to  make  the  congTegation  realize  through  bringing  them 
into  closer  touch  with  the  Home  Mission  Work  by  means  of  sermons, 
reports,  visitation,  etc.,  that  this  indigenous  missionary  work  and  the 
workers  supported  by  them  are  their  work  and  part  of  their  contribu- 
tion to  the  evangelization  of  India. 

Congregations  might  also  assume  the  support  of  certain  Home  Mission 
workers  or  even  of  stations   (see  also  IIIc). 

(6)  As  an  aid  to  securing  the  above  results,  seek  to  train  the  Church 
in  giving,  and  endeavor  to  have  each  Christian  give  a  definite  proportion 
of  his  income  to  the  Church  and  other  Christian  work. 

(7)  An  intimate  acquaintance  should  exist  between  the  District  Su- 
perintendent and  the  City  Church  and  every  effort  should  be  made  to 
interest  the  Church  in  this  village  work. 

Part  II 
(6)   The  Village  Church 

(1)  From  the  beginning  train  one  or  more  Christians  to  conduct 
simple  services  of  worship  in  each  village,  where  there  are  Christians. 

(2)  Have  at  least  partial  organization  (panchayat)  as  soon  as  can 
be  arranged. 

(3)  From  the  beginning  lay  the  responsibility  of  evangelism  upon 
each  Christian.  Have  them  bring  their  families  and  relatives.  See  that 
they  get  hold  of  at  least  one  simple,  but  effective  evangelistic  message 
for  use  among  their  non-Christian  neighbors. 

(4)  Urge  upon  each  preacher  that  his  most  important  work  is  the 
teaching  and  training  of  the  Christians  to  become  full  members  of  the 

626 


Church.     Also   the   selecting   and   training   of   leading   men    to    become 
elders  and  leaders  in  the  Church  and  community. 

(5)  As  soon  as  the  people  have  thus  been  taught  and  trained,  tx)  or- 
ganize the  Church  and  further  train  in  self-preparation,  self-develop- 
ment, self-support  and  self-government.  This  in  order  to  link  the  work 
with  the  Presbytery  and  not  with  the  Mission. 

(6)  Present  the  Scriptural  basis  of  tithing.  Develop  in  self-support 
and  missionary  giving.  Let  the  people  know  what  their  money  is  being 
used  for.  Set  definite  objects  before  them  and  lead  them  on  to  under- 
take great  things  for  the  advancement  of  Christ's  Kingdom. 

(7)  Give  special  attention  to  the  women  and  the  young  people. 

Part  III 

Specific  Recommendations 
(a)     Representation  of  the  Church  in  the  Missiori. 
In  order  to  secure  the  fulleri  co-operation  between  the  Church  and  the 
Mission: — 

(1)  Have  an  adequate  representation  of  qualified  Indians  on  the 
Departmental  Committees  of  the  Mission. 

(2)  Select  six  representatives  to  represent  the  Indian  Church  on 
the  floor  of  the  Mission.  These  men  to  have  the  right  to  speak  on  every 
question  and  also  the  right  to  vote.  Each  Presbytery  should  at  the  be- 
ginning submit  the  names  of  six  men  to  the  mission  from  the  member- 
ship of  the  churches  within  its  bounds.  After  the  scheme  has  come 
into  co-operation,  each  Presbytery  should  submit  two  names  each  year 
to  the  Mission.  From  among  the  12  names  thus  submitted  the  Mission 
should  select  six.  At  least  half  of  the  representatives  finally  selected 
by  the  Mission  should  be  Presbyterian  laymen,  not  necessarily  members 
of  the  Presbytery. 

The  term  to  be  for  three  years,  one  representative  retiring  each  year, 
but  eligible  for  re-election.  No  representative  should  serve  for  more 
than  two  terms  in  succession. 

(6)      Representatioyi  of  the  Mission  in  the  Presbyteries. 

Although  the  constitution  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  India  does 
not  permit  the  adoption  of  a  scheme  for  the  representation  of  the  Mis- 
sion in  the  Presbytery,  similar  to  that  of  the  proposed  representation 
of  the  Presbytery  in  the  Mission,  (see  III  a-2)  nor  does  such  a  with- 
drawal of  missionaries  seem  wise  at  present,  yet  we  feel  strongly  that 
the  courts  of  the  Church  should  in  time  be  entirely,  or  at  least  largely 
Indian,  that  the  foreigner's  influence  and  power  should  decrease,  es- 
pecially in  the  Presbytery  Offices,  and  that  measures  should  gradually 
be  formulated  toward  that  end  and  other  positions  of  responsibility  in 
the  Presbytery  should  be  in  the  hands  of  Indians  as  far  as  possible  and 
every  effort  should  be  made  to  develop  a  strong,  capable  self-reliant 
Indian  leadership.  Our  conviction  in  this  matter  of  missionaries  re- 
maining in  the  Presbyteries  for  the  present  has  been  strengthened  by 
the  fact  that  certain  Presbyteries  as  well  as  considerable  correspondence 
with  leading  Indian  Christians  makes  it  very  clear  that  the  entire  or 
partial  withdrawal  of  the  missionary  element  from  the  Presbytery  at 
the  present  time  would  not  be  to  the  best  interest  of  the  Church. 

(c)      Inter-Relation  of  the  Church  and  the  Mission. 

In  order  to  lay  larger  responsibilities  on  the  Indian  Church,  provide 
a  larger  sphere  for  its  activities  and  develop  an  Indian  leadership,  we 
recommend  to  the  Mission  the  adoption  of  the  following: — 

(1)  The  Presbytery  as  soon  as  possible  to  take  over  all  pastoral 
work,  both  City  and  Village,  and  seek  in  every  way  to  train  and  develop 

626 


the  Christians  in  Christian  character  and  service.      (See  also  General 
Recommendations  under  II  A.  and  II  B.)- 

(2)  That  as  soon  as  qualified  and  capable  Indian  leaders  are  available 
to  superintend  and  direct  the  w^ork  of  a  district,  and  the  Indian  Church 
is  willing  to  assume  the  responsibility,  the  Mission  transfer  districts  or 
portions  of  districts,  subject  to  the  following-  conditions: — 

(a)  The  work  to  be  placed  under  the  control  of  a  Committee  to  be 
called  the  Punjab  Presbyterial  Evangelistic  Board.  This  Board  shall 
consist  of  9  members,  3  of  whom  shall  be  elected  by  the  Ludhiana  Pres- 
bytery, 3  by  the  Lahore  Presbytery  and  3  shall  be  representatives  of  the 
Mission.  This  proportion  to  continue  until  the  Indian  Church  shall  con- 
tribuate  one-third  of  the  cost  of  the  work,  after  which  each  Presbytery 
shall  be  entitled  to  4  representatives,  the  total  number  of  members  then 
being  11.  When  the  Church  contributes  one-half  of  the  cost,  each  Pres- 
bytery shall  be  entitled  to  5  representatives,  the  Mission  representa- 
tion decreasing  to  2  making  a  total  of  12.  When  the  Church  contributes 
two-thirds  of  the  total  cost,  the  Mission  shall  cease  to  be  represented  on 
the  Committee  and  the  Presbyteries  shall  assume  entire  control.  At  least 
half  of  the  total  number  of  Presbyterial  representatives  shall  be  laymen, 
and  they  should  all  be  men  taking  a  keen  interest  in  the  Church  and  pos- 
sessing the  necessary  education  and  experience.  In  our  opinion  the  men 
selected  as  the  representatives  of  the  Presbytery  to  the  Mission  would  be 
specially  qualified  for  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  this  Board, 
except  in  the  case  of  workers  employed  by  this  Board  who  shall  not  be 
eligible  for  membership. 

(b)  The  Mission  to  transfer  the  work  of  districts  or  portions  of 
districts  to  this  Board,  and  to  give  it  a  grant  equal  to  the  appropriations 
now  given  by  the  Mission  Board  in  America  under  the  silver  classes 
exclusive  of  class  VIII;  provided  the  Indian  Church  is  prepared  (1)  to 
make  itself  responsible  for  the  salary  of  the  Indian  Missionary  who  shall 
superintend  and  direct  the  work  (2)  to  maintain  the  work  up  to  its 
present  strength  and  efficiency,  and  (3)  to  make  every  possible  effort  to 
secure  further  support  from  the  Church  so  as  to  relieve  the  Mission, 
and  thus  to  ultimately  make  the  work  entirely  self-supporting.  The 
grant  shall  not  under  any  circumstances  be  increased,  the  Indian  Church 
being  not  only  expected  to  raise  additional  funds  for  the  expansion  of 
the  work  but  also  to  take  all  possible  steps  to  reduce  the  amount  of 
money  received  from  the  Mission  and  to  make  the  work  in  time  entirely 
self-supporting.  After  each  period  of  3  years  this  Board  shall  report 
to  the  Presbyteries  and  the  Mission  the  progress  of  this  work,  both  as 
regards  its  growth  and  development  and  its  financial  support. 

(c)  The  Board  shall  have  full  control  of  the  work  transferred  to  it, 
and  shall  have  power  to  open  new  stations;  but  not  to  close  old  ones 
except  in  consultation  with  the  Mission,  to  establish  schools  and  other 
institutions,  to  employ  workers,  to  transfer  and  to  dismiss  them,  and  to 
fix  their  salaries  and  allowance,  proxaded  these  do  not  exceed  the  scale 
obtaining  in  the  Mission.  Should  it  be  necessary  to  increase  salaries 
and  allowances,  the  Board  shall  act  in  consultation  with  the  Mission. 

(d)  Property  shall  be  held  as  heretofore  in  the  name  of  the  Board 
of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  and 
shall  be  subject  to  the  same  rules  as  in  the  Mission.  Noi  alterations  or 
additions  shall  be  made,  and  no  new  building  erected  without  the  ap- 
proval of  the  Property  Committee  of  the  Mission.  This  Mission  property 
shall  be  held  on  lease  by  this  Board,  the  Board  paying  a  nominal  rent 
to  the  Mission  for  its  uses.     Churches,  however,  and  Schools  and  other 

627 


buildings  erected  and  other  property  purchased  from  funds  furnished 
by  the  Indian  Church  shall  be  registered  in  the  name  of  the  Presbytery. 

(e)  The  Board  shall  prepare  an  annual  report  of  its  work  and  sub- 
mit it  to  the  Presbyteries  and  to  the  Mission.  This  report  shall  include 
a  statement  of  income  and  expenditure  during  the  year.  It  shall  also 
prepare  estimates  with  full  details  for  the  coming  year  and  submit 
them  to  the  Mission  to  be  forwarded  to  the  Mission  Board  in  America. 
The  total  amount  asked  from  the  Mission  Board  in  America  shall  not 
exceed  the  total  of  the  appropriation  now  received  from  the  Foreign 
Mission  Board  for  the  work  of  such  districts.  No  reduction  shall  be 
made  in  the  appropriation  by  the  Mission  except  in  the  case  of  a  cut 
from  the  Mission  Board  in  America  which  the  districts  placed  under  the 
control  of  the  Committee  shall  share  proportionally  with  the  Mission. 

(/)  This  Board  shall  serve  as  an  intermediary  between  the  Church 
and  the  Mission  to  study  and  discuss  the  work  and  relation  of  the 
Mission  and  the  Church,  all  policies,  methods  and  advance  work,  all 
strengthening  and  development  of  evangelistic  and  educational  work,  the 
development  and  strengthening  of  the  Church,  as  regards  its  propaga- 
tion, development,  self-support  and  self-government  and  to  report  their 
findings  and  recommendations  to  both  the  Presbyteries  and  the  Mission. 

3.  We  also  suggest  that  evangelistic  work  of  the  Indian  Church 
would  be  better  unified  and  strengthened  if  the  Home  Mission  work  of 
both  Presbyteries  were  brought  under  the  control  of  the  Board  mentioned 
above.     We  suggest  this  to  the  Presbyteries  for  the  following  reasons : — 

(a)  The  confusion  resulting  from  having  so  many  committees  in 
Presbytery  controlling  pastoral  and  evangelistic  work. 

(b)  The  confusion  in  the  minds  of  the  members  of  the  Indian  Church 
as  well  as  to  the  Mission  Board  in  America  of  being  asked  to  give  money 
to  several  committees  doing  the  same  work. 

(c)  It  will  serve  to  bring  the  forward  work  of  the  two  Presbyteries 
under  one  common  control  resulting  in  fuller  co-operation  of  the  Pres- 
byteries, greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  work  of  both. 

(d)  It  would  serve  to  relate  the  work  more  vitally  to  the  Church 
enabling  the  members  to  know  more  about  the  work,  through  the  Board's 
reports,  etc. 

(e)  It  would  do  away  with  all  unnecessary  multiplication  of  organi- 
zation, expense  and  waste  of  time  and  effort. 

4.  We  also  recommend  that  the  Mission  arrange  each  year  through 
the  Language  School  or  elsewhere  some  definite  instruction  for  new 
missionaries  regarding  their  relation  to  the  Indian  Church  and  to  Indian 
Christians. 

IV.  Resolved,  That  this  whole  plan  be  re-considered  after  a  period 
of  six  years  to  determine  such  matters  as  alterations,  further  advance 
or  even  of  abolition.         . 

(Sd.)     W.  J.  McKee,  Secretary 


APPENDIX  II 

18,  Clive  Road, 
Allahabad,  15th  June,  1920 
To  R.  E.  Speer,  Esq.,  D.D.,  Secretary,  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  Pres- 
byterian  Church  of  United   States  of  America,   156  Fifth  Avenue 
Street,  New  York. 
Dear  Dr.  Speer. 

I  am  forwarding  to  vou  a  letter,  the  joint  production  of  a  few  of  us, 
members  of  the  Indian  Presbyterian  Church,  under  the  Presbytery  of 

628 


Allahabad.  You  will  not,  I  am  sure,  be  surprised  to  get  a  communication 
from  us  on  a  subject  of  such  vital  importance  as  "The  Relation  of  the 
Mission  to  the  Church." 

I  should  mention  that  the  joint  letter  was  a  second  thought.  I  had 
corresponded  individually  with  a  missionary  friend  of  the  North-India 
Mission  on  the  subject,  and  with  our  greatly  respected  Dr.  Ewing  of 
Lahore.  The  latter  suggested  my  forwarding  to  you  these  letters,  as  his 
letter  to  me,  a  copy  of  which  I  am  enclosing  herewith,  will  show.  But 
we  thought  that  a  formal  statement  on  the  subject  will  be  more  in  place 
on  a  question  of  such  magnitude.  Hence  the  present  shape  of  the  com- 
munication to  you. 

We  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  canvass  in  our  Presbytery  for 
more  signatures  to  our  letter,  as  every  one  conversant  with  the  situation 
will  know  that  in  our  sentiments  we  do  not  merely  represent  ourselves, 
but  the  whole  Church  in  India.  For  the  same  reasons,  we  have  not  felt 
the  need  of  formally  or  informally  approaching'  members  of  our  sister 
Presbytery  of  Farrukhabad  on  the  matter.  I  should  like  to  mention 
that  though  the  joint  letter  has  not  been  submitted  to  the  missionaries 
of  the  North-India  Mission  for  approval,  yet  I  need  hardly  say  that 
some  of  them  at  least  will  agree  with  its  main  features,  e.  y.  the  veteran 
missionary  in  our  Presbytery,  who  will  be  completing  next  December  the 
fiftieth  year  of  missionary  life — I  am  referring  to  our  Dr.  J.  J.  Lucas 
— and  who  has  been  for  over  thirty  years  urging  a  radical  change  as 
to  the  mission  policy. 

I  should  add  that  we  are  sending  a  copy  of  this  letter  to  the  members 
of  your  North-India  and  the  Punjab  Missions,  and  also  to  some  members 
of  the  other  missions  in  our  country.  We  are  also  sending  it  to  the  Press. 
The  deliberations  of  some  of  the  other  missions,  e.  g.  the  Church  of 
England  Missions,  have  been  published  in  full,  and  it  is  nothing  but 
proper  that  we  should  let  them  see  what  progress  we  are  making  in  the 
matter.  Canon  Davies  of  the  C.  M.  S.  (Principal,  St.  John's  College, 
Agra)  in  a  letter  to  me  about  their  projected  advance  in  this  matter, 
wrote: — "I  hope  that  real  progress  and  wise  progress  will  be  made  by 
all  missions  in  this  very  vital  matter."  The  sentence  was  striking  not 
only  as  a  testimony  to  the  oneness  of  spirit  necessary,  but  also  to  the 
oneness  of  the  problem  facing  different  bodies.  It  is  in  this  belief  that 
we  have  taken  this  step.  Our  earnest  hope  is  that  this  little  effort  of 
ours  might  be  used  for  the  common  cause  even  through  its  many  imper- 
fections and  mistakes.  And  it  is  in  this  hope  that  we  have  ventured  to 
approach  you  and  your  Board  on  this  subject  of  moment.  I  should  men- 
tion that  the  italics  in  the  quotations  are  ours. 

With  every  good  wish,  I  remain. 

Yours  sincerely, 

N.   K.   MUKERJI 


APPENDIX   III 

Allahabad,  U.  P.,    (India), 
15th  June,  1920 
To  R.  E.  Speer,  Esq.,  D.D.,  Secretary,  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  Pres- 
byterian  Church  of  United   States  of  America,   156  Fifth   Avenue 
Street,  New  York,  U.  S.  A. 
Dear  Sir. 

We,  the  undersigned  members  of  the  Indian  Presbyterian  Church,  feel 
constrained  to  address  you  on  the  question  of  the  relation  of  the  Mission 
to  the  Church.     The  seriousness  of  the  situation  confronting  us  is  our 

629 


only  apolo^  for  doing  it.  In  expressing  ourselves  on  the  matter  we 
feel  we  are  faithfully  voicing  the  sentiments  of  our  Church  and  our 
people. 

The  present  policy  of  isolating  the  Mission  and  the  Church  and  keep- 
ing them  apart  from  each  other,  has  resulted  in  such  friction  and  misun- 
derstanding as  practically  to  paralyze  all  mission  work  and  retard  the 
growth  of  the  Church  in  India.  There  is  not  a  single  mission  station 
in  India  which  does  not  bear  testimony  to  this  unfortunate  state  of 
things,  and  missionaries  and  Indian  Christians  are  at  one  in  regretting 
it.  It  is,  further,  a  cause  of  offence  to  the  non-Christian  who  sees  in 
it  the  failure  of  practical  Christianity.  We  appreciate  the  motive  which 
dictated  the  present  policy — a  desire  not  to  pauperize  the  Indian  Church, 
and  hinder  its  development  by  putting  the  Mission  in  the  place  of  the 
Church.  But,  by  an  irony  of  fate,  it  has  been  perverted  from  its  true 
ends  and  has  succeeded  in  achieving  what  it  set  out  to  avert,  viz.,  the 
hindering  of  the  growth  of  the  Church. 

It  is  a  case  where  attendant  events  seem  to  be  too  great  for  "policy," 
and  have  provided  it  with  a  setting  which  has  given  it  a  very  different 
meaning  from  what  it  was  meant  for.  The  outstanding  menace  of  the 
world  today  is  the  possibility  of  a  conflict  between  Asia  and  Europe, 
or  the  East  and  the  West — a  conflict  between  the  white  and  the  yellow 
races.  The  religion  of  Christ,  in  theory,  is  the  solvent  of  this  racial 
strife,  but  in  practice,  it  will  be  dependent  on  the  institutions  of  Chris- 
tianity and  its  presentation  as  these  are  to  be  met  with  in  life.  Any 
presentation  of  Christ,  or  any  expression  of  the  Christian  life  in  insti- 
tutions which  are  rooted  in  a  narrow  individualism,  will  only  intensify 
this  racial  strife,  fail  to  furnish  the  Christian  corrective,  play  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy,  and  hasten  on  the  day  of  destruction.  This  is  just 
what  we  venture  to  think  has  happened  with  the  present  policy  of  isolat- 
ing the  Mission  and  the  Church  from  each  other.  It  has  preached  "self- 
help"  and  "self-determination"  to  the  Indian  Church,  but  has  failed  to 
observe  a  just  balance,  by  forgetting  that  in  life  there  is  such  a  thing 
also  as  "other-help"  and  "other-determination."  The  response  in  the 
Indian  Church  of  this  teaching  has  been  a  fierce  resentment  against  the 
foreign  missionary  and  the  foreign  missions,  a  determination  to  have  as 
little  to  do  with  them  as  possible,  and  boycott  him  and  his  work.  This 
policy  has  made  mission  work  of  all  grades  a  by-word  and  reproach,  and 
has  practically  emptied  our  theological  classes  and  has  created  a  deep- 
rooted  aversion  in  our  young  men  against  entering  whole-time  Christian 
work. 

This  unfortunate  situation  has  not  been  without  its  redeeming  fea- 
tures. It  is  true,  it  has  roused  a  passion  for  lay  service  amongst  us, 
deepened  our  responsibility  for  self-support  and  self-extension,  the  out- 
standing illustration  of  the  latter  being  the  founding  of  the  National 
Missionary  Society  of  India,  and  given  an  impetus  to  our  desire  for  an 
Indian  Church.  But  the  tragedy  of  Indian  Church  life  consists  in  this 
that  the  more  seriously  we  have  grappled  with  the  problem  of  evangeliz- 
ing our  country,  the  more  thoroughly  we  have  realized  how  utterly  im- 
possible it  is  for  the  Indian  Church  alone  to  accomplish  it,  as  it  is  for 
Missions  to  achieve  it  single-handed,  and  that  the  only  hope  lies  in  a 
coalescing  of  the  forces  of  the  Church  and  the  Mission  and  a  consequent 
fusion  of  their  organizations.  But  right  here  we  are  met  by  the  ring- 
fence  of  "policy"  which,  in  the  name  of  the  interests  of  the  Church,  shuts 
the  Indian  out  from  the  councils  of  missions  and  control  of  its  funds.  To 
accept  mission  work,  with  these  bars  against  us,  "for  the  sake  of  Christ," 

630 


as  we  are  enjoined  by  our  missionary  friends  to  do,  would  not  only  be 
sinning  against  our  national  self-respect  but  giving  a  distorted  inter- 
pretation of  Christ  to  India,  and  doing  a  disservice  to  our  Lord  and 
Country.  It  will  be  a  treason  alike  to  both,  and  we  dare  not  be  a  party 
to  it. 

We  do  not  think  we  are  using  exaggerated  language  when  we  say  that 
the  anomalies  and  indignities  of  the  present  situation  are  too  great  for 
any  self-respecting  people  to  bear,  let  alone  higher  considerations  of  the 
Christian  ethic.  To  numerate  all  the  disabilities  would  be  a  long  and 
woeful  tale  to  unfold,  but  we  shall  run  over  some  of  the  salient  points 
in  brief. 

(1)  We  have,  under  this  system,  the  Mission  and  not  the  Church 
legislating  about  Mass-Movement  methods.  This  process  has  been  hast- 
ened on,  in  our  Presbyteries,  by  the  missionaries,  whose  work  has  been 
made  a  subject  of  adverse  criticism  by  missionaries  and  Indian  members 
alike,  developing  a  tendency  to  withdraw  themselves  from  membership 
with  us.  The  Church  is  ultimately  the  body  responsible  for  these  meth- 
ods, for  she  has  not  only  to  assimilate  the  innumerable  converts  which 
are  being  swept  into  the  fold  by  this  work,  but  her  very  rites  and  cere- 
monials (as  Dr.  Griswold's  very  able  paper  on  "Non-Christian  Rites  and 
Institutions,  and  their  Christian  Equivalents"  indicates)  are  being 
changed  and  modified  by  it.  Yet,  by  virtue  of  this  present  policy  of  di- 
vision, there  is  no  means  of  making  the  two  bodies  concerned — the 
Church  and  Mission — move  together  on  this  grave  question,  and  a  dead- 
lock is  the  result. 

(2)  This  system  is  also  responsible  for  a  Board  Secretary  coming 
out  from  America  to  decide  on  important  mission  matters,  conferring 
only  with  mi.ssionaHes,  and  ending  up  by  straying  into  the  province  of 
the  Church  and  making  recommendations  vitally  affecting  it.  The  con- 
ferring only  with  missionaries  was  significant.  Speaking  of  a  needed 
change  in  the  mission  policy,  Sir  Andrew  Fraser  wrote: — "Societies  at 
home  should  get  into  touch  with  one  another  on  this  subject;  but  they 
cannot  frame  their  policy  except  in  consultation  with  the  men  who  are 
carrying  out  the  work  on  the  spot,  and  the  men  who  are  carrying  out 
the  work  on  the  spot  are  not  only  the  missionaries  and  the  mission  coun- 
cils, but  also  the  leaders  and  representative  members  of  the  Indian. 
Church"  {International  Review  of  Missions,  Vol.  VII,  No.  25,  page  83).  A 
truncated  "policy"  was  responsible  for  the  omission  of  the  second  head 
of  this  advice  of  a  tried  Indian  administrator,  himself  long  an  Elder, 
and  a  Moderator  of  the  Indian  Presbyterian  Church,  and  well  conversant 
with  Church  and  Mission  conditions. 

Another  illustration  of  the  same  type  is  furnished  by  the  "June  1920 
Conference"  in  New  York,  which  also  supinely  ignores  Indian  repre- 
sentation, though  decisions  vitally  affecting  the  Indian  Church  and 
Missions  in  India  are  expected  to  be  arrived  at  in  it. 

(3)  This  system  also  has  presented  us  with  the  spectacle  of  our  col- 
lege men  being  vehemently  urged  to  enter  mission  service  when  there 
is  in  reality  no  place  for  them  in  the  Mission.  Appeals,  under  such  con- 
ditions, become  a  solemn  farce,  and  do  more  injury  than  good  to  the  in- 
terests of  true  religion. 

(4)  This  system  has  also  given  us,  in  the  North-India  Mission,  a 
solitary  Indian  appointed  to  missionary  rank,  one  who  holds  this  position 
more  by  sufferance  than  by  right,  and  which  is  hedged  round  by  disa- 
bilities which  are  humiliating  and  which  come  in  the  way  of  a  man's 
doing  his  best  work.    For  the  fullest  co-operation  is  only  possible  xvhere 

631 


there  is  perfect  equality,  and  any  rankling  feeling  of  unequal  treatment 
is  fatal  to  it.  Social  good-fellowship,  of  a  sort,  we  have  between  mis- 
sionaries and  Indian  Christians,  and  sometimes  plenty  of  it  from  some 
quarters,  but  such  is  the  contrariety  of  the  situation  that  such  fellow- 
ship instead  of  covering,  helps  to  expose  more  the  inequalities  of  the 
situation.  For  a  fellowship  which  stops  at  social  functions  and  does 
not  extend  to  fellowship  in  office  adds  but  insult  to  injury  to  the  ag- 
grieved party. 

We  have  to  remember  that  an  organization,  whatever  justification  it 
might  have  had  when  we  were,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  subject 
people,  is  not  only  out  of  place,  but  positively  harmful  now,  when  we  are 
coming  to  be  regarded  in  practice,  as  well  as  in  theory,  "the  King's  equal 
subjects."  What  the  State  has  conceded  to  us  the  Church  cannot  with- 
hold. If  we  are  told  that  it  is  to  our  interest  that  it  should  be  so,  we 
have  difficulty  in  believing  it,  especially  our  younger  men,  when  the  same 
argument  was  used  in  the  State  and  has  been  found  out-grown. 

All  this,  however,  leads  us  to  the  central  argument  in  the  question: 
the  argument  that  only  those  who  contribute  the  money  should  have 
control  over  it.  We  cannot  accept  this  as  a  formal  principle  of  universal 
application,  when  there  are  exceptions  to  this  rule  to  be  found  all  around 
us.  We  have,  as  the  most  outstanding  exception,  a  fact  which  touches 
every  day  the  lives,  in  so  many  ways,  of  the  millions  of  India — we  mean 
the  stewardship  of  Great  Britain  over  us.  We  will  challenge  a  declara- 
tion on  this  point:  whether  this  has  not  been  a  case  of  wise  use,  on  the 
whole,  of  other  peoples'  money.  The  fact  is  that  it  depends  on  the 
character  of  the  people  entrusted  with  this  use.  Your  people.  Sir,  have, 
we  feel,  a  doctrinaire  hold  of  this  principle,  and  however  different  and 
wide-removed  other  questions  might  seem — like  that  of  "mandates"  for 
example — your  position  on- all  these  is  of  a  piece,  as  we  hope  to  show 
later.  Before  there  can  be  a  change  of  policy,  we  have  to  have  a  changed 
view  of  life  in  your  people. 

As  to  the  application  of  this  principle  to  the  Church  in  India,  we  admit 
freely  that  there  might  have  been  conditions  present  in  the  early  days 
which  justified  it.  We  admit  also  that  in  early  Indian  Christian  thought 
there  was  present  too  much  a  consciousness  of  the  paternal  theory  of 
missions.  But  what  we,  as  strongly,  assert  is  that  in  our  evolution  we 
have  left  that  stage  behind ;  that  the  newly  awakened  national  conscious- 
ness of  our  people  has  provided  the  antidote  to  it;  and  that  this  feeling 
of  self-respect  has  come  to  stay  in  the  country  and  will  increasingly 
grow  inside  the  Church,  as  we  get  more  and  more  converts  from  the 
higher  classes — men  who  have  not  been  brought  up  on  mission  money 
from  their  childhood  upwards — and  could  be  trusted,  with  adequate 
safeguards  in  the  mission  constitution,  to  preserve  us  effectually  from 
a  lapse  into  a  condition  where  financial  control  over  other  peoples' 
money  might  be  a  source  of  danger.  We  believe  that,  with  the  changed 
conditions  in  our  national  characteristics,  we  shall  have  a  situation 
where  we  will  not  rest  till  the  Indian  end  of  the  contribution — in  men 
and  money — outweighs  the  foreign,  and  India  takes  her  proper  share 
in  the  evangelization  of  her  own  people.  But  towards  this  consummation 
we  cannot  bend  all  our  energies,  so  long  as  the  relation  between  the 
Mission  and  the  Church  is  not  righted,  and  the  energies  which  should 
be  saved  for  constructive  effort  dissipated — on  both  sides — in  mutual 
recrimination,  and  mere  destructive  criticism  of  each  other.  We  may 
mention  here  that  as  a  part  of  the  plan  to  fuse  the  Mission  in  the  Church, 
we  shall  heartily  support  a  measure,  to  get  the  Indian  Church  from  the 

632 


outset  to  take  its  rightful  share — a  share  which  should  increasingly 
grow  and  make  itself  felt — in  the  financial  burdens  of  the  missionary 
enterprise. 

We  trust  we  shall  not  be  taken  as  invertebrates,  or  parasites,  in  plead- 
ing for  a  closer  union  of  the  Church  and  the  Mission.  It  is  not  the  line 
of  least  resistance  for  us.  That  lies  the  other  way,  viz.,  in  making  the 
Church  break  off  entirely  from  the  Mission  and  Western  Christianity, 
and  stand  on  its  solitary  resources.  We  have  had  instances  of  it  in  the 
past,  as  in  the  "Khristo  Samaj"  of  the  early  days  of  the  late  Kali 
Charan  Banerji, — a  position,  however,  from  which  he  retracted  long- 
before  his  life's  close — and  the  volcano  is  still  active  underground  and 
ready  to  erupt  on  provocation  offered.  But  we  are  convinced  that  our 
peace  does  not  lie  that  way;  that  it  will  be  a  calamity  to  the  Indian 
Church,  and  through  it  to  Asia  and  the  world,  if  it  were  to  lose  the  note 
of  catholicity  in  the  midst  of  nationality.  We  wish  to  emphasize  the 
lesson  which  the  political  situation  in  India  and  the  East,  in  general, 
has  for  us  in  the  Church.  It  is  a  fascinating  cry,  that  of  "India  for  the 
Indians."  But  it  is  not  consistent  with  the  whole  truth.  India  is  for 
the  Empire  as  well,  and  for  the  world.  With  the  cry  of  "India  for  the 
hidians"  goes  also  "passive  resistance"  or  "Satyagraha"  or  "the  policy 
of  non-co-operation,"  as  it  is  called,  and  an  individualistic  view  of  life, 
which  has  no  place  for  a  commonwealth  of  nations  and  the  common  good. 
By  isolating  the  Mission  and  the  Church  we  fondly  think  that  we  are 
strengthening  the  Church.  But  we  are  raising,  perhaps,  a  spirit  which 
we  shall  not  be  able  to  lay.  By  refusing  to  fuse  the  Mission  and  the 
Church  we  shall  soon  enough  have  a  National  Church,  but  one  which 
will  give  us  a  distorted  view  of  Christ,  and  instead  of  being  a  messenger 
of  good-will  will  be  a  stirrer  up  of  strife. 

As  a  result  of  the  situation  we  have  sought  to  envisage,  we  feel  we 
should  press  on  you,  with  all  the  earnestness  at  our  command,  to  take 
up  the  question  with  your  Board  of  revising  the  present  relation  between 
the  Mission  and  the  Church.  We  are  further  emboldened  in  this  view 
by  noticing  the  changes  which  have  been  coming  over  other  missionary 
societies,  changes  in  consonance  with  our  ideas.  We  note,  also,  with 
gratification  that  the  recommendations  of  the  Edinburgh  Continuation 
Committee  Conferences  followed  the  same  lines,  when  it  was  urged  that 
Indians  should  be  put  "on  a  footing  of  complete  equality,  in  status  and 
responsibility,  with  Europeans"  and  that  "Churches  and  Missions  should 
open  for  Indians  the  highest  and  most  responsible  positions  in  every  de- 
partment of  missionary  activity,"  and  that  positions  in  the  mission  field 
should  be  related  to  the  Churches.  We  are  giving  in  an  appendix  to 
this  letter  the  advance  recorded,  of  late,  in  this  direction  by  missions, 
and  a  few  brief  suggestions  of  ours  towards  a  solution  of  the  problem. 

While  changes  are  sweeping  over  other  missionary  societies,  we,  who 
have  learned  to  appreciate  American  ideals,  should  not  like  to  see  an 
American  Mission  lag  behind  in  its  thought  and  practice.  We  realize 
to  some  extent  the  historical  reasons  and  the  national  characteristics 
which  are  responsible  for  the  present  policy.  Like  other  countries  and 
other  peoples,  your  people  suffer  from  the  defects  of  their  virtues. 
American  Christianity  suffers  from  an  excess  of  Protestantism.  "The 
dissidence  of  dissent"  marks  its  Christian  life  conspicuously,  it  having 
largely  sprung  from  extreme  forms  of  Protestantism.  The  individualis- 
tic view  of  life  comes  to  it  uppermost  therefore,  a  supreme  exhibition 
of  which  we  have  in  your  Monroe  Doctrine,  and  the  present  withdrawal 
of  America  from  the  responsibilities  following  the  war.     With  such  pro- 

633 


nounced  individualism,  it  was  no  surprise  therefore  that  we  should  have 
the  total  isolation  of  the  Mission  and  the  Church,  and  a  failure  to  realize 
how  the  best  interests  of  both  would  be  served  not  in  mutual  isolation  but 
in  a  fusion  of  the  one  in  the  other.  But  this  is,  we  must  admit  in  all 
fairness,  but  one  side  of  the  picture.  How  American  Christianity  can 
rise  superior  to  this  national  limitation,  when  it  lays  itself  open  to  other 
and  counteracting-  forces,  is  shown  in  the  splendid  oneness  which  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  realized  in  its  relating  of  these  two 
bodies  in  the  mission  field.  The  Methodists  are  above  all  "clannish" — we 
say  it  in  no  disrespect — and  this  characteristic  has  neutralized  the  na- 
tional individualism,  with  the  result  that  there  is  the  greatest  co-opera- 
tion among  them  between  the  Mission  and  the  Church,  with  happy  re- 
sults to  both  alike. 

The  mention  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  suggests,  to  our  mind, 
the  significant  fact  that  it  is  the  Episcopal  Churches,  both  in  England 
and  America,  that  have  taken  the  lead  in  the  fusing  of  the  Mission  and 
the  Church.  It  is,  however,  but  in  the  fitness  of  things.  The  organic 
view  of  life  is  strongest  in  the  Episcopal  bodies,  whereas  non-conformity 
— we  think  we  should  be  able  to  admit  it  without  depreciating  its  great 
historical  services^ — has  ever  put  a  premium  on  individualism.  Life  is 
a  unity,  and  our  views  on  different  questions  are  all  of  a  piece.  One  can 
see  therefore  in  the  present  mission  policy,  whether  it  be  the  relation 
of  the  Mission  to  the  Church,  or  of  the  foreign  missionaries  to  the  Pres- 
bytery, or  the  question  of  self-support  in  the  Church,  the  working  out  of 
a  fundamental  view  of  life — a  view  of  life  which  is  distinctly  individual- 
istic and  which  is  rooted  in  historical  and  national  conditions. 

The  world  is  at  the  cross-roads  today.  The  old  order  has  died  in  a 
great  conflagration  brought  about  by  the  evil  effects  of  an  individualis- 
tic point  of  view.  On  the  ashes  of  the  old  a  new  order  is  being  built. 
But  though  the  old  order  is  dead,  the  old  leaven  is  not.  The  choice  that 
besets  the  national  life  of  your  great  people  supremely — the  choice  be- 
tween living  out  one's  life  in  the  strength  of  self-sufficiency,  and  the 
going  out  of  oneself  and  the  making  of  us  at  one  with  others — is  one 
which  faces  all  peoples  in  their  several  measures.  On  us  all,  therefore, 
who  love  the  New  Day  and  its  coming  is  enjoined  this  other,  the  organic 
point  of  view,  a  point  of  view  which  is  rooted  in  our  view  of  life,  our 
conceptions  of  the  Church,  and  our  understanding  of  Christianity  itself; 
and  we  cannot  but  believe  that  if  this  point  of  view  were  given  effect  to, 
there  will  be  co-operation  where  there  is  now  distrust,  love  where  there 
is  now  hate,  and  on  a  weary  world  will  descend  "Peace,  and  good-will 
among  men." 

We  beg  to  remain. 

Dear  Sir, 

Yours  sincerely, 

J.  M.  David,   (B.A.), 
Elder,  Katra  Church,  and  Moderator,  Allahabad  Presbytery, 
{Asst.  Registrar,  University  of  Allahabad). 

A.  Ralla  Ram,  (B.A.), 
Minister,  Allahabad  Presbytery   {In  charge,  Jumna  Church, 
Allahabad) . 

N.  C.  MUKERJI,  (M.A.), 
Elder,  Jumna  Church    {Professor,  Ewing  Christian  College, 
Allahabad) . 

N.  K.  MUKERJI,   (B.A.), 
Elder,  Katra  Church  {Secretary,  North-India  Christian  Tract 
and  Book  Society,  Allahabad). 
■    634 


Appendix 

To  a  letter  to  Dr.  R.  E.  Speer,  Secretary,  Board  of  Foreign  Missions, 
Presbyterian  Church  of  the  United  States  of  America,  on  "The  Re- 
lation of  the  Mission  to  the  Church." 


A  Statement,  by  the  Signatories  to  the  Letter,  of  Points  Which  Should 

be  the  Basis  of  any  Abiding  Solution  of  the  Relation  Between 

the  Church  and  the  Mission. 

(1)  The  aim  should  be  to  make  all  work  church  and  not  mission 
centric. 

(2)  To  realize  this  end  all  work  now  conducted  by  the  Mission 
should  be  eventually  made  over  to  Presbyteries,  the  present  separate 
Mission  organizations  dissolved,  and  all  missionaries  become  members 
of   Presbyteries. 

(3)  But  till  then,  for  the  period  of  transition,  there  should  be  erected 
a  new  body,  composed  of  representatives  of  the  Mission  and  the  Church, 
which  should  have  the  ultimate  control  in  all  things;  that  the  lines  of 
Dr.  Ewing's  scheme  be  followed  for  this  body,  as  being  altogether  free 
from  the  blame  of  half-measures,  which  would  be  suicidal. 

(4)  While  we  should  understand  by  the  Indian  Church  a  national 
church,  no  attempt  should  be  encouraged  on  the  part  of  missionaries  to 
withdraw  themselves  from  membership  in  it,  and  that  they  should  not 
withhold  their  share  of  developing  it,  consistently  with  its  character  as 
an  Indian  Church. 

(5)  A  policy  of  devolution  should  be  adopted  by  which  the  present 
mission  stations  should  be  partitioned  for  more  intensive  work,  and 
qualified  Indians  appointed  to  the  charge  of  stations  on  a  basis  of  per- 
fect equality  of  status  and  responsibility  with  Americans. 

(6)  The  Indian  Church  should  bear,  from  the  outset,  a  share,  pro- 
portionate to  her  resources,  in  the  financial  burden  of  the  missionary 
enterprise — and  steps  should  be  taken  to  ensure  its  being  a  gradually 
increasing  share. 

B. 

Schemes   for   a    New    Central    Body   Relating   the    Church 
and  the  Mission 


A  very  brief  outline  of  suggestions  for  changes  in  the  method  of  con- 
ducing mission  business  by  the  Rev.  J.  C.  R.  Ewing,  D.D. 

I. — The  Council  of  Missionaries. — This  shall  include  men  and  women 
directly  appointed  by  the  Board  to  a  particular  Mission.  The  function 
of  this  Council  shall  consist  of  all  those  matters,  which  have  exclusively 
to  do  with  the  foreign  missionaries,  such  as,  furlough,  allowances,  re- 
call, and  so  forth.  The  business  of  this  Council  would  ordinarily  be 
transacted  in  one  day. 

II. — The  Mission. — This  shall  consist  of  all  the  members  of  No.  1  and 
Indian  members,  men  and  women,  selected  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 
them  representative  of  the  Church.  I  should  strongly  oppose  the  idea 
of  their  merely  being  individuals  named  by  the  Mission.  A  constituency 
charged  with  the  duty  of  selecting  representatives  for  membership  in 
the  Mission  must  be  found.     In  order  to  secure  this  I  would  suggest,  in 

635 


the  North  India  for  example,  that  a  given  number  of  persons  be  elected 
for  terms  of  a  fixed  length  by  the  following  bodies : — 

(i)      The  Ewing  Christian  College  Board. 

(ii)      Saharanpur  Seminary  Board. 

(iii)      The  Allahabad  Presbytery. 

(iv)      The  Farrukhabad  Presbytery. 

To  these  should  be  added  in  future  any  other  bodies  suitable  for  the 
exercise  of  such  powers. 

(v)      The  Council  of  Missionaries. 

It  only  remains  to  suggest  for  this  bare  outline  one  or  two  points. 

In  general  only  men  and  women  engaged  in  actual  missionary  work 
and  devoting  their  time  to  such  service  ought  to  be  added  to  II.  The 
reason  for  this  is  obvious.  Members  of  such  a  body,  as  the  Mission,  to 
be  useful  must  be  able  to  attend  meetings  and  give  time  to  such  work 
regarding  it  as  a  first  duty.  Persons  engaged  in  Government  service 
for  example  are  usually  found  unable  to  attend  meetings  except  when 
they  are  held  on  public  holidays,  and  this  restricts  the  time  for  doing 
Mission  business  altogether  too  much,  and  they  could  not  be  fully  familiar 
with  all  the  details  of  the  work.  The  pastors  of  churches  would  of  course 
be  eligible. 

Much  in  the  way  of  detail  would  have  to  be  worked  out  in  connection 
with  this  sketch  plan.  I  have  not  attempted  this  because  I  only  want  to 
put  before  others  what  seems  to  me  a  very  workable  idea,  and  am  not  at 
all  enthusiastic  as  to  the  details.  I  should  have  said  above,  that  in  the 
case  of  the  members,  foreign  and  Indian  of  No.  II  voting  power  should 
extend  to  all  on  equal  terms,  and  that  Mission  (II)  should  deal  with  all 
the  branches  of  missionary  work,  educational  as  well  as  evangelistic. 
/  am  personally  inclined  to  believe  that  any  half-way  measures  will  fail 
and  that  the  only  kind  of  legislatioyi,  which  we  can  count  upon  likely  to 
be  effective,  will  from  the  very  outset,  recognize  the  members  of  the 
Church,  to  be  chosen  in  the  way  indicated,  as  equally  interested  with 
ourselves  in  all  branches  of  work. 

2. 

Report  of  the  Committee  Appointed   to   Con'sider   Dr.   Griswold's  plan 

for  the  better  relation  of  Church  and  Mission,  as  adopted  by 

the  Presbytery  of  Allahabad,  March,  1920 

Members  of  the  Committee: — Rev.  J.  J.  Lucas,  D.D.,  Rev.  A.  Ralla 
Ram,  B.A.,  Mr.  J.  M.  David,  B.A.,  and  Rev.  J.  C.  Manry,  M.A.,  (Con- 
vener). 

We  find  that  there  is  a  general  agreement  as  to  the  end  at  which 
we  should  all  aim,  namely,  a  self-supporting  and  self-propagating  Church 
in  India:  the  difference  of  opinion  that  exists  is  in  regard  to  the  means 
for  achieving  this  aim. 

In  the  Christian  Church  there  is  no  room  for  racial  and  national  lines 
of  cleavage  or  demarcation.  The  sole  principle  by  Which  policies  must 
be  judged  and  fixed  is  their  fitness  to  secure  the  above-mentioned  end, 
namely,  a  self-supporting  and  self-propagating  Christian  Church  in 
India. 

The  following  plan  commends  itself  to  us: — 

A  Board  of  Mission  Work  should  be  established  to  consist  of,  say  15 
members,  5  to  be  elected  by  the  Presbyteries,  5  to  be  elected  by  the  North- 
India  Mission,  and  5  to  be  elected  by  some  method  to  be  prescribed  by 
the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  in  New  York,  say,  by  the  India-Council 
of  American  Presbyterian  Missions.  Members  of  this  Board  should  be 
elected  for  a  term  of  three  years,  and  should  be  eligible  to  re-election. 

636 


The  Board  should  employ  a  full-time  executive  secretary,  and  should 
have  a  small  executive  committee  and  finance  committee.  It  should 
frame  its  own  by-laws,  and  its  decisions  should  be  final.  It  might  well 
adopt  a  rule  to  admit  and  discharge  workers  only  on  the  recommendation 
of  some  Presbytery,  but  it  should  have  discretion  in  regard  to  transfer, 
increase  or  decrease  in  pay,  and  such  other  questions  as  arise,  although 
it  would  normally  consider  the  representations  of  local  ministers  and 
sessions. 

The  proposed  Board,  in  co-operation  with  the  Presbyteries  and  the 
Mission,  would  work  out  the  details  of  a  plan  for  increasing  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  Presbyteries  from  time  to  time  as  developments  may 
warrant  it,  and  for  decreasing  the  Mission  representation  until  finally 
it  shall  reach  the  vanishing  point. 

The  Presbyteries,  the  Mission  and  the  Board  may  elect  any  minister, 
elder,  or  missionary  who  must  be  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
of  India,  without  regard  to  nationality,  to  the  proposed  board. 

To  the  Board  when  established  should  be  committed  the  care  of  all 
evangelistic  work.  Evangelistic  work  for  women  should  be  in  the  charge 
of  a  Woman's  Board,  related  to  the  general  Board  somewhat  as  the 
Woman's  Boards  in  America  are  related  to  the  general  Board  there. 

All  funds  received  for  Evangelistic  and  Pastoral  Work  should  be  in 
the  care  of  this  Board,  which  should  prepare  estimates  for  advance  work 
and  execute  the  plans  formed. 

3. 

A  Conference  called  by  the  North  India  Mission  met  at  Allahabad  on 
the  2nd  April  1920  to  consider  the  question  of  the  constitution  of  the 
Mission  and  what  changes,  if  any,  are  necessary.  The  following  is  a 
free  translation  of  the  resolutions  which  were  passed  by  a  majority  of 
votes. 

(i)      That  a   Board  be  created  between  the  Mission  and  the  Church. 

(ii)  That  this  Board  consists  of  15  members  elected  thus:  4  each  by 
the  Allahabad  and  Farrukhabad  Presbyteries,  and  the  remaining  7  by 
the  North  India  Mission;  these  bodies  to  have  perfect  freedom  to  elect 
Americans  or  Indians  just  as  they  may  wish. 

(iii)  That  the  functions  of  the  Board  be  confined  to  evangelistic  and 
pastoral  work. 

(iv)      That  for  the  present  the  functions  of  the  Board  be  advisory. 

(v)  That  the  proceedings  of  the  Board  be  published  both  in  English 
and  in  Urdu. 

(vi)  That  the  N.  I.  Mission  be  requested  to  ask  the  Home  Board 
for  permission  to  co-opt  four  Indians  as  full  members  of  the  Mission. 

(vii)  That  ordinarily  all  matters  appertaining  to  evangelistic  and 
pastoral  work  should  pass  through  the  Board. 

C. 

The   Following   Quotations   Will   Show   What   Missionaries   and   Others 

Who  Are  Familiar  with  the  Work  in  India  Feel  About  the 

Question  Under  Consideration. 

1. 

In  an  article  on  "Religious  Self-Expression  of  Christian  India"  which 
appeared  in  the  Harvest  Field  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop  E.  H.  M.  Waller, 
M.A.,  D.D.,  of  Tinnevelly  and  Madura  (who  started  his  missionary 
career  as  Principal  of  the  Christian  Boys'  Boarding  School  at  Batala, 
Punjab,  and  then  spent  several  years  in  the  United  Provinces  as  Prin- 
cipal of  St.   Paul's  Divinity  School,  Allahabad,  missionary  at  Benares, 

637 


and  eventually  as  Secretary  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  United 
Provinces,  and  was  also  Secretary  for  India  at  the  Headquarters  at 
Salisbury  Square,  London)   expresses  himself  thus: — 

"I  believe  we  must  make  far  more  real  endeavor  to  give  to  indigenous 
congregations  the  guidance  of  their  own  affairs;  and  to  associate  them 
with  us  in  our  plans  for  the  work  of  the  Mission  and  the  Church.  / 
believe  that  this  separation  of  Mission  and  Church  is  at  the  root  of  a- 
great  deal  of  the  difficulty  we  are  discussing.  As  Christ  is  one,  His 
work  is  one.  I  have  heard  distinctions  drawn  between  foreign  money 
and  Indian  money,  between  missionary  and  Indian  clergyman,  between 
missionary  conference  and  Indian  committees  that  made  my  blood  boil. 
It  may  be  that  in  administration  there  must  be  specialized  committees, 
but  such  committees  should  be  based  not  on  the  lines  of  race  or  of  the 
separation  of  the  Mission  and  Church  but  simply  on  capacity  for  the  ser- 
vice of  Christ's  Kingdom. 

"Our  aim  then  will  be  to  take  practical  steps  from  the  very  beginning 
to  abolish  as  far  as  possible  the  difference  between  the  Mission  and 
Church.  .  .  .It  may  be  impossible  and  undesirable  at  the  present  time 
to  get  rid  of  it  at  home:.  .  .  .that  is  a  large  question  which  we  cannot 
discuss  now:  but  while  we  benefit  by  the  enthusiasm  and  the  prayer 
that  lie  behind  the  present  system,  let  us  see  that  it  does  not  do  real 
harm  to  the  cause  that  it  exists  to  benefit." 


Commenting  on  the  Decennial  Report  of  the  National  Missionary  So- 
ciety of  India — The  First  Ten  Years  of  the  N.  M.  S. — in  the  International 
Review  of  Missions,  Vol.  VII,  pages  127-128,  the  Rev.  N.  H.  Tubbs, 
Principal,  Bishop's  College,  Calcutta  (who  previously  held  the  post  of 
Warden,  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  Hostel,  Allahabad  and  Manager  of  St. 
John's  High  School,  Agra)   writes: — 

"Indeed  the  thoughtful  reader  of  this  ten  years'  report  will  find  him- 
self facing  the  great  question  of  decentralization,  which  is  being  forced 
upon  the  Home  Mission  Boards.  The  story  of  the  National  Missionary 
Society  clearly  shows  that  Indian  Christians  possess  spiritual  wisdom 
and  capacity  for  leadership  in  a  marked  degree.  They  do  not  lack 
patient  and  far-seeing  statesmanship,  executive  ability,  financial  integ- 
rity, enthusiasm,  and  devotion  combined  with  prudence  and  caution.  In 
the  realm  of  politics  the  British  Government  is  contemplating  great  and 
far-reaching  reforms  in  the  direction  of  self-governing  institutions  in 
India.  European  and  American  missionaries  in  India  are  more  and 
more  realizing  that  the  time  has  come  for  a  similar  great  advance  in 
missionary  politics  and  administration,  but  too  often  the  home  mission 
boards  are  obsessed  with  the  thought  that  'he  who  pays  the  piper  must 
call  the  tune,'  and  thus  the  generosity  of  the  churches  in  the  West  is 
in  danger  of  keeping  the  young  churches  of  the  East  in  perpetual  bondage. 
Members  of  the  home  boards  will  find  much  food  for  thought  in  these 
pages." 

o 
o. 

The  Informal  Conference  between  some  Indian  Christians  and  British 
missionaries  held  at  Allahabad  in  1919,  expressed  the  following  opinion 
on  this  matter: — 

"It  will  also  be  said  that  so  long  as  the  supplies  for  the  Church's  work 
in  India  are  drawn  almost  exclusively  from  Europe  or  America,  it  must 
be  willing  to  submit  to  control  by  these  countries.  We  question  the  in- 
evitableness  of  this  conclusion.     There  is  a  growing  agreement  among 

638 


Indians   and    missionaries   that   self-government    will    have    to    precede 
self-support,  and  ivill  indeed  stimulate  it." 

4. 

Sometime  ago,  in  South  India,  a  group  of  Christians,  Indians  and 
foreign,  spent  ten  days  in  Retreat  and  fellowship,  to  consider  the  problem 
of  Mission  and  Church  when  they  concluded: — 

"The  problem  has  an  official  and  economic  as  well  as  a  personal  aspect. 
Money,  freedom  and  responsibility,  must  be  gladly  and  frankly  entrusted 
to  the  Indian  Church.  With  regard  to  money  contributed  by  the  churches 
in  the  west  for  the  evangelization  of  India,  the  chief  question,  is  not  by 
whom  the  money  is  administered,  but  whether  it  is  spent  in  the  most^ 
fruitful  way  for  the  extension  of  Christ's  Kingdom." 

5. 
The  Right   Rev.   V.   S.   Azariah    (Bishop   of   Dornakal) — an    Indian — 
during  the  course  of  his  sermon  at  St.  Bride's  Church,  London,  on  the 
occasion   of  the   121st   Anniversary  of   the    Church    Missionary   Society, 
said: — 

"The  relationship  between  Missions  and  the  indigenous  Church  is 
another  problem  calling  for  thought  and  action.  This  is  a  problem  that 
affects  equally  but  divergently  all  parts  of  the  mission  field.  It  may  be 
safely  asserted  that  in  many  of  the  larger  Missions  the  time  has  come 
for  greater  recognition  to  be  given  to  the  Church  as  the  chief  factor  in 
the  evangelization  of  India.  The  time  when  the  Mission  was  the  promi- 
nent partner  is  fast  passing  away  in  these  fields,  and  the  time  has  come 
when  the  Church  ought  to  occupy  that  place.  In  almost  all  fields  careful 
watch  must  be  kept  over  the  development  of  the  community,  so  that  the 
devolution  of  responsibility  from  the  Mission  to  the  Church  may  be  car- 
ried out  wisely  and  steadily,  and  that  at  every  stage  of  development,  in 
all  departments  of  work — both  transferred  and  reserved.  Indian  co- 
operation and  counsel  may  be  secured  at  once  and  complete  self-govern- 
ment may  be  prepared  for  and  consummated  in  the  future.  The  All- 
India  Missionary  Conference  of  1912,  held  in  Calcutta,  under  the  Presi- 
dency of  Dr.  Mott,  passed  the  following  resolution: — 'This  Conference 
would  emphasize  the  principle  that  the  work  carried  on  by  foreign 
missionary  societies  should  be  gradually  transferred,  as  opportunities 
offer,  to  the  Indian  Church,  and  that  suitable  plans  and  modifications  of 
existing  organizations  should  be  adopted,  wherever  necessary,  so  that 
this  principle  may  be  carried  out  by  missionary  bodies.'  The  principle 
underlying  the  resolution  is  now  universally  accepted  by  all  missions, 
and  many  steps  have  been  taken  by  different  societies  to  give  effect  to 
the  resolution.  But  the  progress  is  all  too  slow.  The  situation  demands 
a  more  vigorous  and  bolder  policy.  The  hearty  co-operation  of  the  Indian 
leaders  is  most  essential  for  the  missionary  enterprise  of  the  future. 
Moreover,  the  educated  Indian  Christian  is  naturally  being  thoroughly 
permeated  with  the  new  national  spirit  of  the  country.  It  is  important 
that  his  love,  sympathy,  and  services  be  won  for  the  Church  and  the 
missionary  cause. 

The  Hindu,  too,  is  watching  with  keen  interest  the  place  that  the  In- 
dian Christian  is  taking,  and  is  invited  to  take,  in  the  work  and  govern- 
ment of  the  Church.  'Responsible  Government,'  'Home  Rule,'  'Tran.s- 
ferred  and  Reserved  Subjects' — the.se  have  become  familiar  phrases  in 
modern  India.  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  Indian  Christian  is  at- 
tracted by  the  glamour  of  these  ideas,  and  expects  it  in  the  sphere  of 
Church  and  Mission  administration?  Courageous  action  should  therefore 

639 


be  taken  everywhere  to  devolve  responsibility  of  some  kind  or  degree 
from  'the  Mission'  to  'the  Church.'  Where  a  complete  transfer  is  not 
immediately  possible,  the  giving  of  full  responsibility  in  certain  depart- 
ments and  the  securing  of  Indian  co-operation  and  counsel  in  all  branches 
of  work  must  be  the  rule,  and  not  the  exception,  in  Mission  administra- 
tion. The  devolution  and  co-operation  should  not  depend  solely  on  a 
money  test.  Again  and  again  lue  have  seen  that  the  policy  of  trust  and 
confidence  and  of  devolution  of  responsibility  is  what  secures  greater 
self-siipport  and  greater  efficiency  in  administration.  In  spite  of  all  ex- 
ceptions and  disappointments,  as  a  rule  the  hearing  of  responsihility 
breeds  a  sense  of  responsibility  and  confidence  begets  trustworthiness. 
The  time  must  come  soon  when,  at  least  in  the  older  fields  all  the  mis- 
sionary work  under  the  foreign  missionary  societies  must  become 
obviously  and  permanently  related  to  the  Church  in  India.  This  does 
not  mean  that  these  fields  will  not  require  men  and  money  any  longer. 
The  Church  will  still  require  all  the  sympathy  and  help  that  the  older 
Churches  of  the  West  can  give  it  for  a  long  time  to  come.  Even  if  the 
Church  in  some  of  the  districts  should  become  entirely  self-supporting 
tomorrow,  yet,  for  the  training  of  the  workers  and  of  the  clergy,  for 
manning  the  educational  institutions  for  its  youth,  for  conducting  its 
colleges  and  hostels  for  non- Christians,  and  for  developing  in  its  work- 
ers a  strong  spiritual  life  and  a  spirit  of  self-sacrificing  service,  it  will 
need  for  some  long  time  to  come  the  best  men  that  the  Church  and  the 
Universities  of  the  West  can  produce.  Financial  support  also  will  still 
be  required  for  the  training  of  the  clergy  and  other  leaders  of  the 
Church,  until  Indian  Christians  themselves  can  equip  and  endow  their 
own  theological  colleges.  But  the  centre  of  gravity  must  move  unmis- 
takably from  the  Mission  to  the  Church.  You  will  still  send  men,  but  to 
be  associated  with  the  Church  in  India,  and  to  labor  with  its  leaders  for 
the  Christianization  of  the  nation.  Only,  the  men  you  send  out  will  be 
men  in  full  sympathy  with  Indian  Christian  national  aspirations;  men 
who  will  be  more  conscious  of  their  relationship  to  the  Church  in  India 
than  of  their  connection  with  the  Society  that  sends  them  out;  men  who 
will  find  their  joy  in  identifying  themselves  with  that  Church  and  serving 
that  Church,  thus,  perhaps  all  unconsciously,  making  their  peculiar 
contribution  to  the  Church  in  India.  You  will  still  send  money,  but  not 
as  a  means  of  holding  the  converts  in  bondage  to  a  particular  sect  or 
a  particular  view,  but  to  help  the  Indian  Church,  as  long  as  it  needs 
such  help,  to  carry  out  its  own  program  for  the  fulfilment  of  its  mission 
to  the  nation.  Possibly  you  still  will  be  required  to  give  your  thought 
and  counsel  to  the  problems  of  the  work:  but  largely  it  will  be  to 
enable  the  Church  in  India  to  come  to  its  own,  so  that  'the  glories  and 
the  treasures  of  the  nation'  may  be  brought  into  the  Church  of  Christ, 
and  that  the  Light  of  God  proceeding  from  it  may  guide  the  destinies 
of  the  many  races  yet  outside  it.  All  this  is  no  mean  service.  Perhaps 
it  requires  the  greatest  self-abnegation  and  the  wisest  Christian  states- 
manship that  missionary  societies  and  individual  missionaries  have  ever 
been  called  upon  to  exercise.  But  will  the  daughter  churches  in  India 
look  to  the  older  churches  of  the  west  in  vain  for  this  important  service?" 

6. 

The  late  Sir  A.  H.  L.  Fraser,  K.  C.  S.  L,  LL.D.,  writing  in  the  Inter- 
national Review  of  Missions,  Vol.  VII  (pages  74-83)  on  "Leadership  in 
the  Mission  Field,"  and  after  dealing  with  the  changing  conditions  in 
India  in  political  matters,  and  the  success  of  the  policy  of  appointing 
Indians  as  Assistant  Collectors,  Collectors,  Commissioners  of  Divisions, 

640 


Members  of  the  Board  of  Revenue,  Members  of  the  Provincial  Execu- 
tive Councils  as  well  as  of  the  Viceroy's  Council,  writes  thus  of  the 
problems  facing  the  Church  in   India; — 

"It  seems  clear,  I  think,  that  this  is  very  much  what  we  want  in  re- 
gard to  the  similar  problems  now  affecting  the  Church  in  India.  We 
want  to  have  a  clearly  defined  policy;  end  wc  want  to  have  that  policif 
consistently  enforced.  It  must  be  kept  before  our  missionaries,  who  must 
realize  that  they  are  not  doing  their  best  work  unless  they  are  assisting 
in  the  development  of  the  Indian  Church,  and  putting  Indian  workers 
into  positions  of  responsibility  ajid  trust  quite  equal  to  those  which  they 
themselves  have  occupied.  The  time  has  come  not  only  to  have  a  vague 
desire  to  do  justice  to  Indian  aspirations  and  to  employ  the  Indian  Church 
and  Indian  ivorkers,  but  also  to  go  beyond  that.  We  must  have  a  clear 
and  definite  policy  in  regard  to  all  the  problems  that  are  involved — the 
share  which  Indians  are  to  take  in  every  department  of  mission  work, 
and  also  the  work  the  Indian  Church  is  to  do  and  the  share  which  it  is 
to  take  in  the  evangelization  of  India.  Great  progress,  for  which  we 
thank  God,  has  been  made  of  late  years  in  organizing  the  Christian 
Church  and  setting  it  to  work;  but  this  is  a  case  in  which  we  cannot 
afford  to  be  weary  in  well-doing.  Alongside  of  progress  in  this  matter 
also,  there  must  be  a  determined  effort  to  give  Indian  workers  a  due 
share  of  responsibility  of  missionary  work,  and  an  ever-increasing  part 
in  its  direction  and  administration.  All  this  involves  going  into  the 
question  in  respect  of  every  department  of  missionary  and  Church  work; 
and  the  consideration  of  all  the  problems  which  will  arise  in  this  con- 
nection seems  to  me  to  be  now  so  urgently  demanded  that  it  cannot  be 
postponed.  Societies  at  home  should  get  into  touch  with  one  another  on 
this  subject;  but  they  cannot  frame  their  policy  except  in  consultation 
with  the  men  who  are  carrying  out  the  work  on  the  spot;  and  the  men 
who  are  carrying  out  the  work  on  the  spot  are  not  only  the  missionaries 
and  Mission  councils  but  also  the  leaders  atid  representative  members 
of  the  Indian  Church." 

7. 
In  the  International  Review   of   Missions.   Vol   VII    (pages   522-530) 
dealing  with  the  subject  of  "Relationships  between  Indians  and  Euro- 
peans," Mr.  William  Patton  writes: — 

"Take  one  more  example — the  whole  question  of  Church  and  Mission 
and  the  relation  between  the  two.  It  is,  of  course,  commonplace  to  say 
that  the  object  of  missionary  endeavor  is  to  build  up  a  truly  Indian 
Church,  that  the  mission  itself  is  a  temporary  thing,  that  it  must  de- 
crease, while  the  Indian  Church  increases.  This  principle  is  generally 
accepted  by  all  who  give  serious  thought  to  missionary  work.  Yet  I 
must  confess  that  I  became  almost  afraid  to  mention  the  principle  in  a 
company  of  Indian  Christians.  There  would  be  a  look  of  polite  incredul- 
ity, or  a  laugh,  indicating  quite  clearly  that  the  principle  in  question 
was  in  the  opinion  of  those  present  more  a  matter  of  theory  than  of 
practice.  I  found  educated  Christians  in  all  parts  of  India  very  loath 
to  believe  that  the  object  of  the  western  missions  is  really  to  minister 
to  the  Indian  Church,  and  that  the  missionary  is  really  anxious  to  hand 
over  responsibility  to  the  Indian  and  to  work  with  him  and  under  him. 

Exceptions  they  would  cordially  admit  but  they  would  go  no  further 

Not  less  grave  is  the  issue  confronting  the  Church  (I  use  that  word  to 
include  Indian  Christians  and  missionaries)  in  India.  If  the  present 
atmosphere  of  estrangement  and  misunderstanding  can  be  dissipated 
and  the  educated  Indian  Christian  be  really  united  in  fellowship  with 

641 

21 — India   and  Persia 


the  European  missionary,  India  is  ripe  for  a  very  great  Christian  ad- 
vance. If  estrang evnent  is  continued,  and  there  is  not  enough  faith, 
hope  and  love  to  banish  it,  then  there  are  bad  days  ahead  for  Indian- 
Christianity,  and  worse  still  for  Indian  missions ....  No  one  doubts  that 
the  question  of  the  right  relation  between  the  foreign  mission  and  the 
Indian  Church,  between  the  Indian  worker  and  the  European  worker, 
is  the  most  urgent  question  facing  Christian  statesmanship  in  India,  and 
some  of  the  ablest  missionaries  would  heartily  back  schemes  today  which 
only  yesterday  would  have  been  condemned  as  Utopian ....  To  make 
great  experiments  in  exploring  the  depths  of  Christian  love  is  the  task 
to  which  we  are  called,  and  only  the  love  which  is  utterly  human  because 
it  is  utterly  divine,  the  love  of  Christ,  is  adequate  to  the  need  before  us. 
Whether  in  missions  or  in  government,  in  private  life  or  in  public 
affairs,  there  is  need  today  for  men  and  women  in  India  who  have  got 
past  the  point  of  caring  about  themselves  and  can  approach  the  life  of 
India  and  the  heart  of  Indians  with  that  self-effacing  and  yet  utterly 
simple  and  natural  attitude  of  brotherly  equality  and  love  which  is  the 
gift  throughout  the  ages  of  Christ  to  those  who  look  for  strength  to 
Him." 

8. 

Dr.  D.  J.  Fleming  in  his  recent  book  "Devolution  in  Mission  Admin- 
istration," after  his  own  experience  as  a  missionary  in  India,  and  after 
a  thorough  study  of  the  principle  and  policies  of  the  home  boards  and 
societies  and  of  missions  on  the  field,  writes: — 

"No  phrase  occurs  more  often  in  articles  on  this  subject  than  the  one 
spoken  in  the  spirit  of  John  the  Baptist — we  must  decrease  and  they 
must  increase.  But  when  it  comes  to  practice,  lack  of  imagination,  in- 
ability to  put  one's  self  in  the  other's  place,  the  neglect  to  make  explicit 
the  implications  of  that  phrase,  prevent  the  adequate  embodiment  of  this 
principle.  Fine  ideals  are  expressed  in  resolutions,  but  examination 
shows  that  all  too  often  definite  practical  plans  of  procedure  are  not  in- 
dicated by  which  the  high  and  contemplated  are  to  be  secured." 

D. 

ADVANCES  RECORDED  BY  OTHER  MISSIONS 
The  American  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

In  the  Methodist  Church  there  are  no  two  separate  bodies  like  the 
Mission  and  Church.  They  have  what  is  called  a  Conference  comprised 
of  Indian  and  foreign  ministers,  the  former  outnumbering  the  latter 
very  considerably.  All  questions  appertaining  both  to  mission  and 
church  are  dealt  with  by  this  body.  The  Conference  appoints  a  Finance 
Committee  which  attends  to  all  financial  matters.  Indians  are  also 
members  of  this  committee.  The  following  extract  from  the  Indian 
Witness  will  indicate  what  further  progress  in  the  direction  of  trusting 
Indians  with  what  is  commonly  termed  "foreign  money"  is  being  con- 
templated:— 

At  the  recent  session  of  the  Executive  Board  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  two  actions  were  taken  looking  to  wider  influence  of  the 
Indian  membership  in  the  affairs  of  the  church  in  India.  As  it  already 
exists,  the  mini&ters  of  the  Church  of  Indian  nationality  have  exactly 
the  same  ecclesiastical  standing  as  do  the  missionaries  that  come  from 
abroad  and  every  office  in  the  gift  of  the  Church  is  as  open  to  one  nation- 
ality as  the  other.  But,  in  the  past,  in  the  administration  of  the  finances, 
a  rigid  rule  required  that,  in  the  election  of  members  to  the  finance 
committees,  one-half  must  be  of  one  nationality  and  the  other  half  of 

642 


the  other.  The  Executive  Board  now  recommends  to  the  Home  Board 
that,  hereafter  in  India,  the  annual  conferences  be  allowed  to  elect  with- 
out any  restriction  whatever,  save  as  to  total  numbers.  Inasmuch  as  in 
all  conferences  but  perhaps  one,  the  Indian  membership  is  decidedly 
the  larger,  this  makes  it  possible  for  the  latter  to  decide  as  it  deems  best 
as  to  the  most  fitting  men  for  the  place.  The  second  action  has  to  do 
with  the  membership  of  the  Executive  Board  itself.  While  in  the  past, 
election  to  this  body  has  been  open  to  missionaries  and  Indian  ministers 
alike,  the  nature  of  the  work  has  decided  the  election  of  the  former  as 
better  acquainted  with  the  duties  required.  But  it  is  deemed  advisable 
that,  whatever  the  particular  qualifications  needed  for  this  work,  the 
Indian  ministers  should  be  represented  on  its  membership.  The  Execu- 
tive Board  therefore  recommends  to  the  Central  Conference,  which  meets 
in  Lucknow  next  January,  such  a  change  in  its  rules  as  will  allow  each 
annual  or  Mission  Conference  to  elect  an  Indian  delegate  to  the  Board 
membership,  and  it  is  practically  certain  such  change  will  be  granted. 

The  Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  Episcopal  ad- 
dress to  the  Thirteenth  Session  of  the  Central  Conference  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  in  Southern  Asia  held  in  Lucknow  in  January 
1920  made  the  following  pronouncement  on  the  question  of  "Transferring 
of  Responsibilities  to  the  Indian  Church:" — 

"This  question  has  been  prominently  before  the  National  Missionary 
Council  since  1912,  when  the  following  resolution  was  passed: — 'This 
Conference  would  emphasize  the  principle  that  the  work  carried  on  by 
Foreign  Missionary  Societies  would  be  gradually  transferred,  as  oppor- 
tunities offer,  to  the  Indian  Church,  and  that  suitable  plans  and  modi- 
fications of  existing  organizations  should  be  adopted,  wherever  necessary, 
that  this  principle  may  be  carried  out  by  missionary  bodies.' 

Since  the  writing  of  the  above,  there  has  arisen  a  new  national  con- 
sciousness in  India,  a  reaction  against  all  things  foreign,  and  a  desire 
for  everything  to  be  Indian.  We  not  only  rejoice  in  a  national  awaken- 
ing, but  also  in  the  fact  that,  with  the  rest  of  the  nation,  the  Indian 
Church  is  awakening.  We  feel  that  the  pi-oblem  of  an  adjustment  to 
the  nexv  natiorial  consciousness  is  a  most  vital  one;  but  that  it  is  not  so 
difficult  for  j<s,  as  for  most  Missions  working  in  this  land;  and  for  thd 
reason  that  we  are  not  a  Mission,  hnt  a  Church  in  India,  just  as  we  are 
in  Ainerica:  and  our  people  in  India  have  the  same  relation  to  the  whole 
Church  and  its  government,  as  they  ivould,  if  they  lived  in  America^ 
Our  missionaries  are  not  here  as  members  of  American  Conferences,  but 
have  given  up  their  rnembership  in  their  home  conference  and  hav0 
joined  our  Indian  conferences,  and  have  put  themselves,  their  characters 
and  destiny  into  the  hands  of  their  Indian  brethren;  and  we  are  proud 
to  report  that  our  Indian  conference  meynhers  have  proved  themselves 
abundantly  worthy  of  such  confidence.  To  illustrate  this  completeness 
of  our  Indian  organizations:  It  was  within  the  power  of  our  larger  con- 
ferences in  India,  where  Indians  have  a  majority  of  annual  conference 
votes,  if  they  had  so  desired,  to  have  had  every  ministerial  member  of 
this  Central  Conference  an  Indian;  and  this  is  overwhelmingly  true  in 
our  Lay  Electoral  conferences:  and  to  have  their  every  delegate  to  the 
coming  General  Conference  an  Indian.  Further,  our  Indian  delegates 
who  go  to  America  have  the  privilege  of  putting  up  in  the  General 
Conference  everything  they  may  desire,  from  the  Indian  or  Southern 
Asia  standpoint.  The  National  Missionary  Council  of  India  recognizes 
that  we  are  ahead  of  all  other  denominations,  in  having  a  fully  organ- 

643 


ized  Church  in  India ;  and  said  of  us,  in  its  report  on  the  Indian  Church : 
'This  organization  is  far  in  advance  of  any  other  body  in  India.' 

Methodism,  being  not  a  Mission,  but  a  Church  in  India,  is  so  organ- 
ized that,  as  occasions  may  arise,  we  hope  it  will  adapt  itself  to  the 
needs  and  conditions  in  India  as  it  has  in  the  other  countries  in  which 
it  works.  Note  the  difference  between  Methodism  in  America  and 
England,  and  how  Methodism  in  America  has  steadily  adjusted  herself 
to  changing  conditions  and  opportunities.  Take  her  Episcopacy.  Her 
first  bishops  were  selected  by  John  Wesley.  Her  next  were  elected  in 
America  as  traveling  General  Superintendents;  but,  when  a  need  arose 
in  Africa,  provision  was  made  for  a  Missionary  Episcopacy.  Later, 
when  Southern  Asia  asked  for  'A  Resident  Bishop  for  India,'  and  the 
Judiciary  Committee  ruled  that  a  General  Superintendent  could  reside 
abroad,  Southern  Asia  was  given  the  Missionary  Episcopacy  that  had 
been  provided  to  meet  Africa's  need.  Now,  General  Superintendents 
not  only  reside  abroad  but  are  at  home  given  Episcopal  areas.  Next, 
look  at  the  changes  in  the  membership  of  the  General  Conference.  First 
all  of  the  ministers  in  America  were  members;  next  came  an  elected 
body  of  ministers;  and,  for  the  greater  part  of  a  century,  all  General 
Conference  members  were  ministers.  Then,  laymen  became  members; 
and  last  of  all,  women.  The  meaning  of  all  this  is  that  Methodism,  being 
not  a  Mission,  but  a  Church  iyi  India,  is  so  organized  that,  if  India  and 
Southern  Asia  do  not  adapt  it  to  m.ect  their  needs  and  make  it  part  of 
the  very  life  of  the  countries,  it  will  be  their  fault,  and  not  the  fault 
of  the  rigidity  of  organization  of  Methodism.  Hence,  the  responsibility 
and  opportunity  of  this  Central  Conference,  and  particularly  its  Indian 
members,  to  adjust  our  Church  to  a  new  India  as  we  look  out  into  the 
second  century  of  the  Missionary  work  of  our  whole  Church,  and  to  our 
work  in  India.  Too  much  emphasis  cannot  be  put  upon  this  problem; 
and  here  is  the  place  for  a  full  and  free  discussion  and  the  wisest 
possible  legislation." 

2.  The  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland 
This  Church  has  reintroduced  their  old  system  of  appointing  Indians 
as  Missionaries.  Thev  have  alreadv  two  Indians  in  their  Bombay  Mis- 
sion and  the  Nagpur  Mission  is  also  taking  active  steps  in  the  same 
direction.  The  following  extract  from  the  Harvest  Field  dealing  with 
an  article  on  "Church  and  Mission  in  India"  by  the  Rev.  John  Mackenzie 
of  Bombay  which  appeared  in  a  recent  number  of  the  International 
Review  of  Missions  indicates  the  change  that  has  come  over  the  mission- 
aries of  the  U.  F.  C.  Mission: — 

"The  Rev.  John  Mackenzie,  of  Bombay,  has  a  suggestive  article  on 
this  subject  in  the  January  number  of  The  International  Review  of  Mis- 
sions. He  contends  that  Church  and  Mission  are  facts  that  cannot  be 
ignored.  He  reviews  various  suggestions  that  have  been  made  to  co- 
ordinate the  work  of  the  two,  and  he  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
only  solution  of  the  difficulty  is  amalgamation.  The  church  must  be  the 
centre  from  which  all  emanates.  'In  anv  form  of  church  organization 
there  would  be  bodies  representative  of  the  church  and  charged  with 
certain  duties  connected  with  the  direction  of  its  work,  not  composed 
exclusively  or  even  in  high  proportion  of  the  clergy  and  paid  Workers.' 
'What  is  wrong  with  the  church  is  that  the  rank  and  file  of  its  members 
have  not  been  made  to  feel  that  the  work  which  is  being  done  by  m,is- 
sionaries  and  other  agents  is  their  work.'  The  following  extract  deals 
with  the  financial  aspect  of  the  change: — 

644 


"  'Home  societies  would  contribute  the  services  of  missionaries,  whose 
salaries  they  would  provide  as  at  present.  But  the  grants  which  are  con- 
tributed for  the  maintenance  of  their  work  would  bo  administered  not 
directly  by  them,  but  by  the  church  bodies  on  the  field.  Is  there  any 
reason  to  fear  that  these  funds  would  be  unwisely  administered?  I 
believe  there  is  not.  From  the  nature  of  the  case,  they  would  not  be 
available  for  the  gratification  of  any  selfish  ambition.  They  would  be 
designated  for  the  support  of  the  work  of  the  church.  A  considerable 
part  of  the  expenditure  would  be  in  the  salaries  of  workers,  but  these 
salaries  would  be  fixed  not  by  the  workers  themselves  but  by  a  body 
representing  the  church,  in  which  there  would  be  a  representation  of 
persons  earning  their  livelihood  in  what  are  generally  known  as  secular 
employments.  They  would  see  that  workers  were  adequately  paid,  but 
there  is  no  reason  to  fear  that  they  would  squander  money  on  exhorbitant 
salaries.  For  the  missionary  there  would  be  this  great  gain,  that  he 
would  no  longer  hold  the  position  of  a  distributor  of  patronage,  and  the 
Indian  worker,  on  the  other  hand,  would  no  longer  be  in  the  position  of 
servant  of  a  foreign  organization.  And  for  all  there  would  be  this 
great  advantage,  that  any  piece  of  work  that  had  to  be  done  would  be 
committed  to  those  who  seemed  to  be  best  fitted  for  it,  without  distinction 
of  race,  and  that  all  work  would  be  designed  to  contribute  directly  to  the 
extension  or  strengthening  of  the  church.' 

"We  believe  the  time  is  speedily  coming  when  the  distinction  between 
church  and  mission,  which  have  always  been  more  or  less  arbitrarily 
delimited,  will  have  to  pass  away.  The  great  difficulty  will  be  to  secure 
the  services  of  educated  and  intelligent  laymen,  who  will  have  time  to 
devote  to  church  work.  And  it  must  also  be  remembered  that  what  is 
possible  in  great  centres  of  population  is  not  possible  in  village  churches. 
Organization  must  be  adapted  to  actual  and  not  ideal  conditions." 

3.  The  London  Missionary  Society 
The  control  of  the  work  of  this  Society  in  the  United  Provinces  is 
divided  between  two  Committees  called  the  Almora  and  the  Benares 
District  Committees  which  manage  the  entire  mission  work  in  these 
two  sections.  On  the  Benares  District  Committee  there  are  two  Indian 
laymen  who  are  full  members  and  have  to  deal  with  even  matters 
appertaining  to  foreign  missionaries,  their  location,  furlough,  etc. 

4.     The  Church  of  England 

Two  Societies  belonging  to  the  Church  of  England  are  working  in  the 
United  Provinces — The  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  (S, 
P.  G.)  and  the  Church  Missionary  Society   (C.  M.  S.). 

S.  P.  G. — The  affairs  of  this  Society  are  managed  by  the  Mission  Board 
of  the  Diocesan  Council  (which  corresponds  to  the  Presbytery).  On 
this  body  there  are  Indian  laymen  and  ministers,  as  well  as  European 
laymen  and  ministers,  the  proportion  being  about  half  and  half:  the 
Bishop  of  the  Diocese  is  the  Chairman.  The  Mission  Board  prepares 
the  budget,  corresponds  with  the  Home  Board  through  the  Secretary, 
fixes  the  location  of  missionaries  and  lay  v/orkers  both  Europeans  and 
Indians. 

C.  M.  S. — This  Society  has  at  present  five  Indians,  four  of  whom  are 
graduates,  as  full  missionaries  with  the  same  status  as  that  of  their 
European  colleagues. 

The  affairs  of  this  Society  are  managed  by  two  bodies.  (1)  The  Confer- 
ence, consisting  of  all  men  and  women  missionaries  including  the  five 
Indians  mentioned  above,  and  also  with  two  representatives,  elected  by 

645 


the  Indian  Church  Council,  (this  Council  deals  with  Pastoral  and  all 
matters  relating  to  Indian  churches).  All  questions  of  principle  and 
policy  are  dealt  with  by  this  body.  (2)  The  Allahabad  Corresponding 
Committee  (A.  C.  C.) — this  Committee  is  connected  with  the  Home 
Board  and  is  entrusted  with  the  administrative  work.  Questions  of 
finance,  location,  furlough,  etc.,  are  within  their  purview.  There  is  no 
administrative  bar  against  it  but  it  so  happens  that  no  Indian  has  ever 
been  elected  a  member  of  this  committee  which  at  present  consists  of 
the  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  as  Chairman,  and  European  laymen  and 
missionaries. 

For  some  time  it  has  been  felt  that  some  change  in  the  policy  of  the 
C.  M.  S.  has  become  imperative,  and  the  matter  was  considered  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Diocesan  Council  held  at  Allahabad  in  November  1920. 
Canon  Davies  in  the  course  of  his  opening  remarks  dealing  with  this 
matter  read  extracts  from  a  memorandum  prepared  by  himself  and  the 
Rev.  N.  H.  Tubbs  sometime  ago  from  which  the  following  are  taken: — 

"We  write  at  a  time  of  unexampled  crisis  for  the  Empire  and  the 
world,  and  surely,  if  we  have  eyes  to  see,  of  unexampled  crisis  for  the 
Church  of  Christ.  But  it  is  no  general  considerations  that  prompt  this 
letter,  but  a  deep  and  growing  conviction  that  a  situation  has  come 
about  in  that  part  of  India  with  which  we  are  familiar,  which  eveni  if 
it  could  not  be  paralled  elsewhere  would  demand  the  most  urgent  atten- 
tion of  the  missionary  societies,  and  which  there  is  reason  enough  to  be- 
lieve has  its  counterpart  in  all  the  Asiatic  Mission  fields. 

"This  situation  is  created  by  the  increasing  tension,  made  apparent  in 
a  hundred  ways,  between  not  the  leaders  only,  but  the  rank  and  file  of 
the  Indian  Church  and  the  whole  body  of  foreign  missionaries.... 
And  here  we  must  guard  ourselves  from  giving  the  impression  that  the 
temper  which  we  have  described  is  only  to  be  regarded  as  a  symptom 
of  a  deep-seated  spiritual  disease  in  the  Indian  Church.  There  are  faults 
enough  in  the  Indian  Church  and  Indians  themselves  are  not  slow  to 
recognize  and  deplore  them.  There  is  undoubtedly  much  that  is  un- 
christian and  ungenerous  in  the  forms  in  which  the  spirit  which  we 
have  described  manifests  itself  in  speech  and  action.  It  is  of  course 
closely  related  to  the  general  movement  for  self-government  and  inde- 
pendence of  foreign  control  which  is  sweeping  over  the  face  of  India  at 
the  present  time  and  much  of  the  ill  feeling  has  its  roots  not  in  wrongs 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  individual  missionaries  or  even  of  the  mission 
as  a  whole,  but  in  a  general  resentment  against  the  privileges  and  power 
of  the  race  to  which  the  missionary  usually  belongs.  But  the  same  spirit 
is  to  be  found  among  Indians  who  most  truly  and  faithfully  adorn  the 
doctrine  of  their  Saviour,  only  expressed  in  different  terms  or  showing 
itself  in  a  kind  of  hopeless  resignation  and  despair  of  better  things. 
And  so  it  has  come  to  the  point  that  almost  the  whole  weight  of  Indian 
Christian  opinion — including  some  of  the  truest,  and  humblest  followers 
of  Christ — has  thrown  itself  against  the  mission  and  the  missionary.  .  . . 
"It  is  our  convinced  opinion  that  nothing  but  heroic  measures  will  meet 
the  situation — half  concessions  (unless  part  of  a  pledged  program)  will 
effect  little.  We  have  got  to  take  risks.  'Why,'  it  has  well  been  asked, 
'should  we  insist  on  making  all  the  mistakes  ourselves?' 

"We  believe  that  the  time  for  cautious  experiment  has  gone  by  and 
that  any  measures  however  well  devised  will  be  suspected  and  misun- 
derstood, as  such  measures  have  been  in  the  past,  unless  they  make  clear 
beyond  question  and  cavil  that  we  are  in  earnest  in  this  matter;  that 
the  day  of  platitudes  and  promises  is  over  and  that  we  mean  to  commend 

646 


the  Gospel  by  a  great  corporate  act  of  renunciation  of  that  which  most 
men  and  women  love  more  than  anything  else  in  the  world,  even  if  their 
ambitions  are  noble — a  renunciation  of  power.... If  the  exercise  of 
power  passes  in  considerable  measure  from  us,  there  may  pass  with  it 
some  of  the  temptations  that  follow  in  its  train.  And  there  will  certainly 
pass  the  black  cloud  of  suspicion,  and  in  its  place  a  mutual  recognition 
by  Indian  and  Englishmen  of  graces  and  qualities  that  languish  in  an 
atmosphere  of  misunderstanding,  and  we,  by  following  in  the  steps  of 
the  Lord  of  Glory  who  entrusted  His  character  and  His  Gospel  to  a  band 
of  simple  men  and  women,  shall  see  repeated  in  India  those  miracles 
of  grace  and  power  which  our  own  preaching  and  organization  are  so 
manifestly  failing  to  produce  today." 

The  minute  of  the  Diocesan  Council  runs  thus: — 

"If  there  is  a  note  of  sadness  and  pessimism  in  this  statement,  it  is 
due  to  the  conviction  that  no  mere  improvement  of  the  personal  be- 
havior of  individuals  can  ever  set  things  right,  for  though  the  attitude 
of  modern  missionaries  is  far  more  'sympathetic'  with  Indian  feeling 
than  was  that  of  some  of  our  predecessors,  yet  this  has  not  resulted  in 
a  corresponding  improvement  of  relations  between  the  different  racial 
elements  in  the  Church.".  .  .  . 

An  Indian  member  (a  graduate  and  a  minister  of  twelve  years' 
standing)   of  the  Conference  expressed  himself  thus: — 

"We  Indians  feel  that  it  is  a  necessity  that  Indians  should  be  admit- 
ted in  the  governing  body  of  the  mission.  At  present  there  are,  as  it 
were,  two  distinct  agencies,  European  and  Indian;  and  the  secrecy 
which  from  the  Indian  point  of  view  covers  the  proceedings  of  A.  C.  C. 
is  fruitful  of  suspicion  and  alienation,  and  fosters  just  that  kind  of 
national  spirit  which  is  of  the  Devil." 

Eventually  the  following  resolutions  were  drafted  and  adopted  nomine 
contradicente : — 

"That  the  Missionary  Section  of  the  Lucknow  Diocesan  Council,  in- 
cluding all  the  missionaries  in  Priests'  Orders,  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  and  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  considers 
that  a  point  has  been  reached  in  this  Diocese  when  the  progress  of  the 
Church  is  hampered  by  the  almost  complete  retention  in  foreign  hands 
of  the  control  over  the  policy,  property  and  funds  of  the  Missionary  So- 
cieties, and  that  with  a  view  to  encouraging  a  larger  measure  of  self- 
government  and  self-support,  removing  the  sense  of  impotence  which 
keeps  many  of  the  most  capable  Indian  Christians  out  of  mission  work, 
placing  the  English  missionary  in  the  position  of  a  helper  to  the  Indian 
Church,  and  removing  something  of  the  stigma  of  foreignness  from 
Indian  Christianity  itself — steps  should  be  taken  without  delay  to  give 
to  Indians  a  far  larger  measure  of  control. 

"That  this  Committee  (appointed  to  consider  the  above  resolution  and 
to  suggest  ways  by  which  the  principle  could  be  put  into  effect)  be  asked 
to  consider  among  other  things  the  following  suggestions  which  largely 
transfer  the  functions  of  the  A.  C.  C.  and  the  Diocesan  Mission  Board 
to  a  new  Committee: — 

(1)  That  a  Committee  consisting  of  an  equal  number  of  Indians 
and  Europeans  with  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Lucknow  as  Chairman  be 
formed  to  direct  and  control  the  policy  and  work  of  the  Societies. 

(2)  That  the  whole  budget  for  evangelistic  and  educational  work 
should  be  drawn  up  by  this  Committee. 

647 


(3)  That  new  missionaries  should  come  out  only  as  deemed  necessary 
by  this  Committee. 

(4)  That  the  first  term  of  missionaries  should  be  a  trial  term,  and 
that  they  should  only  return,  after  their  first  term  or  after  a  subsequent 
furlough,  on  the  recommendation  of  this  Committee. 

(5)  That  allocation  and  transfer  of  missionaries  should  be  in  the 
hand  of  this  Committee." 

The  above  resolutions  were  considered  by  the  C.  M.  S.  Conference  at 
a  meeting  held  in  Agra  in  March  1920  when  it  was  resolved: — 

"That  the  best  way  to  give  effect  to  this  policy  would  be  not  to  reform 

A.  C.  C but  to  transfer  most  if  not  all  the  functions  of  A.  C.  C.  to  the 

Missionary  Section  of  the  Diocesan  Council. 

"It  therefore  recommends  that  provided  that  the  regulations  of  the 
Council  can  be  so  altered  as  to  secure  that  at  least  half  the  members 
of  the  Mission  Board  must  be  Indians,  and  at  least  one-fourth  women, 
and  it  be  possible  for  the  Sub-Committee  of  the  Mission  Board  to  coopt 
members  from  outside  the  Diocesan  Council,  P.  C.  (Parent  Committee 
i.  e..  Home  Board  of  the  C.  M.  S.)  should  transfer  to  the  Missionary 
Section  of  the  Diocesan  Council  the  control  now  exercised  by  A.  C.  C. 
and  that  the  only  functions  retained  by  A.  C.  C.  should  be: — 

(1)  The  protection  of  C.  M.  S.  property  until  such  time  as  that  is 
made  over  to  the  Diocesan  Council. 

(2)  The  conduct  of  the  personal  affairs  of  the  Missionaries  recruited 
by  C.  M.  S.  and  the  consideration  of  applications  from  them  for  emer- 
gency grants  from  P.  C. 

That  in  future  A.  C.  C.  should  consist  of: — 

(a)  Four'  persons  not  in  the  employ  of  C.  M.  S.  of  whom  one  should 
be  an  English  lady  and  at  least  one  should  be  an  Indian. 

(6)  Two  missionaries — one  man  and  one  woman — recruited  by  C. 
M.  S.  to  be  nominated  by  Conference. 

(c)      The  Secretary 

with  the  Bishop  as  President." 

The  above  minute  of  the  C.  M.  S.  Conference  was  considered  by  the 
Committee  appointed  by  the  Diocesan  Council  which  took  the  following 
action: — 

" .  . .  .  We  believe  that  the  time  has  already  come,  we  are  assured  by 
the  votes  of  the  Diocesan  Council  of  the  C.  M.  S.  Conference  that  the 
principle  if  generally  accepted,  that  the  Indian  representation  on  the 
governing  bodies  of  Missions  should  be  made  not  less  than  equal  to  the 
European,  as  a  mark  of  confidence  and  fellowship,  as  an  example  of 
Christian  polity  in  a  non-Christian  country,  and  as  an  essential  con- 
dition of  missionary  efficiency. 

"We  therefore  so  far  agree  with  C.  M.  S.  Conference  that  we  recog- 
nize that  what  is  ultimately  required  is  that  the  Church  be  strengthened 
by  the  actual  transfer  to  it  of  responsibilities  which  are  now  discharged 
by  the  Missionary  Societies,  but  we  believe  that  it  would  be  a  serious 
mistake  to  hold  back  all  changes  in  the  governing  body  of  that  Mission 
until  these  further  changes  can  be  introduced." 

The  matter  is  now  under  the  consideration  of  the  Parent  Committee 
of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  but  the  above  extracts  will  indicate 
that  missionaries  of  that  Society  are  convinced  that  some  radical  change 
in  the  policy  and  administration  of  mission  affairs  is  most  urgently 
called  for,  and  they  are  determined  to  take  "heroic  measures"  to  meet  the 
situation. 

648 


APPENDIX  IV 

Allahabad,  8th  July,  1920. 
R.  E.  Speer,  Esq.,  D.D.,  Secretary,  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, 156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  U.  S.  A. 
Dear  Dr.  Speer: — 

A  fortnight  ago  I  forwarded  to  you  a  few  copies  of  a  printed  state- 
ment on  the  question  of  the  Church  and  Mission.  .  .  . 

At  this  time  of  world-wide  changes  which  has  not  left  India  untouched 
it  is  most  essential  that  not  even  the  least  suspicion  of  "race  and  color" 
should  appear  in  the  Church  or  Mission.  The  Indians  wish  to  co-oper- 
ate with  the  foreign  missionaries  and  churches,  and  nothing  should  be 
done  to  discourage  it.  When  other  Missions  and  Churches  are  launch- 
ing out  boldly  to  solve  the  problems  before  them  will  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  America — a  democratic  country — lag  behind?  Will  not  the 
missionary  statesmanship  of  that  church  take  a  world-wide  view  of  the 
situation?  The  present  policy  is  doing  immense  harm.  It  not  only  en- 
courages the  race  policy  but  is  denying  to  Indians  the  opportunity  of 
being  educated  in  administrative  matters.  The  Mass  Movement,  the 
educational  and  medical  sections,  to  take  only  a  few,  are  administered 
by  the  "Mission"  which  has  no  Indian  membership,  the  result  being 
that  the  Mission  and  the  "Board"  on  the  one  side  do  not  get  the  benefit 
of  Indian  opinion,  and  the  Indians  on  the  other  hand  do  not  get  an 
opportunity  of  becoming  familiar  with  the  difficulties  of  missionary 
work  in  its  various  phases.  From  outside  they  noting  the  weak  points 
become  hostile  critics.  This  position  has  been  forced  on  them.  In  the 
political  world  Indians  and  Europeans  are  joining  hands,  the  King  has 
pleaded  for  sympathy  and  co-operation,  the  Methodist  Church  of 
America  is  leading  the  way  in  this  matter;  the  Anglican  Churches  in 
North  India  are  trying  to  find  a  solution;  what  is  the  Presbyterian 
Board  going  to  do? 

With  apologies  for  troubling  you  again, 

I  remain,  yours  sincerely, 

N.  K.  MUKERJI,  Secretary 


APPENDIX  V 

18,  Clive  Road, 
Allahabad,  the  22nd  July  1920. 
To  the  Members  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,   156   Fifth  Avenue 

Street,  New  York  City,  U.  S.  A. 
Dear  Sirs: — 

I  am  sending  herewith  for  your  information  copies  of  some  communi- 
cations which  have  been  forwarded  to  Dr.  Robert  Speer,  Secretary  of 
the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  They  will  explain  themselves.  I  hope 
the  subject-matter  of  these  communications  will  receive  the  consideration 
which  it  deserves. 

We  have  tried  to  point  out  in  the  printed  letter  how  the  present  mis- 
sion policy  (of  isolating  the  Church  and  the  Mission)  has  proved  dis- 
astrous both  to  the  Church  and  Mission  alike.  The  trial  of  a  new  policy 
is  called  for,  at  least  by  the  present  breakdowm,  to  see  if  matters  can 
be  helped;  for,  indeed,  nothing,  we  hold,  can  make  matters  worse. 

We  cannot  too  strongly  emphasize  that  the  present  policy  is  putting 
Indian  Christians  farther  and  farther  from  Missions  and  if  Missions 
are  to  do  their  work  with  any  degree  of  success,  a  great  rallying  measure 
in  the  shape  of  a  policy  of  co-operation  with  the  Church  is  needed.  That 
Indian  Christians  realize  this,  and  are  not  inspired  in  their  desire  for 

649 


this  co-operation  by  lust  for  power  or  foreign  money,  is  well  illustrated 
by  an  incident  that  happened  in  the  last  meeting  of  the  Diocesan  Coun- 
cil (of  the  Church  of  England)  of  the  United  Provinces.  Canon  Davies 
(an  Englishman)  had  moved  a  resolution  to  the  effect  that  as  the  time 
was  ripe  for  it  the  administration  of  mission  affairs  should  be  put  into 
entirely  Indian  hands.  Another  English  missionary  moved  an  amend- 
ment that  Indians  should  be  largely  associated  in  the  administration  of 
Mission  affairs.  When  vote  was  taken  only  Europeans  voted  for  the 
original  motion,  but  ALL  INDIANS  and  some  Europeans  voted  for  the 
amendment  which  was  duly  carried.  This  clearly  indicates  that  Indian 
Christians  are  for  co-operation  and  not  for  separation.  Will  the  Board 
of  Foreign  Missions  perpetuate  the  present  policy,  or  take  a  statesman- 
like measure  to  bridge  over  the  separation  between  the  Mission  and 
the  Church? 

Trusting  that  the  matter  will  receive  due  consideration, 

I  remain, 
On  behalf  of  the  four  signatories  to  the  printed  letter, 
Yours  truly, 

N.    K.    MUKERJI. 


APPENDIX  VI 

September  21,  1920. 
Mr.  J.  M.  David,  B.A., 
The  Rev.  A.  Ralla  Ram,  B.A., 
Professor  N.  C.  Mukerji,  M.A., 
Mr.  N.  K.  Mukerji,  B.A. 
Dear  Brethren: — 

Your  communications  of  June  15th  addressed  to  me  and  of  July  22nd 
addressed  to  the  Members  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.  with  various  accompanying  papers  have 
been  received.  We  are  glad  that  you  have  written  with  candor  and  free- 
dom with  regard  to  this  important  problem  which  in  one  form  or  an- 
other arises  in  each  land  where  the  Christian  Church  is  founded  through 
the  instrumentality  of  foreign  missionary  effort.  We  understand  that 
your  present  communications  are  personal  and  not  official,  at  the  same 
time  that  you  are  confident,  as  you  write,  "that  in  our  sentiments  we  do 
not  merely  represent  ourselves  but  the  whole  Church  in  India."  It  is  a 
good  thing  that  these  questions  should  receive  the  fullest  discussion  of 
this  character  and  that  by  personal  conference  and  correspondence  we 
should  seek  for  the  right  path  of  further  progress.  At  the  same  time  it 
seems  to  us  that  when  the  question  is  one  affecting  the  life  and  relation- 
ship and  power  of  the  Church,  the  Church  itself  might  well  give  it  con- 
sideration in  its  Presbyteries,  Synods  and  Assembly,  and  deal  with  the 
Missions  and  with  the  Churches  which  have  sent  them  forth  in  the 
equal  and  fraternal  spirit  which  should  characterize  the  relations  of 
such  autonomous,  independent  bodies  as  the  Church  in  India  and  the 
Church  in  the  United  States.  We  should  welcome  such  an  earnest  con- 
sideration of  the  matter.  Meanwhile,  however,  I  am  happy  to  reply  to 
your  personal  communications  in  the  same  frankness  and  friendship  with 
which  you  have  written. 

I  can  not  better  express  to  you  our  general  view  of  the  question  which 
you  are  discussing  than  by  quoting  a  letter  of  the  Presbyterian  Board 
to  the  Synod  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  written  in  1906.  The 
question  of  relations  between  the  Church  of  Christ  (i.  e.,  the  Presbyterian 
and  Reformed  Church)   in  Japan  and  the  missions  of  the  Presbyterian 

650 


and  Reformed  Churches  in  Japan  was  then  a  very  prominent  and  per- 
plexing problem.  The  Church  in  Japan  was  a  strong  and  vigorous  body. 
It  did  not  wish  to  weaken  its  national  character  by  any  confusion  of  its 
own  work  or  membership  with  the  work  and  membership  of  the  Mis- 
sions. It  believed  that  the  Church  as  a  Church  should  be  self-sustained 
and  governed  and  it  believed  that  the  Missions  as  Missions  had  a  vital 
work  to  do  in  co-operation  with  the  Church.  The  question  was  what 
should  be  the  principles  and  methods  of  this  co-operation.  The  Church 
in  Japan  stated  the  matter  as  follows: 

"It  is  now  more  than  thirty  years  since  the  Church  was  first  founded, 
and  already  it  has  a  history  that  may  rightly  be  described  as  eventful. 
Among  its  ministers  and  private  members  there  are  many  who  are  well 
deserving  of  respect.  It  extends  from  one  end  of  Japan  to  the  other,  and 
carries  on  its  work  through  a  Synod,  presbyteries,  and  congregations. 
It  has  a  Board  of  Missions  actively  engaged  in  the  work  of  evangeliza- 
tion and  the  establishment  of  churches.  Therefore  it  seems  to  be  rea- 
sonable to  claim  that  it  has  a  right  to  a  voice  in  all  work  carried  on 
within  its  organization  or  closely  connected  with  it.  That  is  the  principle 
for  which  the  Synod  stands;  and  for  which  it  believes  that  Churches  in 
other  lands,  under  like  circumstances,  would  stand. 

"The  question  of  co-operation  has  agitated  the  Church  and  the  missions 
from  time  to  time  for  nearly  fifteen  years;  and  there  are  those  who 
think  the  agitation  uncalled  for,  since  co-operation  is  already  a  matter 
of  fact.  Whether  it  is  matter  of  fact  or  not  depends  upon  the  sense  in 
which  the  word  co-operation  is  used.  The  fact  that  the  missions  employ 
evangelists,  aid  in  the  support  of  pastors,  establish  and  maintain  preach- 
ing places,  while  at  the  same  time  they  also  in  fact  practically  retain 
such  matters  solely  within  their  own  control,  does  not  in  itself  constitute 
co-operation;  if  by  co-operation  is  meant  a  co-working  which  recognizes 
the  principle  for  which  the  Synod  stands.  Even  though  the  work  done 
extends  the  Church,  the  system  as  a  system  is  that  of  an  imperium  in 
imperio. 

"The  co-operation  which  the  Church  seeks  is  a  co-operation  of  the 
missions  as  missions  vdth  the  Church  as  a  Church.  The  missions  and 
the  Church,  acting  as  independent  organizations,  should  make  clear  and 
definite  arrangements  with  each  other  under  the  principle  set  forth; 
and  the  work  of  the  missions  as  missions  carried  on  within  or  in  close 
connection  with  the  organization  of  the  Church  should  be  controlled  by 
such  arrangements.  Co-operation  should  find  a  partial  analogy  in  the 
alliance  between  England  and  Japan;  not  in  the  relations  between  Japan 
and  Korea. 

"The  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  owes  much  to  the  missionaries  of 
the  Presbyterian  and  Reformed  Churches.  Some  of  them  will  be  remem- 
bered as  among  its  founders  and  early  guides;  and  to  the  Churches 
from  which  they  come,  and  the  Boards  of  Foreign  Missions  which  they 
represent,  it  will  always  be  a  debtor.  The  future — the  wonderful  future 
which  now  perhaps  lies  before  it — may  bring  many  changes.  But  no 
changes  of  the  future  can  change  the  past;  and  the  past  with  your 
sympathy  and  kindness  is  a  pledge  for  the  future." 

To  this  the  Presbyterian  Board  replied  as  follows: 

"We  are  glad  to  receive  a  communication  from  your  Church.  We 
welcome  the  kind  expressions  of  your  letter,  and  of  the  statement  of  the 
Synod  with  reference  to  the  Churches  of  the  West,  and  we  rejoice  in 
that  fellowship  in  a  common  faith  and  service  which  we  are  confident 
will  increase  and  not  diminish  as  we  draw  nearer  together  in  the  ful- 

651 


filment  of  a  common  mission.  There  is  no  national  Church  in  whose 
founding'  and  ^owth  our  own  Church  has  taken  a  deeper  interest.  From 
the  time  that  Dr.  Hepburn,  now  in  his  ninety-second  year,  reached 
Yokohama,  the  friends  of  the  extension  of  Christ's  Kingdom  among  all 
nations  have  watched  and  prayed  over  Japan,  and  since  the  founding  of 
the  first  Church  of  Christ  in  1872,  your  Church  has  been  ever  in  the 
thought  and  heart  of  our  Church.  We  have  rejoiced  in  its  consciousness 
of  responsibility  and  national  mission,  in  its  strong  and  steady  develop- 
ment, in  its  fidelity  to  a  true  scriptural  Christology,  in  its  ministry  to 
the  intellectual,  moral  and  spiritual  necessities  of  the  nation  in  its  period 
of  transition,  and  we  rejoice  in  the  yet  wider  duties  which  are  coming 
upon  the  Church  in  the  new  age  of  expanded  national  influence  and 
destiny.  We  thank  God  for  the  part  we  have  had  in  this  great  movement. 
In  your  letter  you  make  generous  recognition  of  what  we  have  sought  to 
do.  Your  words  are  grateful  to  us.  We  can  not  wish  more  for  you  than 
that  in  years  to  come,  great  Churches  which  you  may  be  instrumental 
in  founding,  may  so  speak  to  you  as 'you  have  spoken  to  us. 

"We  recognize  the  grave  importance  of  the  communications  you  send. 
We  trust  we  will  not  be  misunderstood,  however,  in  saying  that  we  are 
not  troubled  or  surprised.  We  have  watched  with  constant  interest  and 
solicitude  the  developments  of  the  past  fifteen  years  or  more.  Sometime 
before  his  death,  the  late  Dr.  T.  T.  Alexander  wrote  out  with  great  care, 
and,  it  need  not  be  said,  with  most  sympathetic  appreciation  of  the 
problems  and  interests  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  a  full  account  of  the 
history  of  the  relations  of  the  Missions  to  the  Church  up  to  that  time, 
and  we  have  sought  since  by  correspondence  and  a  study  of  all  avail- 
able publications  to  gain  an  intelligent  understanding  of  this  import- 
ant discussion.  We  have  known  accordingly,  the:  facts  which  the  state- 
ment of  the  Synod  so  clearly  brings  together,  and  while  we  regret  the 
feeling  of  discouragement  on  the  part  of  any  in  the  Church  or  in  the 
Missions  and  their  doubt  as  to  the  possibility  of  any  solution,  we  are 
not  unduly  troubled,  because  we  are  not  prepared  for  a  moment  to  be- 
lieve that  earnest  Christian  men  working  together  to  a  common  end 
and  with  a  common  spirit,  can  not  arrange  a  basis  of  satisfactory  co- 
operation, and  because,  further,  we  are  convinced  that  the  problems 
which  the  Church  and  the  Missions  are  called  upon  to  solve  are  the 
problems  which  inevitably  arise  in  a  living  movement  and  are  a  sign 
of  life  and  progress. 

"We  would  not  speak  lightly  of  perplexities  which  have  brought 
anxiety  to  you  and  to  the  Missions,  and  the  burden  of  which  we,  too, 
have  felt;  but  are  not  these  preferable  to  the  ease  and  simplicity  of  stag- 
nation and  torpor?  The  difficulties  of  which  we  are  thinking  have  grown 
out  of  the  living  activity,  the  zeal  and  far-reaching  work  of  the  two  bodies 
which  it  is  your  desire  and  ours  to  see  brought  into  proper  co-operation. 
To  have  two  bodies  which  need  to  be  brought  into  co-operation  is  better 
than  to  have  no  problem  of  co-operation  because  there  are  no  living 
forces  to  bring  together.  We  frankly  confess  that  we  would  be  glad  to 
have  such  problems  as  the  one  you  present,  raised  in  other  lands,  pro- 
vided they  should  be  raised  in  the  same  temperate  and  Christian  way, 
and  with  the  same  hope  of  a  happy  Christian  adjustment. 

"As  we  review  the  history  recorded  in  the  Communication  of  the  Synod, 
we  rejoice  at  the  evidence,  as  it  seems  to  us.  that  there  has  been  a 
real  and  earnest  effort  made  on  both  sides  to  reach  a  wise  arrangement. 
Various  plans  have  been  tried  in  the  history  of  the  Church  and  the 
Missions.  Some  have  worked  for  a  while  and  been  abandoned.  Some- 
times the  dissatisfaction  has  been  on  the  side  of  the  Church  and  some- 

652 


times  on  the  side  of  the  Missions,  and  sometimes  the  inevitable  and 
desirable  change  of  conditions  has  rendei'ed  a  plan  no  longer  wise  which 
seemed  for  a  time  satisfactory,  and  which  was  for  that  time  the  wisest 
expedient.  And  steadily,  even  when  in  the  judgment  of  the  Synod  there 
was  no  proper  co-operation  betwe<>n  the  Synod  and  the  Missions,  the 
work  has  grown,  and  God's  blessing  has  been  upon  the  Church.  The 
conditions  may  not  always  have  been  what  we  would  have  chosen,  or  the 
Synod  or  the  Missions,  but  it  is  possible  that  in  the  future,  when  we  can 
look  back  and  study  philosophically  the  history  of  the  Church  in  Japan, 
we  may  see  that  God  allowed  just  these  conditions  to  prevail  which  He 
saw  would  be  most  favorable  to  the  development  of  the  Church  as  a 
great  national  institution.  We  do  not  say  this  as  justifying  these  con- 
ditions or  their  continuance,  for  we  believe  that  the  time  has  arrived 
for  a  wise  solution,  if  wisdom  may  be  given  to  the  Church  and  to  the 
Missions,  of  one  of  the  most  important  problems  of  the  Church's  life, — 
a  problem  inevitable  sooner  or  later  in  the  founding  of  Christianity  as 
an  independent  institution  in  that  land.  It  is  our  earnest  hope  that  the 
consideration  of  the  problems  before  us  may  be  lifted  to  this  high  level, 
above  all  temporary  and  personal  elements. 

"We  have  said  that  we  are  not  disturbed  that  the  issue  which  the 
Synod's  Communication  presents  has  arisen.  We  will  even  venture  to 
go  further  and  to  say  that  we  rejoice  in  it.  We  should  be  sorry  if  it  had 
not  arisen  in  some  form.  We  have  never  entertained  any  other  thought 
than  that  the  Church  of  Christ  should  attain  the  fullest  measure  of 
national  autonomy,  and  we  shall  be  happy  to  see  a  further  step  taken 
in  that  direction.  We  welcomed  the  ecclesiastical  independence  of  the 
Church.  We  rejoiced  in  the  union  of  all  Presbyterian  and  Reformed 
congregations  in  one  body,  with  a  simplified  doctrinal  basis  which 
guarded  against  the  errors  against  which  the  Church  of  Japan  had  to 
bear  its  testimony,  but  which  did  not  perpetuate  the  doctrinal  disa- 
greements of  the  West,  or  raise  in  Japan  a  creedal  obstacle  in  the  way 
of  a  yet  larger  measure  of  organic  Christian  unity  in  the  future.  We 
were  glad  to  see  the  Church  received  on  this  basis  into  the  fellowship 
of  the  Alliance  of  the  Reformed  Churches  as  a  sister  Church  of  sov- 
ereign freedom,  and  we  are  not  at  all  disappointed  now  to  have  the 
question  of  a  real  administrative  independence  and  autonomy  brought 
forward  for  discussion.  Our  aim  in  the  work  which  we  have  tried  to  do 
in  Japan  has  been  from  the  outset  the  aim  which  we  conceive  should 
control  all  foreign  missionary  work,  namely,  the  establishment  of  a 
truly  national  Church,  which  will  be  able  to  take  up  all  the  responsibili- 
ties of  such  a  Church,  and  leave  the  missionary  agencies  free  to  pass 
on  to  other  fields  to  do  there  the  same  work.  A  truly  national  Church, 
supporting  its  own  institutions,  administering  all  its  own  affairs,  and 
capable  of  evangelizing  its  own  people  is  the  euthanasia  of  foreign 
missions.  The  stronger,  the  more  independent,  the  more  truly  autono- 
mous, the  more  missionary  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  the  greater 
is  our  joy. 

"The  road  which  we  have  been  over  in  our  relations  one  to  another 
has  not  always  been  a  smooth  road.  That  is  of  no  consequence.  We 
have  trusted  one  another,  and  have  been  earnestly  and  sincerely  seeking 
one  end.  And  that  end  has  been  .so  far  realized.  Now  there  arises  the 
necessity  of  a  further  adjustment.  We  see  no  reason  why  this  should 
not  be  made.  If  the  Church  of  Christ  has  the  Spirit  of  Christ  and  the 
Missions  have  the  spirit  of  John  the  Baptist,  which  was  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  it  will  surely  be  possible  to  reach  a  satisfactory  basis  of  co-opera- 

G53 


tion.  Our  Missions  have  no  ambition  save  to  advance  the  interests,  to 
extend  the  influence  and  to  enlarge  the  work  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 
They  realize  that  this  is  a  transition  time,  and  that  new  adjustments  are 
called  for.  We  know  that  they  are  prepared  to  consider  the  whole  matter 
with  you  in  the  spirit  of  which  we  have  just  spoken.  The  problem  you 
have  to  consider  with  them  has  three  solutions.  One  is  the  withdrawal 
of  the  Missions  from  Japan.  We  are  glad  that  this  thought  has  not 
occurred  to  you.  With  30,000,000  and  more  people  still  to  be  reached  by 
the  Gospel,  with  large  districts  containing  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
souls  unprovided  with  any  Christian  agency  whatsoever,  with  institu- 
tions now  crowded  with  pupils  which  still  require  support  from  abroad, 
our  conscience  would  not  approve  our  deserting  you  in  your  immense 
and  vitally  important  struggle.  Moreover,  such  a  course,  on  the  face  of 
such  facts,  would  be  a  confession  of  weakness  and  failure  on  your  part 
and  ours.  A  second  course  would  be  the  continuance  of  the  present  situ- 
tion.  But  this  is  no  solution  at  all,  and  would  be  intolerable  to  you 
and  to  the  Missions  and  to  us.  The  third  course  would  be  a  settlement 
between  you  as  a  Synod  and  the  Missions  jointly,  or,  if  no  joint  action 
could  be  reached,  between  you  and  the  Missions  separately,  or,  between 
the  Presbyteries  and  the  Missions  at  work  within  their  bounds.  We 
do  not  understand  from  the  Communication  of  the  Synod  that  it  wished 
us  to  make  any  detailed  suggestion,  and  this  understanding  is  confirmed 
by  the  clear  statement  of  your  Committee's  letter,  to  the  effect  that  the 
Missions  and  the  Church,  acting  as  independent  organizations,  should 
make  clear  and  definite  arrangements  with  each  other  under  the  prin- 
ciple set  forth.  That  principle  you  have  stated  with  equal  clearness  in 
the  declaration  that  the  Church  'has  a  right  to  a  voice  in  all  work 
carried  on  within  its  organization  or  closely  connected  with  it.'  We 
do  not  see  why  there  should  be  any  hesitation  in  accepting  this  principle. 
We  accept  it  heartily.  We  would  accept  it  in  the  case  of  a  Church  far 
less  advanced  in  autonomy  and  independence  than  the  Church  of  Christ 
in  Japan.  We  recognize  that  the  terms  in  which  the  principle  is  stated 
will  need  some  definition.  What  'voice?'  How  'closely  connected?*  Does 
the  phrase  'all  work'  limit  the  personal  freedom  of  a  missionary  more 
closely  than  the  personal  action  of  a  presbyter  or  layman  of  the  Church 
of  Christ?  But  these  are  questions  which  we  are  entirely  prepared  to 
leave  to  determination  in  conference  between  the  Church  of  Christ  in 
its  Synod  or  Presbyteries  and  the  Missions  or  missionaries. 

"We  think  it  might  help  to  a  clearer  understanding  of  the  problem 
if  the  Church  and  the  Missions  could  put  themselves  each  in  the  other's 
place.  We  have  endeavored  to  do  so  here.  How  would  the  Synod  of 
New  York  feel,  for  example,  with  reference  to  Missions  established 
within  its  bounds  by  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland?  This  is  not 
a  purely  hypothetical  case;  for  shortly  after  1717,  when  the  Synod  of 
New  York  was  established,  the  Mother  Churches  in  Great  Britain  gave 
us  aid,  and  the  Synod  of  Glasgow  raised  $5,000,  one-tenth  of  which  was 
sent  to  New  York,  and  the  remainder  was  used  to  send  missionaries 
throughout  the  colonies.  Such  conditions  were  not  found  unendurable 
then.  In  due  time  the  Church  of  Christ  will  probably  face  this  problem 
in  its  own  missionary  experience  in  other  lands.  Those  principles 
should  be  followed  now  in  Japan  which  we  should  wish  followed  here 
were  the  United  Free  Church  at  work  in  the  Synod  of  New  York,  and 
which  you  will  wish  followed  in  China  or  Afghanistan  in  future  years. 

"There  is  one  feature  of  the  situation  that  is  of  special  interest  to  us. 
It  is  the  proposition  to  deprive  of  full  ecclesiastical  standing  all  churches 

654 


which  fail  within  a  reasonable  time  to  attain  self-support.  The  prin- 
ciple involved  here  is  not  novel  to  us.  Many  missionaries  have  held  the 
theory  that  no  church  should  be  fully  organized,  have  a  pastor  installed 
over  it,  and  be  admitted  to  presbyterial  standing  that  is  not  self-sup- 
porting. Your  proposition  is  simply  the  firm  application  of  this  principle 
to  your  own  congregations.  We  shall  watch  the  outcome  with  deepest 
interest.  It  will  be  a  step  far  in  advance  of  our  own  Church  in  America. 
Here,  of  7,536  fully  organized  churches,  having  full  presbyterial  stand- 
ing, about  2,500  are  not  self-supporting.  The  course  you  propose,  if 
applied  here,  would  either  force  some  of  these  churches  to  self-support, 
or  would  reduce  the  number  of  our  organized  churches  about  thirty- 
three  and  a  third  per  cent.  If  applied  in  some  foreign  mission  fields, 
it  would  annihilate  the  Church  entirely  as  an  ecclesiastical  organization. 
We  are  not  prepared  to  say  that  the  course  you  propose  is  not  wise 
everywhere,  and  especially  so  in  Japan  at  this  time,  and  we  shall  earnest- 
ly pray  that  it  may  result  in  greatly  increasing  the  number  of  self- 
sustaining  churches  and  in  stimulating  the  whole  body. 

"We  have  replied  to  the  Communication  of  the  Synod  and  to  your 
letter  with  fullness  and  with  entire  confidence,  as  brethren  to  brethren. 
We  feel  sure  that  we  have  represented  the  mind  of  our  Mission  in  Japan. 
There  is  one  further  thought,  however,  which  we  wish  to  suggest.  As 
we  have  said,  the  problem  now  raised  is  inevitable.  It  has  arisen,  or  it 
will  arise,  in  everly  land  where  the  work  of  founding  the  Christian 
Church  is  under  way.  Must  we  say  that  the  problem  is  insoluble,  and 
that  Christian  men  in  the  highest  and  most  Christ-like  of  all  undertak- 
ings can  do  no  more  than  disagree  courteously,  and  separate?  We  can 
not  believe  this.  We  are  sure  that  the  problem  can  be  solved,  and  we 
believe  that  the  privilege  of  solving  it  is  now  given  to  the  Church  of 
Christ  in  Japan, — the  problem  of  cordial,  harmonious,  co-operative  work 
with  the  missionary  force  in  the  field,  during  the  period  intermediate 
between  that  of  the  first  founding  of  the  Church  and  that  of  its  full 
ettablishment,  when  foreign  missions  shall  be  needed  no  more,  because 
their  place  will  have  been  taken  by  home  Missions  in  power.  This 
problem,  if  solved  by  you  in  Japan,  will  be  solved  for  other  countries  also, 
and  the  solution  will  be  an  honor  to  the  Church  in  Japan,  and  a  rich 
gift  to  the  Church  of  Christ  in  other  lands.  We  do  not  anticipate,  how- 
ever, any  solution  by  means  of  formal  stipulations  unchangeably  opera- 
tive. It  is  a  living  movement  in  which  we  are  engaged,  and  what  we 
rather  hope  for  is  such  living  and  sympathetic  adjustments  as  will  meet 
the  present  needs,  and  be  capable  of  such  further  modification  as  the 
changed  conditions  of  the  future  will  be  sure  to  necessitate. 

"This  reply  to  your  Communication  is  sent  not  only  in  behalf  of  our 
own  Board,  but  also  in  behalf  of  the  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  Church,  whose  work  will  henceforth  be  consolidated  with 
the  work  of  our  Board,  as  the  two  Churches  are  now  reunited  in  one. 

"With  earnest  hope  that  'the  future,  the  wonderful  future,'  of  which 
you  justly  speak  as  perhaps  lying  before  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan, 
may  be  all  that  you  and  we  could  wish,  and  that  it  may  bring  to  the 
Church  the  richest  measure  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  and  of  His  Son, 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord, 

"We  are,  in  behalf  of  the  Board,  etc." 

The  situation  in  Japan  at  the  time  of  this  correspondence  differed  from 
the  present  situation  in  India,  but  the  spirit  in  which  our  common  prob- 
lems must  be  met  was  the  same  then  as  now.  Moreover  the  principles 
for  which  we  are  seeking  are  principles  which  will  be  good  always  and 

655 


everywhere.  Of  these  principles  one  which  we  think  is  clear  and  unques- 
tionable is  the  principle  of  the  primacy  of  the  national  Church.  To  be 
sure  the  Church  is  not  an  end  in  itself.  It  exists  for  service,  for  the 
purpose  of  witnessing  to  the  Gospel,  of  evangelizing-  the  nations,  of 
sanctifying  human  life.  And  its  glory  is  found  in  the  measure  of  its 
achievement  of  these  ends.  To  aid  in  the  establishment  of  such  churches 
and  to  work  with  them  toward  the  evangelization  of  the  world  is  the  aim 
of  foreign  missions  as  we  conceive  it. 

This  is  our  aim  in  India.  There,  we  rejoice  to  remember,  the  Church 
is  already  an  independent  national  church.  Neither  the  Church  in  the 
United  States  nor  any  of  its  missions  has  any  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction 
within  its  bounds.  There  was  a  time  when  this  was  not  the  case,  when 
the  Presbyteries  in  India  were  Presbyteries  not  of  the  Church  of  India 
but  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  U.  S.  A.  and  when  Indian  churches 
and  ministers  were  amenable  to  a  foreign  General  Assembly  sitting  in 
a  foreign  land.  We  are  glad  that  that  day  is  gone  by.  We  do  not  want 
to  see  it  or  anything  that  perpetuates  the  principle  of  it  restored.  There 
are  some  other  denominations  which  hold  to  the  idea  of  a  universal  ex- 
tension of  the  denomination,  with  all  its  parts  governed  from  the  home 
centre  in  Europe  or  America.  But  we  have  never  accepted  this  idea.  It 
is  not  our  endeavor  to  spread  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  United 
States  of  America  over  the  world  amalgamating  with  it  and  subjecting 
to  its  jurisdiction  the  churches  which  may  have  been  founded  by  its 
missions  in  Japan  and  China  and  India  and  elsewhere.  We  believe  in  an 
Indian  Church,  not  identified  with  an  American  church  but  independent, 
national,  free,  related  to  the  churches  of  other  lands  as  an  equal,  working 
with  them  to  save  and  unite  mankind. 

Holding  this  view,  it  would  seem  to  us  that  the  solution  of  the  present 
problem  is  to  be  found  not  in  disparaging  the  Indian  Church,  nor  in 
dividing  its  strength,  nor  in  diminishing  its  responsibilities,  but  in  just 
the  opposite  course,  by  increasing  its  authority,  by  expecting  more  of  it, 
by  making  it  the  great  agency  of  evangelization.  Instead  of  transfer- 
ring a  few  strong  Indian  leaders  from  the  Indian  Church  to  a  foreign 
mission,  removing  or  dividing  their  obligation  and  allegiance,  in  order 
that  they  might  share  in  the  administration  of  money  from  America 
we  would  transfer  the  administration  of  the  money  to  the  Indian  Church 
or  to  some  such  joint  co-operative  agent  as  proposed  by  the  Church  in 
Japan.  To  transfer  a  few  individuals  in  the  way  proposed  might  or 
might  not  be  good  for  them  or  for  the  administration  of  the  work,  but  it 
would  not  give  to  the  Indian  Church  its  rightful  place  or  development, 
and  it  might  be  a  positive  injury  to  that  Church,  involving  undemocratic 
distinctions,  withdrawing  vital  responsibilities  and  the  leadership  essen- 
tial to  their  discharge,  and  exalting  a  temporary  and  purely  subsidiary 
agency,  such  as  the  foreign  mission  is,  into  the  place  of  the  authentic 
and  enduring  Church. 

We  are  sure  that  the  Board  is  entirely  ready  to  consider  the  transfer 
to  the  Indian  Church — Presbyteries,  Synods  and  Assembly — of  any  of  the 
responsibilities  or  functions  remaining  to  the  Missions  (which  have,  even 
now,  no  ecclesiastical  authority  whatsoever)  which  the  Indian  Church 
is  prepared  to  take  over,  and  with  them  to  transfer  such  annual  con- 
tributions as  its  means  allow  on  such  a  basis  of  understanding  as  will 
gradually  accomplish  the  financial  self-support  of  all  its  work  by  the 
Church. 

Various  suggestions  have  been  made,  as  your  communications  indicate, 
as  to  the  method  of  this  larger  fulfilment  of  the  missionary  ideal.     In 

656 


different  countries  progress  has  been  made  in  different  ways.  In  some, 
and  nothing  could  be  more  healthy  than  this  course,  the  national  Church 
has  risen  in  its  own  strength  and  taken  over  its  real  work.  It  has  sug- 
gested no  allowances,  and  sought  no  human  help.  As  in  Uganda  and 
Korea,  it  has  claimed  the  power  of  the  spirit  and  entered  into  its  mission. 
In  other  lands  the  local  churches  or  Presbyteries  and  the  Missions  co- 
operating with  them  have  simply  and  as  a  matter  of  course  done  the  work 
together,  in  common  counsel  and  sacrifice  and  endeavor,  with  mutual 
regard  and  trust.  It  is  thus  in  China  today,  where  churches  and  mis- 
sions are  working  together  as  one  great  body  in  their  colossal  task.  In 
Japan  definite  co-operative  plans  have  been  adopted  as  proposed  by  the 
Church  of  Christ  in  1906,  whereby  the  evangelistic  work  of  the  mission  in 
any  Presbytery  is  carried  on  by  a  joint  Committee  representing  both 
Presbytery  and  mission.  In  some  fields  local  agencies  of  joint  adminis- 
tration in  other  forms  have  been  effective. 

In  India  we  would  suggest  that  the  India  Council  representing  the 
Missions  of  our  Board  and  official  representatives  of  the  Presbyteries 
within  whose  bounds  the  three  Missions  are  at  work  should  meet  to  study 
the  question  and  to  suggest  wise  plans  to  the  Presbyteries,  Synods  and 
Missions,  and  to  the  Indian  Church  and  the  Board.  We  recognize  also 
that  the  Indian  Presbyterian  Church  embraces  a  great  deal  of  missionary 
work  carried  on  by  the  other  Presbyterian  and  Reformed  Churches,  and 
it  may  be  that  the  problem  is  so  great  that  the  Church  as  a  whole  and 
all  the  Missions  associated  with  it  will  unite  to  give  the  question  their 
combined  study  and  seek  to  reach  a  common  solution  which  will  bring 
both  to  the  Church  and  to  the  Missions  the  power  and  joy  in  the  service 
of  our  Lord  in  India  for  which  we  all  pray. 

There  is  one  other  element  of  this  problem  to  which  we  should  refer. 
It  is  not  touched  upon  in  your  letter  and  it  has  been  largely  passed  over 
in  other  mission  fields  in  the  discussions  of  these  questions.  It  is  the 
work  and  place  of  women.  Here  in  America  women  are  now  on  a  politi- 
cal equality  with  men.  In  common  life  they  have  long  been  accorded  a 
superior  position.  In  our  Church  life  the  question  of  their  equal  par- 
ticipation is  now  before  the  Presbyteries.  In  our  Missions  they  have 
the  same  status  with  men.  The  transfer  of  functions  and  activities  from 
Missions  to  the  Church  should  provide  in  some  way  for  the  full  partici- 
pation of  women,  in  the  administration  of  work  to  which  they  contribute 
equally  with  men. 

The  views  which  we  have  sought  to  set  forth  here  are  in  strong  accord 
with  that  intense  national  feeling  in  India  of  which  you  write  and  of 
which  we  have  many  evidences.  The  solution  of  the  problem  which 
would  be  acceptable  to  such  a  true  national  spirit  ought  to  provide,  it 
would  seem,  for  the  exaltation  of  the  agencies  of  the  Indian  Church,  for 
the  equal  participation  of  the  ministers  and  elders  of  the  Church  in  the 
fulfilment  of  its  task,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  full  Indian  responsi- 
bility of  every  representative  and  member  of  the  Church,  and  for  the 
right  relation  of  the  work  of  the  Missions  not  to  a  few  chosen  Indian 
individuals  but  to  the  Indian  Church  itself  and  its  official  agencies. 

Please  allow  me  to  repeat  in  closing  what  I  said  at  the  beginning  of 
our  satisfaction  in  receiving  your  communications  and  our  confidence  that 
out  of  these  discussions  great  good  will  come.  We  shall  need  to  pray 
for  help  that  our  limitations  of  vision  and  imperfections  of  judgment  and 
our  personal  temperaments  may  not  prevent  our  guidance  by  God's  good 
Spirit  in  the  discovery  of  the  principles  of  action  which  are  right  and 

667 


true  and  by  which  the  Church  in  America  no  less  than  the  Church  in 
India  may  be  led  to  a  deeper  life  and  a  truer  service. 
With  kind  regards, 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

Robert  E.  Speer 


APPENDIX  VII 

July  18,  1921 
Mr.  N.  K.  Mukerji,  B.A.,  18  Clive  Road,  Allahabad,  India. 
My  Dear  Mr.  Mukerji: — 

I  am  sorry  to  have  been  delayed  so  long  in  answering  your  letter  of 
January  6th  acknowledging  my  letter  of  September  21st  addressed  to 
you  and  the  three  brethren  who  had  signed  with  you  the  letter  to  me 
with  regard  to  the  relations  of  the  Missions  and  the  Indian  Church.  I 
am  very  glad  that  my  letter  commended  itself  to  you.  In  your  letter 
you  speak  of  your  interest  in  the  experience  of  the  Church  in  Japan  of 
which  I  had  written,  and  you  ask  whether  I  could  send  you  a  copy  of 
the  scheme  which  is  in  force  in  Japan,  with  the  feeling  that  perhaps 
the  experience  of  the  Church  and  the  Missions  in  Japan  might  be  help- 
ful to  you. 

I  have  pleasure  in  enclosing  herewith  a  copy  of  a  letter  issued  by 
the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  dated  July  3,  1906.  As  you  will  see,  it 
deals  with  three  questions,  the  financial  independence  of  the  churches, 
the  relation  of  missionaries  to  the  Japanese  Church,  and  the  problem  of 
co-operation  between  the  Church  and  the  Missions.  On  the  first  of  these 
points  the  Synod  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  as  set  forth  in  the 
letter  had  voted  that  thereafter  Presbyteries  should  not  organize  any 
churches  unless  such  churches  were  prepared  to  be  financially  independ- 
ent. In  the  case  of  existing  churches  it  prescribed  that  "when  a  church 
is  unable  to  support  a  pastor  and  meet  all  ordinary  expenses  without 
aid  from  some  evangelistic  organization  it  shall  be  dissolved  as  a  church 
and  constituted  a  Dendo  Kyokwai"  (i.  e.  a  company  of  believers  not  yet 
organized  as  a  church).  With  regard  to  the  second  point  the  action  of 
the  Synod  provided  that  "by  a  vote  of  the  Presbytery  missionaries  who 
are  members  of  Missions  recognized  by  the  Synod  as  co-operating  with 
the  Church  and  who  sincerely  and  openly  accept  the  Confession  of  Faith, 
Constitution  and  Canons  may  be  elected  associated  members.  All  asso- 
ciated members  may  speak,  introduce  resolutions  and  be  appointed  on 
committees,"  but  they  were  not  entitled  to  vote.  On  the  third  point 
the  Synod  action  stated  that  in  its  view,  "a  co-operating  Mission  is  one 
which  recognizes  the  right  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  to  the  gen- 
eral care  of  all  evangelistic  work  done  by  the  Mission  as  a  Mission 
within  the  Church  or  in  connection  with  it,  and  which  carries  on  such 
work  under  an  arrangement  based  upon  the  foregoing  principle  and 
concurred  in  by  the  Synod  acting  through  the  Board  of  Missions."  The 
letter  of  the  Church  further  specifically  states  on  this  point,  "The  co- 
operation which  the  Church  seeks  is  a  co-operation  of  the  Missions  as 
Missions  with  the  Church  as  a  Church."  The  Missions  and  the  Church, 
acting  as  independent  organizations,  should  make  clear  and  definite  ar- 
rangements with  each  other  and  the  evangelistic  work  of  the  Missions 
as  Missions  carried  on  within  the  Church  or  in  connection  with  it  should 
be  controlled  by  such  arrangements. 

As  you  will  see  by  reading  the  whole  letter,  the  Church  in  Japan  faced 
the  question  in  the  most  earnest  and  competent  way  and  sought  to  deal 
with  the  problems  involved  with  both  courage  and  judgment. 

658 


A  long  and  interesting  history  went  before  these  actions  in  1906,  and 
interesting  history  has  followed.  I  shall  try  to  summarize  the  story 
briefly  for  you  in  the  hope  that  it  may  be  of  service  to  you  and  others 
who  are  dealing  with  similar  problems  in  India. 

At  the  same  time  one  realizes  clearly  that  conditions  differ  greatly 
in  different  countries.  The  Churches  have  grown  up  out  of  different 
experiences  and  the  temper  and  character  of  the  national  life  in  which 
they  are  set  enters  very  clearly  both  into  the  creation  and  into  the  solu- 
tion of  their  problems.  At  the  same  time  principles  are  the  same  every- 
where, and  whatever  real  principles  the  experience  of  the  Church  and 
the  Missions  in  Japan  embodies  are  doubtless  valid  everywhere. 

As  the  printed  letter  which  I  enclose  indicates,  the  Church  of  Christ 
saw  clearly  that  the  problem  of  co-operation  is  interwoven  with  other 
problems.  I  think  it  might  be  well  if  I  should  mention  a  few  of  these 
before  trying  to  tell  you  the  history  of  co-operation  in  Japan,  because 
that  history  was  determined  again  and  again  in  its  course  by  the  appear- 
ance in  the  foreground  of  some  one  of  these  other  problems  found  to  be 
associated  with  it. 

Among  the  questions  which  emerged  in  the  course  of  things  in  Japan 
and  which  either  were  definitely  settled  or  are  still  open,  are  the  fol- 
lowing: 

1.  What  is  the  thing  to  be  aimed  at?  The  Japanese  Church  decided 
from  the  beginning,  and  the  Missions  agreed  with  it,  that  its  aim  should 
be  the  establishment  of  a  completely  independent  Church  in  Japan,  and 
this  independence  was  understood  to  be  both  ecclesiastical  and  financial. 
This  consciousness  of  its  own  autonomous  character  and  responsibility 
has  been  dominant  in  the  Japanese  Church  from  the  beginning,  and 
as  you  can  see,  it  emerges  emphatically  in  the  definition  of  the  co-opera- 
tion which  the  Church  desired,  namely,  "A  co-operation  of  the  Missions 
as  Missions  with  the  Church  as  a  Church.  The  Missions  and  the  Church 
acting  as  independent  organizations  should  make  clear  and  definite  ar- 
rangements with  each  other."  There  were  times  in  the  history  when 
this  aim  may  have  been  confused,  but  only  temporarily.  There  has 
been  almost  complete  unity  of  mind  from  the  beginning  as  to  this  funda- 
mental point.  What  all  were  seeking  to  achieve  was  the  establishment 
of  a  genuine  Japanese  Church  that  would  embody  the  genius  and  com- 
mand the  confidence  of  the  people,  that  would  live  by  its  own  life  in 
Christ,  and  take  up  its  own  great  task  of  evangelization. 

2.  The  second  problem  was  to  define  co-operation.  Is  it  the  friendly 
association  of  individuals  working  together  as  individuals,  either  self- 
selected  or  brought  together  by  their  own  processes?  Is  it  the  carrying 
on  of  common  work  with  common  resources  without  regard  to  the  origin 
of  these  resources  or  the  effect  of  this  work  upon  and  its  relations  to  the 
different  groups  of  workers  associated  in  it?  Or  is  it  such  co-operation 
as  the  Japanese  Church  had  in  mind,  namely  the  definite  agreement  of 
living  corporate  bodies  of  diverse  functions  to  relate  themselves  in  great 
common  tasks  which  have  for  their  end  the  strengthening  and  permanent 
continuance  of  one  of  the  co-operating  parties  and  the  cordial  disappear- 
ance of  the  other? 

3.  Such  questions  made  it  necessary  for  the  Missions  in  Japan  to 
study  again  their  true  character  and  purpose.  One  of  the  missionaries 
in  Japan,  in  giving  an  account  of  the  Convention  of  the  Co-operating 
Missions  in  1893  which  was  called  to  consider  this  whole  question,  states 
that  this  very  issue  of  the  aim  of  a  Foreign  Mission  was  raised  at  that 
Convention  and  the  two  following  answers  were  given : 

669 


I.  The  end  of  mission  work  in  any  country  should  be  to  raise  up  a 
native  Church,  with  an  efficient  organization,  a  sound  theology,  and  a 
consecrated  and  able  ministry.  When  this  is  accomplished  the  work  of 
the  missionary  is  done.  The  unevangelized  portion  of  the  nation,  how- 
ever great,  may  and  should  be  left  to  the  care  of  the  native  Church.  The 
Churches  in  America  might  still  need  to  assist  the  native  organizations 
with  funds;  but  as  soon  as  an  efficient  native  Church  is  established,  as 
defined  above,  the  work  of  the  missionary  body  is  over  and  they  should, 
therefore,  be  withdrawn. 

II.  The  aim  of  the  foreign  missionaries  to  any  country  should  be  to 
evangelize  that  country,  i.  e.  to  cause,  if  not  all,  then  at  any  rate  the 
larger  part  of  its  inhabitants  to  know  the  truth.  The  establishment  and 
organization  of  a  native  Church  is  a  means,  and  the  most  important 
one,  to  that  end,  but  it  is  not  in  itself  an  end.  As  the  missionaries  have 
a  work  to  perform  before  the  organization  of  the  native  Church,  so  they 
have  a  work  after  it  has  attained  such  a  degree  of  eflnciency  that  it  no 
longer  needs  their  superintendence.  Their  work  is  then  to  press  on  the 
evangelization  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  a  work  that  is  never  finished  so 
long  as  a  large  part  of  the  people  are  lying  in  heathen  darkness. 

Perhaps  these  two  aims  are  not  as  irreconcilable  as  the  writer  sup- 
posed, and  in  either  case  the  question  of  co-operation  exists  and  must 
be  rightly  settled,  but  it  is  interesting  to  see  in  the  discussions  in  Japan 
how  this  question  of  the  real  aim  of  a  Foreign  Mission  again  and  again 
emerged. 

4.  A  fourth  and  equally  important  question  was  as  to  the  character 
of  the  Church.  If  co-operation  is  what  the  Japanese  Church  conceived 
it  to  be,  i.  e.  an  arrangement  between  two  responsible  bodies  for  the 
determination  and  discharge  of  their  common  responsibility,  then 
obviously  the  Church  must  be  as  competent  and  as  autonomous  and  as 
responsible  as  a  negotiating  body  as  the  Mission.  I  think  it  was  the 
perception  of  this  that  led  the  Church  in  Japan  to  take  such  drastic  meas- 
ures in  1906  to  accomplish  financial  self-support.  It  realized  that  a 
Christian  Church  did  not  become  a  Christian  Church  by  receiving  the 
name,  but  that  it  was  a  Church  when  it  had  the  true  marks  of  a  Church, 
namely,  first,  a  genuine  religious  faith  and  life  of  its  own;  second,  the 
spirit  of  self-propagation;  third,  the  will  and  the  capacity  for  the  ef- 
fective administration  of  its  own  affairs;  and  fourth,  such  indigenous 
rootage  as  made  it  financially  autonomous  and  self-supporting. 

5.  Another  problem  which  constantly  emerged  in  Japan  was  the 
question  of  how  the  Church  should  deal  with  its  task,  whether  in  some 
centralized  way  or  by  as  democratic  a  diffusion  of  responsibility  and 
effort  as  possible.  Japan  is  a  small  country,  and  the  government  is 
highly  centralized  in  Tokyo.  These  were  influences  which  the  churches 
felt  strongly.  Moreover  the  strong  leaders  of  the  Church  were  largely 
centered  in  and  about  Tokyo.  The  result  was  that  constantly  through 
the  years  there  were  discussions  and  alternations  of  policy  between  the 
allocation  of  responsibility  to  Presbyteries  and  the  working  out  of  the 
problem  of  co-operation  locally  on  the  one  hand,  and  concentration  on 
the  other  hand  in  Tokyo  and  the  working  out  of  the  problem  of  co- 
operation there  at  the  top,  so  to  speak,  as  a  problem  between  the  central 
Board  of  the  Church  and  the  Missions  as  such,  rather  than  as  a  problem 
of  human  fellowship  of  individuals,  Japanese  and  foreigners  in  their 
local  fields.  As  you  will  see  by  the  printed  letter  enclosed,  the  final 
solution  was  in  reality  a  combination  of  these.  It  brought  about  the  sense 
of  honorable  understanding  and  agreement  between  the  Synod,  which  is 

660 


the  highest  body  of  the  Church,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Missions,  on 
the  other,  whereas  in  the  practical  working  out  of  the  plan  co-operation 
became  a  matter  of  conference  and  action  in  the  Presbyteries. 

6.  I  think  there  is  only  one  other  general  point  of  which  I  might 
speak  before  sketching  the  history,  and  that  is  the  interesting  way  in 
which  the  alternations  of  public  feeling  in  Japan  affected  the  discus- 
sions of  the  problem  of  co-operation  between  the  Church  and  Missions. 
Undoubtedly  throughout  the  years  the  Church  in  Japan  has  kept  a  more 
steady  mind  in  these  matters  than  any  other  body  of  Japanese  people, 
but  even  it  was  unavoidably  affected  and  in  the  eras  when  anti-foreign 
feeling  was  strongest  in  Japan  the  problem  of  co-operation  would  take 
one  turn,  while  in  the  eras  when  the  sentiment  gave  place  to  a  more 
kindly  and  trustful  spirit,  the  problem  took  on  different  forms.  Looking 
back  over  the  history  as  a  whole,  one  rejoices  to  see  the  noble  way  in 
which  the  Spirit  of  Christ  has  controlled  both  the  Church  and  the  Mis- 
sions and  enabled  them  to  maintain  fellowship  and  achieve  a  co-opera- 
tion such  as  only  the  Christian  spirit  could  produce. 

Turning  now  to  the  history  of  the  problem  in  Japan  I  think  the  main 
facts  can  be  set  forth  under  six  or  seven  periods.  The  material  bearing 
on  this  historv  is  verv  extensive,  and  I  cannot  do  more  than  sketch  it 
in  the  briefest  way. 

1.  Until  the  year  1884  the  functions  of  the  Missions  and  the  Japanese 
Church  were  quite  clear  and  distinct.  The  Missions  carried  on  their 
work  on  their  own  responsibility  and  the  Church  did  the  same,  and 
while  in  informal  ways  there  was  constant  conference,  this  was  not  or- 
ganized, and  the  Japanese  Churches  sustained  no  relationship  to  work 
supported  by  the  Missions. 

2.  In  the  year  1883  or  1884,  the  Missions  at  that  time  constituting 
the  Council  of  Missions  decided  to  call  in  the  Japanese  ministers  and 
workers  associated  with  them  for  conference  concerning  matters  relat- 
ing to  evangelistic  work.  (I  have  taken  it  for  granted  that  you  know 
that  in  Japan  all  the  Presbyterian  and  Reformed  Missions  are  united 
in  a  common  Council  of  Missions  which  meets  annually  for  conference, 
but  which  does  not  absorb  the  authority  of  the  separate  Missions.  Like- 
wise all  the  results  of  all  these  Missions  are  united  in  one  Church  of 
Christ  in  Japan  which  comprises,  accordingly,  all  the  Presbyterian  and 
Reformed  Churches.  The  existence  of  this  Council  of  Missions  has  made 
it  possible  for  the  Synod,  i.  e.  the  highest  court  of  the  Church  of  Christ, 
to  confer  directly  with  all  the  Missions,  at  the  same  time  of  course  that 
each  Presbytery  has  dealt  directly  \vith  the  Missions  in  its  territory.) 
For  a  time  these  Japanese  brethren,  accordingly,  met  with  the  Missions 
and  were  consulted  on  various  questions  relating  to  the  work.  The  plan 
soon  came  to  nothing,  however,  for  various  reasons.  The  Japanese  felt 
that  their  responsibility  was  not  very  substantial.  They  realized  that 
they  were  expressing  judgments  where  they  were  not  contributing  to  the 
resources  which  were  administered.  Furthermore  the  work  had  grown, 
ideas  had  developed  and  a  more  definite  plan  of  co-operation  began  to  be 
talked  of. 

3.  In  1886  the  Church  organized  a  Dendo  Kyoku,  or  Mission  Board 
which  consisted  of  a  certain  number  of  Japanese  members  elected  by  the 
Synod  and  an  equal  number  of  missionaries  also  elected  by  the  Synod. 
The  Missions  agreed  to  pay  three  yen  for  every  one  yen  contributed  by 
the  Japanese.  Dr.  T.  T.  Alexander,  one  of  the  early  missionaries,  greatly 
trusted  and  beloved  by  the  Japanese,  gave  me  once  a  sketch  of  the  history 

661 


of  the  relation  of  the  Missions  to  the  Church  in  which  he  referred  to  this 
Board  as  follows: 

"The  duties  and  powers  of  the  Board  were  confined  practically  to  the 
collection  and  apportionment  of  funds  among  the  Presbyteries.  The 
administration  of  the  work  lay  with  Presbyterial  committees.  These 
committees  were  constituted  precisely  like  the  Board  itself,  that  is  to  say, 
each  committee  consisted  of  a  certain  number  of  Japanese  elected  by 
the  Presbytery,  and  an  equal  number  of  foreigners  also  elected  by  the 
Presbytery.  The  Committee  selected  places,  appointed  workers,  deter- 
mined the  amount  of  salaries,  rents,  etc.,  and  arranged  all  the  details 
of  the  work.  The  powers  of  the  committees  were  limited  only  by  the 
amount  of  the  annual  appropriations  (for  each),  which  amount  was 
determined  by  the  (Dendo  Kyoku,  or  Central)  Board.  Of  this  plan  it 
must  be  said,  (a)  That  it  tended  toward  a  unification  of  the  Church  as 
a  whole,  (b)  That  it  set  the  Church  to  work  as  never  before,  and  showed 
that  it  was  capable  of  accomplishing  something,  (c)  That  it  did  good 
work,  as  good  as  the  Missions  ever  did;  it  worked  well  and  with  little 
or  no  friction.  Indeed,  the  plan  was  so  satisfactory  that  the  Missions 
in  Tokyo  and  the  immediate  vicinity  soon  turned  the  whole  of  their  evan- 
gelistic work  over  to  the  Presbyterial  Committee  on  the  ground.  This 
plan  continued  in  operation  for  about  eight  years.  It  failed  at  last, 
first,  because  it  lacked  creative  power;  it  had  no  grasp  on  the  churches, 
and  consequently  could  not  arouse  and  maintain  a  live  interest  in  the 
work.  Second,  for  want  of  administrative  authority.  As  already  said 
the  sole  power  of  administration  lay  in  the  Presbyterial  committee,  and 
not  in  the  Central  Board." 

As  you  can  see,  reading  between  the  lines,  the  issue  had  arisen  be- 
tween centralization  and  de-centralization  in  the  Church  in  Japan,  and 
looking  back  now  I  think  that  one  of  the  reasons  for  the  failure  of  this 
plan  was  that  not  enough  was  being  made  of  the  development  of  strong 
self-supporting  local  congregations.  As  these  grew  up,  and  as  the  later 
action  of  1906  multiplied  them,  the  Church  in  Japan  became  a  much  more 
vital  and  efficient  body. 

4.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Synod  in  the  fall  of  1892  it  was  decided  to 
elect  a  Board  composed  of  members  residing  in  Tokyo  and  Yokohama 
which  should  take  entire  charge  of  the  work,  dispensing  with  the  Pres- 
byterial committees.  The  Board  was  accordingly  elected  by  the  Synod, 
two  missionaries  being  among  the  number  chosen,  and  the  Missions  were 
asked  to  agree  in  the  new  arrangement.  They  preferred  the  old  plan, 
however,  and  there  ensued  two  years  of  very  earnest  study  of  the  whole 
problem  both  by  the  Japanese  and  by  the  missionaries,  involving  the 
questions  of  Presbyterial  as  contrasted  with  centralized  administration, 
of  the  real  aim  and  purpose  of  the  Missions,  and  of  how  to  increase  the 
efficiency  both  of  the  Church  and  of  the  Missions.  The  result  was  that 
at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Synod,  in  July  1894,  it  was  agreed  by  all  that 
some  change  must  be  made.  In  consequence  the  Church  established  a 
central  Board,  entirely  independent  of  any  relationship  with  the  Missions, 
to  carry  on  all  the  missionary  and  evangelistic  work  of  the  Church,  and 
provided  that  the  supervision  of  this  work  by  the  evangelistic  committees 
and  the  Presbyteries  should  be  turned  over  to  the  Central  Board.  For 
the  next  few  years  the  Central  Board  carried  on  its  work  independently 
while  in  the  different  Presbyteries  the  situation  varied  in  character  and 
intimacy  of  relationships  between  these  Presbyteries  and  the  mission- 
aries working  in  them. 

662 


From  this  time  until  1906  the  Church  and  the  Missions  worked  to- 
gether not  innarmoniously,  but  without  any  definite  plan  of  co-operation; 
the  Synod  of  the  Church  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Council  of  Missions 
on  the  other,  taking  up  positions  which  seemed  at  the  time  to  be  at  vari- 
ance.    The  action  of  the  Synod  in  July  1897  was  as  follows: 

"The  report  of  the  committee  to  investigate  the  subject  of  co-operation 
with  the  Missions:  The  Committee  has  examined  the  matter  of  co-opera- 
tion as  reported  from  each  of  the  Presbyteries,  and  since  we  do  not  ob- 
serve a  single  instance  of  proper  co-operation  we  propose  the  following 
resolution.  That,  whereas,  a  co-operating  Mission  is  one  that  plans  and 
executes  all  its  evangelistic  operations  through  a  committee  composed 
of  equal  numbers  of  the  representatives  of  a  Mission  working  within  the 
bounds  of  a  Presbytery  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  and  of  mem- 
bers of  said  Presbytery,  be  it  Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  seven  be 
appointed  to  consult  carefully  with  each  Mission  having  hitherto  held 
co-operative  relations,  and  further  that  if  it  appear  necessary  to  the 
committee,  it  shall  have  power  to  call  a  special  meeting  of  the  Synod." 

The  action  of  the  Council  in  August  1897  was  as  follows : 

"Whereas,  the  Synod  at  its  late  session  in  Tokyo  adopted  a  minute  in 
regard  to  the  matter  of  co-operation  between  the  Presbyteries  and  the 
Missions,  stating  what,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Synod  constitutes  co-opera- 
tion, and  appointed  a  committee  of  seven  to  confer  with  a  similar  com- 
mittee of  the  Co-operating  Missions  on  the  subject,  be  it  Resolved,  that 
in  view  of  individual  and  widely  differing  responsibilities,  co-operation 
is,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Council,  best  carried  out  where  the  Japanese 
Church  organization,  in  its  sessions.  Presbyteries  and  Synod,  directs  all 
ecclesiastical  matters,  availing  itself  of  the  counsels  and  assistance  of 
the  Missions  or  missionaries  as  occasion  arises;  while  the  Missions  direct 
their  own  educational,  evangelistic  and  other  missionary  operations, 
availing  themselves,  likewise,  of  whatever  counsel  and  assistance  they 
may  be  able  to  obtain  from  their  brethren  in  the  Japanese  Church;  and 
that  under  the  circumstances  it  does  not  seem  best  to  enter  into  co- 
operation as  defined  by  the  Synod,  but  to  recommend  (to  the  several 
Missions)  that  a  committee  be  appointed  of  one  from  each  Mission  to 
confer  with  the  committee  of  the  Synod  in  a  spirit  of  fraternal  good  will, 
for  the  purpose  of  communicating  the  opinion  of  the  Council  and  endeav- 
oring to  promote  a  better  understanding  on  the  subject  of  co-operation." 

I  was  in  Japan  in  1897  and  attended  this  meeting  of  the  Council,  and 
had  many  most  interesting  conferences  with  the  Japanese  leaders.  It 
was  interesting  to  see  how  earnestly  and  courageously  everyone  was 
seeking  to  find  the  right  way.  The  people  were  not  looking  for  what 
was  easy  or  smooth,  but  for  what  was  right,  and  all  were  prepared  to 
make  whatever  sacrifices  were  necessary  in  order  to  accomplish  the  right. 
With  strong  conviction  but  with  fine  spirit  and  patience  the  Japanese 
and  the  missionaries  agreed  together  to  work  on  steadily  side  by  side, 
hand  in  hand  until  they  could  work  out  some  satisfactory  arrangement. 

5.  In  1905  the  Synod  felt  that  the  time  had  come  to  take  the  matter 
up  afresh  and  it  did  so  both  with  the  Missions  and  with  the  Boards  at 
home  in  a  printed  communication  (dated  Feb.  26,  1906),  a  copy  of  which 
I  enclose.  This  was  the  letter  to  which  our  Board  sent  the  reply  which 
was  embodied  in  my  letter  of  Sept.  21,  1920  to  you  and  your  three  asso- 
ciates. The  Missions  and  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  took  the  matter 
up  afresh  in  the  same  spirit  which  had  marked  all  their  fellowship 
through  the  years,  and  plans  were  worked  out  which  were  accepted  both 
by  the  Church  of  Christ  and  by  the   Missions  of  our   Board,  of  which 

663 


there  were  two  at  that  time  in  Japan,  now  united  in  one.  I  should  add 
that  two  of  the  three  missions  of  the  Reformed  Churches  reached  the 
same  conclusion  with  our  Missions  while  the  other  Reformed  Church 
Mission  and  the  Southern  Presbji^erian  Mission  entered  into  a  somewhat 
different  arrangement.  The  arrangement  in  the  case  of  our  Missions 
is  that  in  each  Presbytery  in  Japan  where  we  are  at  work  "all  evan- 
gelistic work  done  by  the  Mission  as  a  Mission  within  the  Church  or  in 
connection  with  it  is  carried  on  under  a  co-operating  committee  repre- 
senting the  Presbytery  and  the  Mission."     The  full  plan  is  as  follows: 

"1.  Presbytery  to  elect  a  Board  of  Counselors  for  Mission  evangelis- 
tic work,  the  number  together  with  a  representative  appointed  by  the 
Dendo  Kyoku  to  be  the  same  as  the  number  of  missionaries. 

"2.  The  Board  of  Counselors,  together  with  all  the  ordained  mission- 
aries, members  of  the  Mission  working  within  the  bounds  of  the  Pres- 
bytery, to  constitute  a  joint  committee  for  the  administration  of  the 
evangelistic  work  of  the  Mission. 

"3.  This  joint  committee  to  decide  in  regard  to  all  the  evangelistic 
work  of  the  Mission  within  the  bounds  of  the  Presbytery,  such  matters 
as  the  opening  and  closing  of  evangelistic  fields,  the  appointment  and 
dismissal  of  evangelists,  the  fixing  of  salaries,  the  amount  of  aid  to  be 
given  to  Dendo  Kyokwai,  etc.  The  Committee  may  also  make  sugges- 
tions to  the  Mission  concerning  the  supply  and  distribution  of  the  evan- 
gelistic missionary  force. 

"4.  An  annual  meeting  of  this  joint  committee  to  be  held  in  connec- 
tion with  annual  meeting  of  the  Presbytery.  At  this  meeting  the  work 
of  the  past  year  to  be  reviewed,  and  estimates  for  the  work  of  the  com- 
ing year  made  out  and  the  work  planned  for.  Thereafter  any  questions 
that  may  arise  to  be  decided  by  the  local  m.issionary  or  missionaries  in 
consultation  with  the  Board  of  Counselors  or  a  sub-committee  of  the 
same. 

"5.  This  plan  of  co-operation  may  be  modified  by  the  joint  action  of 
the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  and  the  Mission,  according  to  the  teach- 
ings of  experience  and  the  growth  of  the  work.  Should  either  party  de- 
sire to  terminate  this  arrangement,  it  may  be  done  at  any  time  upon  a 
year's  notice." 

I  do  not  know  how  helpful  this  history  may  be  to  you  in  India,  but  I 
think  that  it  teaches  many  lessons  which  will  be  of  service  and  which  I 
trust  there  may  be  opportunity  for  us  to  talk  over  fully  in  India. 

There  are  one  or  two'  of  these  lessons,  however,  on  which  I  venture  to 
speak  just  a  word.  One  is  that  evidently  the  thing  of  chief  importance 
is  the  spirit  in  which  these  problems  are  dealt  with.  Where  men  work 
at  them  in,  the  patient,  fair  way  in  which  they  have  been  worked  out  in 
Japan  a  practical  solution  is  ?ure  to  be  found.  Another  is  that  it  is 
important  that  these  problems  should  be  dealt  with  as  realities.  The 
problem  was  a  very  real  one  in  Japan.  There  were  two  living  vital  forces 
at  work  there  needing  to  be  and  eager  to  be  wisely  related.  It  was  no 
mere  question  of  authority  and  many  of  the  Japanese  never  had  any 
desire  to  share  in  the  administration  of  foreign  funds.  Indeed  they 
have  shown  a  feeling  of  hesitation  about  doing  so  and  in  several  import- 
ant instances  have  expressed  their  embarrassment  because  they  were 
not  meeting,  as  they  felt  they  ought  to  meet,  their  full  share.  The  main 
lesson,  I  think,  is  that  adjustments  are  of  less  consequence  than  the 
spirit  in  which  men  make  them.  I  have  no  idea  that  the  present  arrange- 
ment in  Japan  is  more  than  a  makeshift  to  deal  with  existing  situations. 
The  important  thing  is  that  both  the  Church  and  the  Mission  there  are 

GCA 


1 


earnestly  at  work  with  all  their  hearts  in  mutual  trust  and  common 
purpose,  seeking  to  do  two  things,  first,  to  make  the  Church  of  Christ 
in  Japan  the  most  powerful  agency  that  it  can  be  made,  strong  in  num- 
bers, fearless  in  purpose,  devoted  in  its  effort  to  reach  the  whole  popu- 
lation, rich  and  poor;  and  second,  by  and  with  the  Church  and  in  what- 
ever way  may  be  open,  to  make  Christ  known  to  Japan  as  its  only 
Saviour  and  Lord. 

Numerically,  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  is  not  a  very  large  body, 
although  it  is  the  largest  of  the  Protestant  groups.  Its  communicant 
membership  is  now  34,000,  and  it  has  178  ordained  ministers  and  82 
self-supporting  churches.  It  represents,  I  believe,  the  most  wholesome 
and  vigorous  and  fruitful  element  in  the  life  of  Japan.  It  is  shining  as 
a  light  where  light  is  greatly  need,  and  its  leaders  whom  I  have  known 
for  many  years  are  men  whom  I  esteem  as  highly  and  love  as  warmly  as 
any  men  in  the  world.  I  look  forward  with  joy  to  meeting  the  Church 
in  India,  and  to  seeing  it,  both  in  the  cities  and  in  the  villages,  and  to 
joining  with  you  in  prayer  and  study  over  your  great  responsibilities 
and  opportunities. 

Let  me  only  add  in  conclusion  that  the  Church  and  the  Missions  in 
China  seem  to  be  working  out  the  problem  in  a  way  quite  different  from 
Japan,  as  a  result  of  conditions  of  temper  and  national  life  which  are 
very  unlike  those  prevailing  in  Japan.  It  is  evident  that  the  essential 
thing  is  the  spirit  of  love  and  self-reliance  and  unselfishness,  and  of  ser- 
vice, not  authority;  of  independence  and  responsibility  and  respect,  of 
spiritual  purpose  and  aim;  of  hope  and  above  all  of  the  life  of  Christ 
within  controlling  all. 

With  kind  regards. 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

Robert  E.  Speer 


APPENDIX  VIII 

Tokyo,  February  26th,  1906 
To  the  Boards  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  and  Reformed 
Churches 

Dear  Brethren: 

We  send  you  the  accompanying  communication  by  the  direction  of  the 
Synod  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan;  and  to  the  communication  we 
add  a  few  words  of  explanation,  though  only  on  our  ovm  authority. 

It  is  now  more  than  thirty  years  since  the  Church  was  first  founded, 
and  already  it  has  a  history  that  may  rightly  be  described  as  eventful. 
Among  its  ministers  and  private  members  there  are  many  who  are  well 
deserving  of  respect.  It  extends  from  one  end  of  Japan  to  the  other,  and 
carries  on  its  work  through  a  Synod,  presbyteries,  and  congregations.  It 
has  a  Board  of  Missions  actively  engaged  in  the  work  of  evangelization 
and  the  establishment  of  churches.  Therefore  it  seems  to  it  reasonable 
to  claim  that  it  has  a  right  to  a  voice  in  all  work  carried  on  within  its 
organization  or  closely  connected  with  it.  That  is  the  principle  for 
which  the  Synod  stands;  and  for  which  it  believes  that  Churches  in  other 
lands,  under  like  circumstances,  would  stand. 

The  question  of  co-operation  has  agitated  the  Church  and  the  missions 
from  time  to  time  for  nearly  fifteen  years;  and  there  are  those  who  think 
the  agitation  uncalled  for,  since  co-operation  is  already  a  matter  of  fact. 
Whether  it  is  matter  of  fact  or  not  depends  upon  the  sense  in  which 
the  word  co-operation  is  used.     The  fact  that  the  missions  employ  evan- 

665 


gelists,  aid  in  the  support  of  pastors,  established  and  maintain  preach- 
ing places,  while  at  the  same  time  they  also  in  fact  practically  retain 
such  matters  solely  within  their  own  control,  does  not  in  itself  constitute 
co-operation;  if  by  co-operation  is  meant  a  co-working  which  recognizes 
the  principle  for  which  the  Synod  stands.  Even  though  the  work  done 
extends  the  Church,  the  system  as  a  system  is  that  of  an  impermm  hi 
iniperio. 

The  co-operation  which  the  Church  seeks  is  a  co-operation  of  the  mis- 
sions as  missions  with  the  Church  as  a  Church.  The  missions  and  the 
Church,  acting  as  independent  organizations,  should  make  clear  and 
definite  arrangements  with  each  other  under  the  principle  set  forth;  and 
the  work  of  the  missions  as  missions  carried  on  within  or  in  close  con- 
nection with  the  organization  of  the  Church  should  be  controlled  by  such 
arrangements.  Co-operation  should  find  a  partial  analogy  in  the  alliance 
between  England  and  Japan;  not  in  the  relations  between  Japan  and 
Korea. 

The  original  of  the  communication  is  of  course  in  Japanese;  and  it  was 
prepared  primarily  for  circulation  in  Japan.  In  a  few  instances  therefore 
brief  additions  have  been  made,  supplying  information  for  the  sake  of  a 
clearer  understanding  on  your  part.  The  translation  is  free  rather  than 
verbally  literal;  but  the  aid  kindly  rendered  by  Dr.  Ibuka  is  an  assur- 
ance that  it  conveys  the  thought  of  the  original. 

The  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  owes  much  to  the  missionaries  of  the 
Presbyterian  and  Reformed  Churches.  Some  of  them  will  be  remembered 
as  among  its  founders  and  early  guides;  and  to  the  Churches  from  which 
they  come,  and  the  Boards  of  Foreign  Missions  which  they  represent,  it 
will  always  be  a  debtor.  The  future — the  wonderful  future  which  now 
perhaps  lies  before  it — may  bring  many  changes.  But  no  changes  of 
the  future  can  change  the  past;  and  the  past  with  your  sympathy  and 
kindness  is  a  pledge  for  the  future. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Nagai  may  be  addressed  at  No.  23,  Sugacho,  Asakusa, 
Tokyo.  Sincerely  yours, 

Y,  ISHIDA, 
K.  KlYAMA, 

N.  Nagai. 
A  COMMUNICATION  ON  THE  SUBJECT  OF  CO-OPERATION 


The  Synod  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  at  its  nineteenth  meeting 
held  in  the  City  of  Tokyo  in  October  1905,  feeling  the  need  of  a  clear 
understanding  regarding  co-operation  between  the  Church  and  the 
several  missions  related  to  it,  adopted  the  following  resolution: — 

1.  The  Synod,  in  the  year  1897,  clearly  recognized  the  fact  that  no 
co-operation  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word  existed  between  the  mis- 
sions and  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan.  Since  that  time  no  change 
has  taken  place;  nor  is  there  any  prospect  of  such  a  change. 

2.  A  committee  of  three  shall  therefore  be  appointed  to  prepare  a 
clear  historical  account  of  the  matter,  which  shall  be  signed  by  the 
Moderator  and  sent  to  all  the  churches  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan, 
and  also  to  the  several  missions  and  Boards  of  Foreign  Missions  related 
to  it. 

In  accordance  with  this  resolution  the  following  statement  is  now 
presented : — 

A  careful  study  of  the  history  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  shows 
that  from  the  very  beginning  it  was  organized  on  the  basis  of  complete 

666 


ecclesiastical  independence  of  the  Churches  in  foreign  lands.  Never- 
theless it  has  been  from  the  first  the  recipient  of  many  favors  from  the 
missions.  Of  especial  value  has  been  the  influence  of  many  missionaries 
of  deep  learning-  and  high  character;  and  directly  or  indirectly  the 
Church  has  been,  in  no  small  measure,  indebted  for  its  growth  and  de- 
velopment to  their  leadership. 

But  as  a  natural  result  of  this  growth,  the  Church  has  come  to  a 
clearer  and  clearer  self-consciousness  of  itself  as  a  Church;  and  also 
because  of  characteristics  which  are  national  it  has  often  found  itself 
in  opposition  to  missionaries,  not  only  as  to  ideas  but  also  in  regard  to 
methods  for  the  carrying  on  of  evangelistic  work.  The  presence  of  mis- 
sionaries of  experience  has  preserved  harmony  between  the  Church  and 
the  missions;  but  the  large  increase  in  the  number  of  missionaries  from 
year  to  year  has  made  the  relations  between  the  bodies  different  from 
what  they  were  in  the  earlier  days.  And  yet  the  Church  is  still  weak, 
and  unequal  alone  to  the  great  burden  of  the  evangelization  of  the  nation. 
There  is  moreover  an  earnest  desire  on  the  one  hand  to  lessen  as  much 
as  possible  waste  in  mission  operations,  and  on  the  other  to  utilize  the 
forces  of  the  missions  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  great  work  of  the  ' 
Church.     The  question  of  co-operation  has  its  origin  in  all  these  facts. 

For  a  number  of  years  (from  1886  to  1894)  there  was  co-operation 
between  the  Church  and  the  missions.  The  Synod  elected  a  Board  of 
Missions  composed  in  equal  numbers  of  missionaries  and  Japanese  min- 
isters or  elders;  and  each  presbytery  elected  a  Committee  chosen  on  the 
same  principle.  This  Board  is  now  commonly  spoken  of  as  the  old 
Board.  For  reasons  which  are  familiar,  gradually  there  came  to  be  a 
conviction  that  a  change  in  that  particular  method  of  co-operation  was 
desirable;  and  in  1892  the  Synod  proposed  that  the  Board  be  reorganized. 
It  was  in  connection  with  this  proposition  to  reorganize  the  old  Board 
that  the  question  of  co-operation  first  appeared  as  a  question.* 

The  distinguishing  feature  in  the  proposed  reorganization  of  the 
Board  is  found  in  the  following  clause,  "The  Board  shall  be  organized 
by  the  Synod,  and  shall  be  composed  of  three  Japanese  and  three  foreign 
members."  On  the  motion  of  Dr.  Knox,  who  was  then  in  Japan,  the  for- 
eign members  were  to  be  elected  by  the  Synod  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
Japanese.  The  scope  of  the  new  Board  did  not  embrace  the  entire  worTc 
of  the  missions,  but  only  a  small  section  in  which  co-operative  evan- 
gelistic work  was  to  be  undertaken.     The  first  members  of  the  Board 


*  The  following  more  detailed  account  of  the  old  Board  appears  in  the  Appendix  to  the 
Proceedings  of  the   General  Conference  of   Missionaries   in   Japan,   held   in   Tokyo  in    1900. 

The  period  beginning  in  1886  may  be  described  as  that  of  financial  co-operation  and 
joint  control.  The  Synod  elected  a  Board  composed  in  equal  numbers  of  missionaries 
and  Japanese  ministers  or  elders;  and  each  presbytery  elected  a  Committee  chosen  on  the 
same  principle.  The  powers  of  the  Board  were  virtually  limited  to  the  collection  of  funds, 
and  their  distribution  among  the  several  Presbyterial  Committees.  The  actual  direction 
of  aflfairs  was  given  to  the  Committees'.  On  this  basis  it  was  agreed  that  for  every  one  yen 
contributed  by  the  Church,  the  Council  of  Missions  would  contribute  three.  Into  this 
plan  both  the  missions  and  the  Church  entered  cordially;  and  for  a  time  the  plan  suc- 
ceeded. The  Church  contributed  funds  and  work  was  done.  In  some  cases  much  of  the 
evangelistic  work  that  properly  belonged  to  missions  was  really,  though  not  in  name, 
under  the  direction  of  the  Presbyterial  Committees.  But  in  process  of  time  interest  and 
confidence  in  the  plan  began  to  wane.  The  chief  argument  against  it,  pressed  with  in- 
creasing urgency  by  the  Japanese,  was  that  it  was  not  effective;  and  the  plan  advocated 
by  them  instead  was  a  Board  appointed  by  the  Synod,  which  should  carry  on  the  work 
directly  and  without  the  intervention  of  Presbyterial  Committees.  Among  the  missionaries, 
some  favored  the  abolition  of  the  Board  as  an  unnecessary  piece  of  machinery  but  with 
a  continuance  of  co-operation  in  Presbyterial  Committees.  The  plan  advocated  by  the 
Japanese  was  ohiectcd  to  as  characterized  by  an  undue  centralizatiiin  of  power.  This 
fundamental  difference  regarding  policy  led  at  last  to  the  abandonment  of  the  plan  just 
described,  and   to  the  adoption   of  the  one   now    in  operation. 

667 


were  to  be  Messrs.  Ibuka,  Uemura,  Oshikawa,  and  Drs.  Knox,  Verbeck 
and  Imbrie. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Synod  two  years  later  (1894),  the  Chairman 
Dr.  Ibuka  presented  the  following  report: — 

Your  committee  has  communicated  with  the  several  missions  with 
which  the  Church  has  been  co-operating  in  evangelistic  work  under  the 
regulations  of  the  (old)  Board  of  Missions,  requesting  them  to  continue 
co-operation  under  the  new  plan  proposed  by  the  Synod.  But  only  one 
mission,  the  Cumberland  Presbyterians,  expressed  unqualified  approval 
of  the  reorganization  of  the  Board  and  readiness  to  co-operate  in  it. 
The  others  either  attached  various  conditions,  offered  temporary  support 
for  three  or  four  months,  or  absolutely  refused  approval. 

When  the  Synod  proposed  to  reorganize  the  Board,  it  was  with  the  ex- 
pectation that  the  missions  connected  with  the  Church  would  continue  to 
co-operate.  But  as  now  stated  the  great  majority  of  them  decline  to  do 
so.  For  this  reason  we  regret  to  state  that  the  plan  proposed  has  proved 
to  be  impracticable. 

Notwithstanding  this  attitude  on  the  part  of  most  of  the  missions, 
the  Synod  did  not  give  up  the  desire  for  co-operation.  During  the  war 
with  China  urgent  need  of  evangelistic  work  was  keenly  felt,  and  the 
Synod  resolved  upon  a  great  special  work  throughout  the  country  and 
requested  the  missions  to  co-operate.  But  again,  greatly  to  its  regret, 
their  concurrence  could  not  be  secured;  and  a  peculiar  opportunity  for 
the  extension  of  the  kingdom  of  God  was  lost. 

But  the  Synod  could  not  abandon  earnest  effort  to  accomplish  the  work 
to  which  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  is  called  of  God;  and  it  was 
proposed  to  establish  a  Board  of  Missions  independent  of  the  missions. 
But  still  desiring  to  secure  co-operation,  before  discussing  the  proposal 
a  committee  was  appointed  to  present  the  matter  to  the  Council  of  Mis- 
sions. The  Council  'however  did  not  approve  of  the  reorganization  of 
the  Board  in  accordance  with  the  plan  proposed;  on  the  ground  that  the 
presbyteries  should  carry  on  evangelistic  work  themselves  and  that  co- 
operation should  be  between  the  presbyteries  and  the  missions.  The 
Synod  therefore  expecting  co-operative  evangelistic  work  to  be  estab- 
lished between  the  missions  and  the  presbyteries,  organized  a  synodical 
Board  entirely  independent  of  the  missions,  with  the  object  of  carrying 
on  evangelistic  work  in  places  where  the  presbyteries  had  no  work.  This 
was  the  first  really  independent  Board  of  Missions,  not  only  in  the  Church 
of  Christ  in  Japan  but  also  in  all  Japan. 

Co-operation  was  thus  transferred  to  the  presbyteries.  But  the  Synod, 
fearing  that  without  synodical  oversight  there  would  be  no  co-operation 
on  sound  principles,  adopted  the  following  resolution: — 

1.  In  accordance  with  the  regulations  for  the  new  Board  of  Missions, 
the  several  presbyteries  may  themselves  carry  on  evangelistic  work 
within  their  own  bounds;  but  the  regulations  of  the  Presbyterial  Evan- 
gelistic Committees  shall  be  presented  to  the  Synod,  and  must  receive 
its  approval.  And  where  evangelistic  work  is  carried  on  in  conjunction 
with  the  mission,  the  agreement  with  the  mission  must  be  presented  to 
the  Synod  for  approval. 

2.  Each  presbytery  shall  report  at  every  meeting  of  the  Synod  all 
important  business  transacted  during  the  year,  the  condition  of  its  evan- 
gelistic work  and  the  state  of  its  finances.* 


*  Following  is  the  account  of  this  part  of  the  history  which  appears  in  the  printed  min- 
utes of  the  meeting  of  the  Council  of  Missions  held  in  Tokyo  in  July   1894. 

The  Rev.  Messrs.  Oshikawa,  Ishiwara  and  Kitayama  appeared  as  a  committee  of  the 
Synod  to  explain  a  proposed  plan   for  the  reorganization  of  the    (old)    Board  of   Missions. 

668 


The  Synod,  after  thus  making'  careful  preparation,  and  after  waiting 
for  three  years  for  the  development  of  presbyterial  co-operation  on  sound 
principles,  at  its  meeting  in  1897  received  the  following  report  from  a 
committee  (Messrs.  Uemura,  Oshikawa,  Hattori,  Aoyama,  Tada  and 
Kumano)  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  matter  of  mission  co-operation 
within  the  several  presbyteries: — 

Your  committee,  having  inquired  into  the  matter  of  co-operation  as 
reported  by  the  presbyteries,  has  not  found  a  single  case  of  co-operation 
in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word.  It  therefore  presents  the  following 
for  adoption:  A  co-operating  mission  is  one  which  carries  on  its  work 
within  the  bounds  of  a  presbytery  of  the  Church;  and  which  plans  and 
conducts  all  its  evangelistic  work  through  a  committee  of  equal  numbers 
(i.  e.  of  missionaries  and  Japanese  ministers  or  elders)  appointed  by 
the  presbytery.f 

This  resolution  was  adopted  by  the  Synod;  and  a  committee  of  seven 
(Messrs.  Oshikawa,  Uemura,  Hattori,  Ishiwara,  Kumano,  Hosokawa  and 

After  the  explanation  had  been  heard  and  the  committee  had  retired,  there  followed  a 
lengthy  discussion  of  the  plan  presented.  Dr.  Stout  then  offered  the  following  as  a  sub- 
stitute  for  the  plan   of  the   committee  of  the   Synod: — 

Whereas  the  plan  for  joint  evanpelistic  work,  viz.,  the  (old)  Board  of  Missions,  is 
generally  acknowledged  to  be  unsatisfactory;  and  whereas  the  plan  presented  bv  the 
committee  of  the  Synod  contains  features  which  would  probably  make  it  impracticable; 
and  whereas,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Council,  evangelistic  work  within  the  bounds  of  the 
presbyteries  can  best  be  conducted  by  those  on  the  immediate  field;  and  whereas  some  of 
the  presbyteries  favor  a  substitution  of  Presbyterial  Committees  in  place  of  ihe  Board  of 
Missions;  and  whereas  only  twx)  presbyteries  would  be  financially  affected;  and  whereas 
we  believe  that  these  deficits  would  be  more  than  made  up  by  increased  contributions 
growing  out  of  increased  interest,   therefore — 

Resolved  that  the  Council  recommend  that  all  plans  for  joint  evangelistic  work  be 
left  to  the  several  presbyteries  in  connection  with  the  missions  co-operating  therewith; 
but,  in  order  to  connect  the  work  with  the  Synod,  that  each  presbytery  be  required  to 
report  the  work  of  its  Evangelistic  Committee   to  the   Synod. 

Dr.  Stout  and  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Price  and  Alexander  were  then  appointed  to  report 
this  action  of  the  Council  to  the  committee  of  the  Synod,  and  to  confer  with  it  upon 
the   whole  subject. 

The  Council  having  met  at  the  appointed  time,  the  Committee  on  the  Board  of  Mis- 
sions reported  presenting  another  plan  of  reorganization  proposed  by  a  committee  of  the 
Synod    (Messrs.   Oshikawa,    Ibuka  and  Ogimi). 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Moore  then  offered  the  following  resolution  which  was  adopted,  to  wit: 
That  we  reaffirm  our  preference  for  tJie  presbyterial  plan;  but  w-hile  approving  this,  we 
should  be  glad   to  see  the   Synod  form  an   independent   Board  of  Missions. 

The   committee   was   instructed   to    report   this   action    to    the    committee   of   the    Synod. 

To  this  extract  from  the  minutes  of  the  Council,  the  following  report  from  the  minutes 
of  the  Synod  w"hich  met  in  Tokyo  at  the  time  of  the  meeting  of  the  Council  should  be 
added. 

Your  committee  (Messrs.  Oshikawa,  Ibuka  and  Ogimi,  see  above)  inquired  of  the 
committee  of  the  Council  whether  there  were  any  unsatisfactory  points  in  the  rules  of 
the  (old)  Board  of  Missions.  The  reply  was  that  there  were  no  particular  points  which 
were  unsatisfactory,  but  that  the  results  of  the  work  were  unsatisfactory;  and  further 
that  the  Church  was  lukewarm  towards  the  Board — a  feeling  in  which  the  committee  of  the 
(Council  itself  shared.  That  the  Council  approved  of  the  plan  of  each  presbytery  organ- 
izing a  Board  of  Missions  and  carrying  on  work  separately;  and  in  addition  to  this,  that 
the  (Tbuncil  would  be  greatly  pleased  to  see  the  Synod  organize  a  Board  of  its  own.... 
Inasmuch  as  this  is  the  position  of  the  Council,  your  committee  after  careful  consideration 
has  framed  a  new  plan  for  the  Board  which  it  now  has  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  the 

t  As   bearing   on    the   subject    the    following    is    quoted    from    the    Annual    Report    of    the 

Council   for    1896.  •       j    ,     .  ^     1        u   r 

Dr  Wyckoff  presented  the  report  of  the  committee  appointed  last  year  to  lay  before 
the  Synod  the  letter  of  the  Boards  of  Foreign  Missions  in  the  United  States  concerning 
self-support.  The  report  was  accepted  and  the  reply  of  the  Synod  was  ordered  to  be 
entered  upon  the  minutes.     The  reply   (omitting  the  opening  and  closing  sentences)    is  as 

It  is  a  cause  of  regret  to  us  as  well  as  to  you  that  there  are  churches  in  the  Church 
of  Christ  in  Japan  which  have  not  reached  the  point  of  self-support;  but  since  it  is  a 
matter  which  "the  Synod  has  for  years  past  urged  on  the  churches  we  do  not  think  it 
necessary  to  specially  present  the  matter  at  this  time.  Of  course  we  thoroughly  appreciate 
the  spirit  of  what  you  have  said;  and  furthermore  we  will  endeavor  more  and  more  to 
have  the  reality  of  self-support  extend  to  every  church.  In  reference  to  this  we  could 
wish  that  each 'mission  in  extending  help  to  churches,  might  do  so  after  consultation  with 
the  presbytery  in  regard  to  the  means  and  amount  of  help  to  be  given.  Since  we  regard 
this  as  a  most  important  matter  in  securing  the  aim  of  self-support,  we  beg  to  urge  it 
upon  your  attention. 

669 


Hoshino)  was  appointed  for  further  friendly  conference  with  the  mis- 
sions. At  the  next  meeting  of  the  Synod,  (1898)  the  committee  through 
its  Chairman,  Mr.  Oshikawa,  presented  the  following  report: — 

Your  committee,  in  February  of  this  year,  met  a  joint  committee  of 
the  missions  of  the  Presbyterian  (Northern  and  Southern),  Scotch 
Presbyterian,  Reformed  (Dutch),  Reformed  (German),  and  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  Churches.  This  committee  reported  that  while  the  missions 
did  not  reject  co-operation,  they  desired  to  co-operate  in  accordance  with 
their  own  views ;  and  that  they  firmly  declined  to  co-operate  in  the  sense 
of  the  word  as  defined  by  the  Synod. 

Your  committee  finding  it  impossible  to  press  the  matter  any  further; 
and  regarding  this  as  a  final  conference,  has  had  no  other  meeting.  Un- 
happily it  was  unable  to  accomplish  the  earnest  desire  of  the  Synod.  It 
has  considered  plans  for  the  future,  but  has  none  to  propose;  as  under 
the  circumstances  it  fears  that  any  plan  proposed  may  invite  a  conflict 
between  the  Church  and  the  missions.  On  the  other  hand,  believing  the 
position  of  the  Synod  to  be  right  and  proper,  it  can  not  ask  that  it  be 
reconsidered.  It  is  therefore  of  the  opinion  that, no  other  course  is  open 
but  to  recognize  the  fact  that  there  are  no  co-operating  missions.  In 
view  of  the  past  it  is  eminently  fitting  that  the  most  cordial  intercourse 
in  brotherly  love  be  maintained;  but  there  are  no  longer  any  formally 
co-operating  missions.  Your  committee  therefore  deems  it  important  that 
a  clear  formal  distinction  be  made  between  the  work  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  in  Japan  and  that  of  the  missions. 

The  action  of  the  Council  of  Missions  at  Karuizawa  was  reported  to 
the  Synod  by  Dr.  Oltmans  as  follows: — That  in  compliance  with  the 
request  of  the  Synod  a  committee  had  been  appointed ;  that  the  co-opera- 
tion hitherto  maintained  was  regarded  as  real  co-operation;  and  that 
co-operation  under  the  definition  of  the  Synod  was  not  possible. 

After  mature  deliberation  the  following  resolutions  were  adopted  by 
the  Synod: — 

1.  That  the  Synod  express  its  thanks  to  its  Committee  on  Co-operation 
and  directs  the  Stated  Clerk  to  publish  its  report  in  the  minutes. 

2.  That  inasmuch  as  it  appears  that  the  Synod  and  the  Council  of 
Missions  differ  in  opinion  regarding  the  wisest  method  of  co-operation, 
further  conference  on  the  subject  be  postponed  for  the  present 

3.  That  although  unhappily  it  has  not  been  possible  to  reach  an  agree- 
ment regarding  the  method  of  co-operation,  the  Church  of  Christ  in 
Japan  recognizes  its  great  obligations  to  the  missions,  and  holds  that  the 
relations  between  it  and  them  should  be  those  of  cordial  friendship  and 
mutual  helpfulness. 

4.  That  the  Stated  Clerk  of  the  Synod  send  to  the  Secretary  of  each 
mission  a  copy  of  these  resolutions. 

As  opposed  to  the  unyielding  attitude  of  the  missions  the  action  of  the 
Synod  may  be  open  to  the  charge  of  weakness.  But  the  Synod  was 
patient;  and  not  only  endeavored  to  avoid  breaking  the  friendship  of 
many  years,  but  also  left  open  the  door  for  conference  and  reconsidera- 
tion.* 


*  Following  is  the  account  of  this  part  of  the  history  which  appears  in  the  Annual 
Reports  of  the  Council   for  i8g7,   i8q8,  and   igoo. 

I.     Action  of  the   Council   on  co-operation  in    1897. 

A  committee  of  three  having  been  appointed  to  review  the  recent  action  of  the  Synod 
in  reference  to  co-operation  and  to  report  with  recommendations  during  this  meeting  of  the 
Council,  the  committee  brought  in  both  a  majority  and  a  minority  report;  and  after  much 
discussion   the   following  action   was   taken: — 

Whereas  the  Synod  at  its  late  session  In  Tokyo  adopted  a  minute  in  regard  to  the  matter 
of  co-opernfion    bctwe-eii    the   presbyteries   and   the   missions,   stating   what   in  the   opinion  of 

670 


For  seven  or  eight  years  longer  the  relations  between  the  Church  and 
the  missions  remained  unchanged;  and  during  the  present  year  (1905) 
a  number  of  ministers  belonging  to  the  Presbytery  of  Tokyo  (Messrs. 
Hata,  Ishiwara,  Nagai,  Kiyama,  Arima,  Matsunaga  and  Fukuda)  took 
counsel  together;  and,  acting  as  individuals,  presented  the  following 
proposition  to  the  Council  of  Missions  at  its  meeting  in  Karuizawa: — 

1.  Hereafter  the  evangelistic  work  of  the  missions  within  the  bounds 
of  a  presbytery  shall  be  administered  by  a  joint-committee  appointed  by 
the  presbytery  and  the  mission  concerned. 

2.  The  matters  regarding  which  the  joint-committee  shall  act  in  con- 
sultation are  such  as  the  selection,  maintenance  and  discontinuance  of 
preaching  places;  the  engagement,  discharge  and  salaries  of  evangelists; 
et  cetera. 

3.  The  details  of  this  plan  shall  be  subject  to  the  approval  of  the 
presbytery  and  mission  concerned. 

the  Synod  constitutes  true  cooperation,  and  appointed  a  committee  of  seven  to  confer 
with  a  similar  committee  from  the  Co-operating  Missions  on  the  subject,  be  it  Resolved 
that  in  view  of  individual  and  widely  differing  responsbilities,  ■oo-operaton  is,  in  the  opin- 
ion of  the  Council,  best  carred  out  where  the  Japanese  Churcli  organization,  in  its 
sessions,  presbyteries  and  Synod,  directs  all  ecclesiastical  matters,  availing  itself  of  the 
counsels  and  assistance  of  the  missions  or  missionaries  as  occasion  arises;  while  the  missions 
direct  their  own  educational,  evangelistic  and  other  missionary  operations,  availing  them- 
selves likewise,  of  whatever  counsel  and  assistance  they  may  be  able  to  obtain  from  their 
brethren  in  the  Japanese  Church;  and  that  under  these  circumstances,  it  does  not  seem 
best  to  enter  into  co-operation  as  defined  by  the  Synod;  but  to  recommend  that  a  com- 
mittee be  appointed  of  one  from  each  mission  to  confer  with  the  committee  of  the  Synod 
in  a  soirit  of  fraternal  good  will,  for  the  purpose  of  communicating  the  opinion  of  the 
Council  and  endeavoring  to  promote  a  better  understanding  on  the  subject  of  co-operation. 

2.  Action  of  the  Council  on  co-operation,  in  1898;  i.  e.  after  the  next  meeting  of  the 
Synod. 

The  committee  appointed  by  Council  to  confer  with  the  Committee  on  Co-operation 
appointed  by  the  Synod,  gave  a  verbal  account  of  the  conference,  and  also  of  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  matter  at  the  recent  meeting  of  the  Synod.  The  committee  also  presented 
the  action  of  the   Synod,  which  was  as  follows: — 

Resolved,  That  the  Synod  expresses  its  thanks  to  its  Committee  on  Co-operation,  and 
directs  the  Stated  Clerk  to  publish  its  report  in  the  minutes. 

That  inasmuch  as  it  appears  that  the  Synod  and  the  Council  of  Missions  differ  in 
opinion  regarding  the  wisest  method  of  co-operation,  further  consideration  of  the  subject 
be  postponed   for  the  present. 

That  although  unhappily  it  has  not  been  possible  to  reach  an  agreement  regarding  the 
method  of  co-operation,  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  recognizes  its  great  obligations  to 
the  missions,  and  holds  that  the  relations  between  it  and  them  should  be  those  of  cordial 
friendship   and   mutual   helpfulness. 

That  the  Stated  Clerk  send  to  the  Secretary  of  each  mission  a  copy  of  these  resolutions. 

The  report  of  the  committee  having  been  heard,  a  special  committee  was  appointed  to 
prepare  resolutions  with  reference  to  the  matter.  The  committee  presented  the  following 
resolutions  which  were  adopted: — 

Resolved,  That  the  Council  expresses  regret  that  a  difference  of  opinion  exists  between 
the  missions  and  the  Synod  as  to  the  method  of  co-operation,  but  agrees  with  the  Synod 
that  further  discussion  of  the  question   for  the  present  is  unadvisable. 

That  the  Council  reciprocates  the  feelings  expressed  in  the  third  resolution  of  the 
Synod,  and  re-affirms  the  position  that  has  always  been  occupied  by  the  missions  composing 
it,  which  is   to  cultivate    friendship   and   to  assist   one  another. 

That  the  Secretary  of  the  Council  be  instructed  to  send  an  English  copy  and  a  Jap- 
anese translation  of  these   resolutions  to  the  Clerk  of  the   Synod. 

Subsequently  the  following  resolutions  bearing  on  the  subject  were  adopted  bv  the 
Council: — That  we  pledge  ourselves  to  heartfelt,  faithful,  and  continual  prayer  for  the 
whole  work  committed  to  Hie  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  and  the  Co-operating  Missions. 
That  this  resolution  be  sent  to  the   Svnod  and  to  the  Fuknin  Shimt>o. 

^.  Account  of  the  action  of  the  Synod  written  bv  Dr.  .\lexander  and  included  in  the 
Annual   Report  of  the  Council. 

Another  report  of  great  interest  was  Chat  of  the  Committee  on  Co-operation.  This  com- 
mittee was  appointed  by  the  Synod  at  its  previous  meeting  to  confer  with  the  Mission-; 
Co-operating  with  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  with  a  view  to  securing  co-operation  of 
a  closer  and  more  formal  character  than  that  existing  at  present.  The  committee  reported 
that  a  conference  had  been  held  with  representatives  of  the  several  missions,  hut  without 
attaining  the  result  desired.  The  missions,  though  not  averse  to  co-operation  in  a  general 
and  somewhat  vague  sense  of  the  word,  were  nevertheless  unwilling  to  co-operate  upon  the 
plan  suggested  by  the  Synod.  The  committee  regarded  this  as  unfortunate  and  had 
used  every  means  in  its  power  to  reach  a  satisfactory  conclusion  in  the  matter,  but  in 
vain.  It  was  therefore  with  regret  that  it  was  constrained  to  report  that  the  Co-operating 
Missiins  are  unwilling  to  co-operate,  in  any  formal  or  official  sense  of  the  term.  .\t  the 
same    time,    the    committee    did    not    f  irgct    the    great    work    done    by    the    missions    in    the 

671 


4.  In  order  to  maintain  the  unity  and  consult  for  the  advancement 
of  the  evangelistic  work  in  the  several  presbyteries,  a  conference  of  all 
the  Presbyterial  Committees  shall  be  held  annually  at  the  time  of  the 
meeting  of  the  Synod. 

Concerning  these  seven  members  of  the  Synod  it  is  worthy  of  note  that 
at  least  the  greater  number  of  them  have  always  maintained  a  most 
moderate  attitude  towards  the  missions  in  regard  to  this  question.  Their 
action  in  the  matter  therefore  makes  it  evident  that  the  call  for  co- 
operation is  not  confined  solely  to  those  who  are  more  insistent  as  to  its 
necessity;  and  the  mode  of  procedure  adopted  by  them  was  the  one  best 
suited  to  the  circumstances.  For,  much  as  the  Synod  desired  co-opera- 
tion, it  could  hardly  as  a  Synod  without  loss  of  self-respect  again  make 
overtures  to  the  Council  which  had  repeatedly  refused  co-operation  and 
had  for  years  remained  perfectly  unyielding.     But  what  the  Synod  could 

past,  and  recognized  the  work  still  being  carried  on  by  them.  It  also  recognized  the  value 
of  co-operation  of  this  informal  and  moral  kind.  In  conclusion  there  seemed  at  present 
no  course  open  to  the  Synod  but  for  it  and  the  missions  to  go  on  very  much  as  at  present, 
each  party  working  on  its  own  lines.  The  committee  suggested  however  that  hereafter,  as 
a  matter  of  information,  the  statistical  tables  indicate  in  some  way  what  work  is  done 
by  the   Synod  and  w^hat  by  the  missions. 

A  prolonged  discussion  followed  the  presentation  of  this  report.  A  large  maiority  of 
the  Synod  was  in  favor  of  simply  accepting  it  and  allowing  the  matter  to  rest.  The  min- 
ority however  strenuously  insisted  that  the  question  was  one  of  the  greatest  importance, 
and  that  a  committee  should  be  appoined  to  negotiate  further  with  the  missions,  and  if 
possible  to  secure  co-operation  of  a  more  definite  kind  and  more  in  accordance  with  the 
views  of  the  Synod.  Finally  it  was  decided  to  refer  the  whole  matter  to_  a  committee 
with  instructions  to  consider  the  subject  carefully  and  recommend  what  action  should  be 
taken.  At  a  later  session,  the  committee  thus  appointed  presented  the  following  resolutions 
which    were   adopted   by   a    large   maiority: — 

Resolved.  That  the  Synod  expresses  its  thanks  to  its  Committee  on  Co-operation  and 
directs   the   Stated  Clerk  to  publish   its  report   in   the   minutes. 

That  inasmuch  as  it  appears  that  the  Synod  and  the  Council  of  Missions  differ  in  opinion 
regarding  the  wisest  method  of  co-operation,  further  consideration  of  the  subject  be  post- 
poned  for   the  present. 

That  although  unhappily  it  has  not  been  possible  to  reach  an  agreement  regarding  the 
method  of  co-operation,  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  recognizes  its  great  obligations  to 
the  missions,  and  holds  that  the  relations  between  it  and  them  should  be  those  of  cordial 
friendship   and   mutual   helpfulness. 

That  t'he  Stated  Clerk  send  to  the  Secretary  of  each  mission  a  copy  of  these  resolutions. 
While  these  resolutions  were  adopted  by  a  vote  that  was  nearly  unanimous,  a  small 
minority  was  still  urgent  for  some  further  action.  On  two  points  in  particular  they  pressed 
for  a  decision.  In  their  view,  the  position  that  the  co-operation  between  the  Synod  and 
the  missions  is  not  formal  or  official  necessarily  affects  the  position  of  churches  and 
preaching  places  receiving  financial  aid  from  the  missions,  and  also  raises  the  question 
of  the  propriety  of  missionaries  sitting  as  Advisorv  Members  of  the  presbyteries  and  the 
Synod.  The  first  of  these  points  the  Synod  decided  was  sufficiently  met  by  the  action 
already  taken  that  hereafter  the  statistical  tables  shall  indicate  which  of  the  churches  and 
preaching  places  receive  aid  from  missions  nr  other  outside  sources.  To  the  second  point 
the  Synod  answered  that  any  action  regarding  the  position  of  Advisory  Members  would 
involve  an  amendment  of  the  Canons  which  could  be  effected  only  in  the  constitutional 
way.  A  resolution  however  was  adopted  directing  the  presbyteries  to  see  that  the  terms 
of  the   Canon    (Can.   2,v    §   6)    are   strictly   complied   with. 

With  this  the  long  discussion  came  to  an  end.  The  whole  subject  is  a  delicate  and 
complicated  one  growing  out  of  the  transitional  stage  through  which  the  Church  as^  a 
whole  is  now  passing.  As  soon  as  it  is  able  to  assume  the  entire  responsibility  financial 
and  otherwise,  the  present  difficulties  will  disappear.  Meanwhile  the  situation  calls  for 
prudence  and  forbearance  on  the  part  of  both   the   Church  and  the  missions. 

4.  The  action  of  the  Council  in  1897  was  the  outcome  of  a  change  in  policy  on  the  part 
of  the  missions.  Prominent  no  doubt  among  the  causes  of  that  change  were  the  disap- 
pointment, discouragement,  and  critical  spirit  in  both  the  Church  and  the  Council,  which 
-  marked  the  period  commonly  k-nown  as  the  Reaction.  The  distinguishing  features  of  the 
change  were  two:  The  cessation  of  co-operation  and  a  call  for  an  increase  in  the  force 
of  Missionaries.  A  brief  account  of  the  matter  is  given  in  the  following  extract  from  a 
historical  sketch  at  the  beginning  of  the  General  Report  for  the  Year  in  the  Annual 
Report   of   the   Council   for   1900. 

It  (the  period  of  the  Reaction)  was  an  era  of  councils  and  conferences  and  cornmittees. 
Self-support  and  co-ooeration  were  household  words.  For  the  Co-operating  Missions,  the 
convention  held  at  Kobe  in  1893  cleared  up  some  confusion;  and  some  hitherto  vague 
ideas  were  crystalized  into  shape.  So  that,  though  the  chief  questions  of  that  conference, 
viz..  What  is  the  proper  policy  of  cooperation  ?  and.  Are  more  missionaries  needed?  were 
not  answered  then,  the  discussion  marked  a  turning  point,  which  progressing  in  the  new 
direction  found  expression  in  1897  'n  the  adoption  by  the  Council  of  the  resolution  re- 
garding co-operation;  and  in  1899,  in  a  resolution  emphasizing  the  need  of  an  increase  of 
the  missionary  force. 

672 


not  do  they  did;   and  their  action  also  afforded  the  Council  an  oppor- 
tunity to  move  in  the  direction  of  co-operation  if  it  should  be  so  minded. 
The  reply  of  the  Council  was  as  follows:  — 

1.  The  missions  are  free  to  engage  in  work  in  unevangelized  places; 
it  bring  understood  of  course  that  wherever  practicable  consultation  shall 
be  had  ANith  the  local  workers  and  Christians. 

2.  In  the  case  of  organized  groups  of  believers,  until  they  supply  half 
of  their  total  expenses,  their  affairs  shall  be  administered  by  themselves 
and  the  representative  of  the  supporting  mission,  subject  to  the  ecclesias- 
tical oversight  of  the  presbytery. 

3.  When  such  a  group  of  believers  supplies  half  of  its  expenses,  its 
affairs  shall  be  administered  by  the  local  congregation  and  the  presby- 
tery; any  aid  from  the  mission  being  given  directly  to  the  local  organi- 
zation. 

This  reply  of  the  Council  not  only  rejects  the  mode  of  co-operation 
proposed  to  it,  but  in  its  second  section  evinces  a  willingness  to  obtain 
lormal  recognition  of  an  authority  not  hitherto  recognized  as  possessed 
by  a  mission.* 


*  Following  is  the  account  of  tiie  conference  between  the  committee  of  Tokyo  min- 
isters and  the  Council  at  Karuizawa  which  appears  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Gsuncil 
for    iQOS. 

A  communication  with  regard  to  the  subject  of  co-operation  with  the  Church  of  Christ 
in  Japan  was  rtreived  from  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Arima,  llata,  Ishiwara,  Na«ai,  Matsunaga, 
Fukuda,  and  Kiyama.  The  communication  is  in  the  form  of  a  resolution  which  the 
signers  propose  to  introduce  in  the  Synod  at  its  coming  session,  should  the  Council  con- 
sider it  favorably,  and   is  as  follows: — 

The  Synod  hereby  resolves  to  appoint  a  committee  to  consult  wifh  the  missions  in 
regard   to   the   following   items,    in   order    to   co-operate    in   evangelistic    work. 

1.  Hereafter,  the  evangelistic  work  of  the  missions  within  the  bounds  of  any  presby- 
tery shall  be  carried  on  by  a  joint  committee,  appointed  by  the  presbytery  and  the  mission 
concerned. 

2.  The  matters  regarding  which  the  joint-committee  shall  act  in  consultation,  are  such 
as  the  selection,  maintenance  and  discontinuance  of  preaching  places;  the  engagement, 
discharge   and    salaries   of  evangelists,   et   cetera. 

3.  The  details  of  this  plan  shall  be  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  presbytery  and 
the  mission   concerned. 

4.  In  order  to  maintain  the  unity  and  consult  for  the  advancement  of  the  evangelistic 
work  in  the  different  i)resbyteries,  a  conference  of  all  the  Presbytcrial  Committees  shall 
be  held  annuallv  at  the-  time  of  the  meeting  of  the   Synod. 

This  commmiication  was  referred  to  a  committee,  consisting  of  Drs.  B.  C.  Haworth, 
D.  A.  Murray,  A.  D.  Hail,  S.  P.  Fulton,  A.  Oltmans,  the  Rev.  W.  E.  Lampe,  H.  V. 
S.   Peek*-,   Miss  Julia    K.    Hand   and   Miss   Mary   Deyo. 

The  committee  made  a  tentative  report,  whereupon  the  Council  went  into  informal 
session  and  discussed  fully  the  whole  question  of  co-operation  with  the  Church  of  Christ 
in  Japan.  Aftr  discussion,  the  matter  was  recommitted,  and  the  committee  made  the 
following   report   which   was  unanimously  adopted: — 

The  comniittee,  appointed  to  consider  the  matter  of  co-operation  between  the  missions 
and  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  which  question  was  introduced  in  the  Council  through 
a  communication  from  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Ilata,  Ishiwara,  Nagai,  Kiyama,  Arima,  l-iikuda 
and  Matsunaga,  proposing  a  plan  of  co-operation  and  requesting  an  expression  froin  the 
Council  with  reference  to  it  and  to  the  general  subiect  of  co-operation,  having  considered 
this  and  several  other  plans  and  proposals,  begs  leave  to  report,  recommending  that  the 
Council    reply    to    these    brethren,    as    follows: — 

The  Council  of  Missions  Co  operating  with  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  records 
with  gratitude  to  God  the  growth  of  the  Church  in  this  country,  and  recognizes  the  fact 
that  such  growth  brings  with  it  new  problems  to  solve  and  new  plans  to  be  proposed  for 
the   furtherance  of  the'  kingdom   of  Christ   in   this   country  and   the   world. 

It  is  profoundly  grateful  also  for  the  able,  educated  and  faithful  ministry  and  laity, 
raised  up  in  God's  providence  to  be  leaders  in  this  Church.  It  deems  it  a  privilege  and 
a  pleasure  to  be  associated  with  such  men  in  the  promotion  of  the  work  of  our  common 
Lord,  and  most  heartily  desires  that  form  of  co-operation  which  promises  to  be  most 
effective   in    the  accomplishment  of   the   common   end   in    view. 

It  is  greatly  encouraged  also  by  the  desire,  so  prevalent  throughout  the  Church  at  this 
time,  to  hasten  the  day  of  absolute  self-support  and  true  independence;  and  expresses 
itself  in   favor  of  co-operation   upon   a   suitable   basis   with   the   Church   of   Christ   in  Japan. 

Such  co-operation,  in  the  judgment  of  the  Council,  should  conserve  the  following  in- 
terests:— 

1.  The    rights    of    the    presbytery. 

2.  The   rights  of  the  local   church. 

3.  The   rights  of   the   mission. 

The  Council   therefore  approves   of  the   following  plan: — 

673 

23 — India   and  Persia 


Immediately  upon  the  opening  of  the  meeting  of  the  Synod  in  this  year 
(1905),  a  number  of  the  ministers  who  had  presented  the  proposition 
to  the  Council,  on  the  ground  that  the  existing  co-operation  with  the  mis- 
sions is  one  of  an  indefinite  nature,  asked  for  the  appointment  of  a  com- 
mittee to  inquire  into  the  matter  with  a  view  to  a  clear  understanding  on 
the  subject.  A  committee  of  five  (Messrs.  Nagai,  Inagaki,  Igaroshi, 
Ojima  and  Ishida)  was  appointed,  and  presented  a  resolution  which 
the  Synod  adopted  by  a  very  large  majority.  That  resolution  is  the  one 
which  appears  at  the  beginning  of  this  communication.  For  the  sake 
of  greater  convenience  it  is  here  repeated: — 

1.  The  Synod,  in  the  year  1897,  clearly  recognized  the  fact  that  no 
co-operation  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word  existed  between  the  missions 
and  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan.  Since  that  time  no  change  has 
taken  place;  nor  is  there  any  prospect  of  such  a  change. 

2.  A  committee  of  three  shall  therefore  be  appointed  to  prepare  a 
clear  historical  account  of  the  matter,  which  shall  be  signed  by  the  Mod- 
erator and  sent  to  all  the  churches  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan, 
and  also  to  the  several  missions  and  Boards  of  Foreign  Missions  related 
to  it. 

A  committee,  composed  of  Messrs.  Ishida,  Kiyama  and  Nagai,  was 
appointed  to  prepare  the  historical  statement;  and  also  a  committee  of 
five  (Messrs.  Ishiwara,  Uemura,  Kiyama,  Kumano  and  Nagai),  mem- 
bers of  the  Standing  Committee  of  the  Synod,  to  form  plans  for  the 
future  welfare  of  those  churches  and  preaching  places  which  are  now 
aided  by  the  missions. 

Thus  the  question  of  co-operation,  which  for  many  years  has  been  a 
question  between  the  Church  and  the  related  missions,  has  now  received 
a  clear  and  definite  exposition.  To  one  who  reads  with  care  the  history 
of  the  case  as  here  presented,  it  will  be  plain  that  while  from  the  begin- 
ning the  spirit  of  the  Synod  has  been  that  of  self-government  and 
ecclesiastical  independence;  and  while  also  in  this  matter  of  co-opera- 
tion its  purpose  has  been  fixed,  its  attitude  towards  the  related  missions 
has  been  one  of  patience.  The  Synod  need  not  say  that  it  does  not  re- 
joice in  the  fact  that  there  seems  to  be  no  prospect  of  co-operation;  nor 
is  there  any  lack  of  good  will  towards  the  Christians  in  Europe  and 
America  who  are  its  elders  in  the  faith.  From  the  beginning  the  Church 
of  Christ  in  Japan  has  emphasized  the  principle  of  the  oneness  of  the 
Church,  and  its  desire  is  to  prosecute  the  evangelization  of  Japan  and 
the  Far  East  which  are  blessed  in  the  hearty  and  united  labors  of  breth- 
ren and  sisters  in  the  Lord  in  other  lands.  But  it  desires  to  accomplish 
this  great  task  without  the  surrender  of  sound  principles. 

Such  in  brief  is  the  history  of  the  question  of  co-operation;  and  while 
the  Church  is  no  longer  in  co-operation  with  any  of  the  missions  related 
to  it  either  in  fact  or  in  name  (in  the  sense  of  the  word  as  used  in  this 
connection),  it  remembers  with  gratitude  the  favors  which  it  has  received 

I.  The  missions  are  free  to  engage  in  work  in  unevangelized  places,  it  being  under- 
stood of  course  that  wherever  practicable  consultation  shall  be  had  with  the  local  workers 
and   Christians. 

II.  In  the  case  of  organized  groujis  of  believers,  until  they  supply  half  of  their 
total  expenses,  their  affairs  shall  be  administered  by  themselves  and  the  representative  of 
the    supporting   mission,    subject    to   the    ecclesiastical   oversight   of   the    presbytery. 

II T.  When  such  a  group  of  believers  supplies  half  of  its  expenses,  its  affairs  shall  be 
administered  by  the  local  congregation  and  the  presbytery;  any  aid  from  the  mission 
being   given    directly   to   the   local   organization. 

674 


from  them;   and   it  earnestly   prays  that  abundant  blessings  from   our 
Father  in  heaven  may  be  bestowed  upon  all  the  missionaries. 

HiDETARU    YaMAMOTO, 

Moderator  of  the  Synod  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan. 
Tokyo,  October,  1905. 


APPENDIX  IX 

Tokyo,  July  3rd,  1906. 
To  the  Ministers  and  Elders  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan. 

Dear  Brethren : 

As  is  well  known  to  you,  the  Synod  at  its  last  meeting  took  action 
regarding  two  matters  of  great  importance,  viz:  The  financial  independ- 
ence of  the  churches  and  co-operation  with  the  missions  of  the  Presby- 
terian and  Reformed  Churches.  Since  that  time  these  matters  have  been 
constantly  in  our  minds;  and,  in  accordance  with  Canon  25,  we  now 
give  notice  that  certain  amendments  of  the  Canons,  and  also  certain  reso- 
lution.s,  will  be  presented  at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Synod  for  adoption. 

Financial  Independence  of  the  Churches 
I 
The  Synod  at  its  last  meeting,  considering  the  vital  importance  of  the 
financial  independence  of  the  churches,  adopted  the  following  resolutions: 

1.  Presbyteries  shall  not  hereafter  organize  as  churches  bodies  of 
believers  unable  to  be  financially  independent. 

2.  A  body  of  believers  not  financially  independent  shall  be  called  a 
dendo-kyokwai. 

3.  Each  presbytery  shall  inquire  into  the  condition  of  all  the  churches 
within  its  bounds;  and  shall  endeavor  by  September  1907  to  bring  to 
financial  independence  such  as  are  now  dependent.  Those  churches 
which  at  that  time  are  unable  to  be  financially  independent  it  shall  take 
steps  to  constitute  dendo-kyokwais. 

Besides  adopting  these  resolutions,  the  Synod  amended  Canon  1  as 
follows : — 

Dendo-kyokwais 

A  body  of  baptized  believers  connected  with  the  Church  of  Christ  in 
Japan  not  organized  as  a  church  shall  be  called  a  dendo-kyokwai;  and 
shall  be  under  the  direct  care  of  the  presbytery  to  which  it  belongs.  Its 
affairs  shall  be  conducted  by  a  committee  appointed  by  the  body. 

After  careful  consideration  we  think  that  the  purpose  of  the  Synod 
will  be  accomplished  more  perfectly  by  a  somewhat  fuller  statement 
than  that  of  the  Canon  as  thus  amended;  and  the  following  will  there- 
fore be  presented  for  adoption  as  a  further  amendment  of  the  Canon: — 

Canon  1 
Dendo-kyokwais 

1.  A  company  of  believers  large  enough  and  strong  enough  financially 
to  warrant  organization,  but  unable  to  support  a  pastor  and  meet  all 
ordinary  expenses  without  aid  from  some  evangelistic  organization,  may 
be  constituted  a  dendo-kyokwai. 

2.  A  dendo-kyokwai  shall  be  under  the  direct  care  of  the  presbytery 
to  which  it  locally  belongs;  but  ordinarily  its  affairs  shall  be  conducted 
by  a  committee  appointed  by  the  body.  The  committee  shall  keep  a  regis- 
ter of  the  members  of  the  dendo-kyokwai;  record  its  own  proceedings 
and  also  those  of  the  body;  and  report  statedly  to  the  presbytery. 

675 


3.  A  dendo-kyokwai,  at  a  meeting  of  the  body,  may  appoint  one  ©f 
its  members  (men)  to  represent  it  in  the  presbytery,  as  set  forth  in 
Canon  23:  §  6. 

4.  Nothing  may  be  done,  either  by  the  dendo-kyokwai  or  by  the  com- 
mittee, which  is  contrary  to  the  Confession  of  Faith,  Constitution  and 
Canons  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan. 

II 

The  Synod  at  its  last  meeting  amended  Canon  23 :  §  6  by  inserting  the 
following: — 

By  a  vote  of  the  presbytery,  lay-preachers  and  representatives  of 
dendo-kyokwais  may  be  elected  associate  members;*  but  they  may  not 
vote,  serve  on  committees,  or  be  appointed  delegates  to  the  Synod. 

There  are  good  reasons  why  dendo-kyokwais  should  not  legislate  for 
churches;  and  therefore  it  is  proper  that  their  representatives  in  pres- 
bytery should  not  vote.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are  bodies  large  enough 
and  strong  enough  financially  to  warrant  organizations;  they  meet  in 
part  at  least  their  own  expenses;  and  they  are  expected  to  contribute  to 
the  expenses  of  the  presbytery  and  Synod.  Therefore  on  further  con- 
sideration we  think  that  the  representatives  of  dendo-kyokwais  should 
be  of  right  (i.  e.  not  by  election)  members  of  the  presbytery  and  eligible 
to  appointment  on  committees.  It  also  seems  necessary  that  the  provision 
regarding  ministers  becoming  associate  members  be"  made  more  definite. f 
Accordingly  the  following  will  be  presented  for  adoption  as  Canon 
23:  §  6. 


*  In  the  English  edition  of  the  Confession  of  Faith,  Constitution  and  Canons,  the  term 
advisory  member  is  used;  but  throughout  this  communication  the  term  associate  member 
is   employed   as   a   better    rendering  of    ingwai-in. 

t  The  present  Canon  23:  §  6  begins  as  follows: — "Ministers  who  sincerely  and  openly 
accept  the  Confession  of  Faith,  Constitution  and  Canons,  and  who  statedly  co-operate  in 
the  work  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  but  who  are  unable  to  apply  for  admission 
under  Canon  14,  may  be  admitted  as  associate  members  by  a  two-thirds  vote."  It  may 
be  worth  while  to  add  to  this  communication  (in  English)  the  following  footnote  showing 
historically   the   real    intention  of  this   section  of   the   Canon. 

As  is  generally  known,  a  resolution  was  adopted  by  the  Convention  which  met  in 
Yokohama  in  1872  favoring  an  endeavor  to  found  one  Protestant  Church  in  Japan;  and 
when  that  endeavor  had  failed  the  question  was  raised  whether  it  was  not  possible  to 
form  one  Church  ecclesiastically  independent  of  all  foreign  Churches  but  presbyterial 
in  its  organization.  Accordingly,  after  much  conversation  between  those  directly  inter- 
ested, a  communication  was  addressed  by  the  mission  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  to  the 
mission  of  the  Reformed  Church  expressing  the  thought  common  to  the  minds  of  both 
missions,  viz:  "We  have  long  entertained  the  hope  that  a  plan  may  be  devised  by  which 
our  respective  missions  may  become  fellow  laborers  in  a  common  presbytery."  This  com- 
munication received  a  cordial  response;  and  as  a  result  the  (old)  Church  of  Christ  and 
the  Presbytery  of  Japan  (a  body  connected  with  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.) 
united   and    formed   the   present   Church    of    Christ    in   Japan. 

Among  the  questions  considered  in  the  conferences  held  by  the  missions  was  that  of 
the  relation  of  missionaries  to  the  presbyteries;  and  it  was  thought  best  that  tliey  should 
be  m-embers  in  full  standing.  But  there  was  a  difficulty  in  the  way.  The  members  of 
the  mission  of  the  Reformed  Church  were  not  free  to  bring  letters  of  transfer;  it  being 
necessary  for  them  to  retain  their  membership  in  classes  connected  with 
the  Reformed  Church.  How  best  to  meet  this  difficulty  was  something  of  a 
puzzle;  but  finally  it  was  agreed  to  put  the  matter  thus:  "The  introduction  of  Christianity 
by  missionaries  from  a  foreign  country  creates  an  exceptional  and  temporary  situation; 
and  such  a  situation  may  properly  be  met  by  exceptional  and  temporary  methods.  There- 
fore let  us  retain  our  connection  with  the  presbyteries  and  classes  in  America  as  pres- 
byters; and  as  missionaries  become  members  of  the  presbyteries  in  Japan."  To  this  the 
(old)  Church  of  Christ  and  the  Presbytery  of  Japan  assented;  and  the  following  sentence 
was  inserted  in  the  chapter  on  Presbyteries  in  the  Constitution  of  the  new  Church: 
"Missionaries  who  assent  to  the  Standards  of  Doctrine  and  Rules  of  Government  of  this 
Church   shall   be   members  in   virtue   of   their  office"    (i.   e.    as   missionaries). 

From  the  beginning  it  was  the  feeling  of  many  of  the  Japanese  that  members  of  pres- 
bytery in  full  standing  should  be  subject  to  its  discipline,  which  was  not  the  case  under 
the  arrangement  now  described;  and  when  the  present  Constitution  and  Canons  were 
framed  the  same  feeling  was  expressed.  Accordingly  it  was  proposed  that  missionaries  un- 
able to  bring  letters  of  transfer  be  made  associate  members  with  all  the  rights  of  mem- 
bers in  full  standing  excepting  the  right  to  vote.  Canon  23:  §  6  was  therefore  drafted  as 
follows:    "Foreign    missionaries:    All    foreign    missionaries    (men)    connected    with   missions 

676 


Canon  23:  §  6 
Associate  members:  Representatives  of  dendo-kyokwais  are  associate 
members.  By  a  vote  of  the  presbytery  lay-preachers  may  be  elected 
associate  members.  By  a  vote  of  the  presbytery,  missionaries  who  are 
members  of  missions  recognized  by  the  Synod  as  co-operating  with  the 
Church,  and  who  sincerely  and  openly  accept  the  Confession  of  Faith, 
Constitution  and  Canons,  may  be  elected  associate  members.  All  asso- 
ciate members  may  speak,  introduce  resolutions  and  be  appointed  on 
committees.  Missionaries  who  are  associate  members  shall  be  appointed 
associate  members  of  the  Synod  as  follows:  For  every  four  or  less  than 
four,  one;  for  every  eight,  two;  for  every  twelve,  three.  No  committee 
shall  have  a  majority  of  associate  members. 

Ill 
The  legislation  of  the  Synod   regarding  dendo-kyokwais  necessitates 
certain  changes  in  a  number  of  the  Canons.     The  following  amendments 
will  therefore  be  presented  for  adoption : — 

1.  At  the  end  of  Canon  16  (Admission  to  Full  Communion),  add  as 
follows:  "The  principles  set  forth  in  this  Canon  apply  also  in  the  case 
of  those  seeking  admission  to  dendo-kyokwais." 

2.  At  the  end  of  Canon  17  (Transfer  and  Dismission  of  Church 
Members),  substitute  "dendo-kyokwais"  for  "companies  of  believers  con- 
nected with  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  not  yet  organized  as  churches." 

3.  In  Canon  18  (Discipline)  §  2,  after  "lay-preachers"  add  "and 
d<?ndo-kyokwais." 

4.  In  Canon  23  (Standing  Rules  of  Presbyteries)  §  8  (Annual  Re- 
port), lines  2  and  3,  after  "churches"  add  "and  dendo-kyokwais;"  also, 
in  line  5,  substitute  "dendo-kyokwais"  for  "companies  of  believers  not 
yet  organized  as  churches." 

5.  Canon  6  to  read  as  follows : — 

Canon  6 
Dissolution  of  churches,  dendo-kyokvi^ais,  and  presbyteries  0 

1.  When  a  church  is  unable  to  support  a  pastor  and  meet  all  ordin- 
nary  expenses  without  aid  from  some  evangelistic  organization,  it  shall 
be  dissolved  as  a  church  and  constituted  a  dendo-kyokwai. 

2.  When  a  dendo-kyokwai  is  not  large  enough  or  strong  enough 
financially  to  warrant  its  continuance   as   an   organized   body,   it  shall 

co-operating  with  this  Church,  and  deeminK  it  inexpedient  to  become  full  members  under 
Canon  14,  are  entitled  on  application  to  the  Clerk  to  be  enrolled  as  associate  members. 
Associate   members  have  the  rig'ht,  etc." 

After  the  Canon  was  written  and  printed  in  this  form,  it  was  thought  best  to  limit 
associate  membership  to  ministers,  following  the  precedent  of  the  presbyteries  and  classes 
in  .\merica  in  which  laymen  are  not  members  excepting  as  ciders  representing  churches. 
The  Canon  was  therefore  rewritten  in,  its  present  form;  and  its  intention  historically 
will  be  clear  if  it  be  expanded  as  follows: — "Ministers  (but  not  laymen)  who  sincerely 
and  openly  accept  the  Ojnfession  of  Faith.  Constitution  and  Canons,  and  who  statedly 
co-operate  in  the  work  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  but  who  (as  is  the  case  with 
members  of  the  mission  of  the  Reformed  Church)  are  unable  to  (bring  letters  of  transfer 
and)  apply  for  admission  under  Canon  14,  may  be  admitted  as  associate  members  by  a 
two-thirds  vote."  At  the  time  the  Canon  was  framed  it  was  pointed  out  that  under  the 
word  "ministers"  it  would  be  possible  for  a  minister  who  was  not  a  missionary  to  be 
admitted  as  an  associate  member;  but  it  was  thought  that  such  cases  would  be  very  rare, 
and  the  real  intention  of  the  Canon  was  to  provide  for  members  of  the  co-&peratinig 
missions  who   were   not   free   to   apply   for  admission   under   Canon    14. 

In  the  amendment  to  the  Canon  now  proposed  three  things  are  to  be  noted: — 
I.  The  real  intention  is  clearly  expressed.  2.  The  omission  of  the  clause  "who  are 
unable  to  apply  for  admission  under  Canon  14"  permits  a  member  of  any  mission 
recognized  by  the  Synod  as  co-operating  with  the  Church  to  become  an  associate  member; 
and  this  will  meet  with  the  views  of  those  who,  though  able  to  apply  for  admission  under 
Canon  14,  think  it  best  for  missionaries  to  be  associate  members  rather  than  members 
in  full  standing,  y.  Dropping  the  clause  "a  two-thirds  vote"  makes  a  simple  majority 
vote  all  that  is"  necessary  for  election. 

677 


be  dissolved  as  a  dendo-kyokwai ;  arid  the  presbytery  shall  give  to  its 
members  letters  of  transfer  to  such  churches  or  dendo-kyokwais  as  they 
may  select. 

3.  When,  notwithstanding  the  admonition  of  the  presbytery,  a  church 
or  a  dendo-kyokwai  persists  in  permitting  principles  or  conduct  dis- 
honoring to  the  name  of  Christ,  the  presbytery  shall  dissolve  the  church 
or  dendo-kyokwai,  and  give  to  the  worthy  members  letters  of  transfer 
to  such  churches  or  dendo-kyokwais  as  they  may  select. 

4.  When  a  presbytery  is  so  weak  that  it  fails  to  fulfil  the  ends  of 
its  organization,  the  Synod  may  dissolve  the  presbytery;  in  which  case 
it  shall  give  to  all  churches,  dendo-kyokwais,  ministers  and  lay-preachers, 
letters  of  transfer  to  some  other  presbytery. 

5.  When,  notwithstanding  the  admonition  of  the  Synod,  a  presbytery 
persists  in  permitting  principles  or  conduct  dishonoring  to  the  name  of 
Christ,  the  Synod  shall  dissolve  the  presbytery  and  give  to  the  worthy 
churches,  dendo-kyokwais,  ministers  and  lay-preachers  letters  of  transfer 
to  some  other  presbytery. 

IV 
The  following  resolution  also  will  be  presented  for  adoption: — 
Any  former  action  of  the  Synod  inconsistent  with  the  Canons  as  now 
amended  is  hereby  rescinded. 

V 
In  conclusion  attention  is  called  to  the  fact  that  the  clause  "companies 
of  believers  not  yet  organized  as  churches"  occurs  in  Article  12  of  the 
Constitution.     This  should  be  changed  to  "dendo-kyokwais;"  but  such  a 
change  will  require  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution. 

Co-operation  with  the  Missions 
The  Synod  in  1897  defined  a  co-operating  mission  as  one  which  "plans 
and  carries  on  all  its  evangelistic  work  through  a  joint-committee  com- 
posed of  members  appointed  in  equal  numbers  by  the  mission  and  the 
presbytery  within  whose  bounds  the  work  is  done."  This  definition  was 
acc^ted  by  the  Synod  at  its  last  meeting  also;  and  until  changed  it 
remains  the  one  recognized  by  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan.  For  the 
following  reasons  however  a  change  is  desirable : — 

1.  The  definition  is  unnecessarily  limited  to  presbyterial  co-operation, 
though  there  is  no  good  reason  why  co-operation  may  not  properly  be 
carried  on  by  a  joint-committee  appointed  by  a  mission  and  the  Board 
of  Missions    (Dendo-kyoku). 

2.  It  is  not  the  most  serviceable  kind  of  a  definition.  A  definition  of 
co-operation  should  be  one  setting  forth  general  principles,  rather  than 
one  laying  down  a  single  specific  method.  In  framing  such  a  definition 
the  following  facts  should  be  taken  into  consideration: 

a.  It  is  now  more  than  thirty  years  since  the  Church  of  Christ  in 
Japan  was  first  founded;  and  already  it  has  a  history  that  may  rightly 
be  described  as  eventful.  It  extends  from  one  end  of  Japan  to  the  other; 
and  carries  on  its  work  through  a  Synod,  presbyteries  and  churches.  It 
has  a  Board  of  Missions  actively  engaged  in  the  work  of  evangelization 
and  the  establishment  of  churches.  Therefore  it  seems  reasonable  for 
it  to  claim  that  all  evangelistic  work  carried  on  within,  or  in  connection 
with  the  Church,  should  be  under  the  general  care  of  the  Church. 

b.  The  co-operation  which  the  Church  seeks  is  a  co-operation  of  the 
missions  as  missions  with  the  Church  as  a  Church.  The  missions  and 
the  Church,  acting  as  independent  organizations,  .should  make  clear  and 
definite  arrangements  with  each  other;  and  the  evangelistic  work  of  the 

678 


missions  as  missions  carried  on  within  the  Church  or  in  connection  with 
it  should  be  controlled  by  such  arranf?ements. 

c.  According  to  the  Constitution,  "The  Synod  is  the  representative 
and  counsellor  of  the  Church;  and  to  it  belongs  the  general  care  of  all 
its  work  and  interests."  Therefore  the  parties  to  arrangements  for  co- 
operation should  be  the   Synod  and  the  several  missions. 

But  the  Synod  is  a  large  body  meeting  only  once  a  year,  and  one  not 
well  fitted  to  deal  with  the  various  questions  involved.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Board  of  Missions  is  a  comparatively  small  body;  it  can  meet 
at  any  time  and  give  full  consideration  to  any  subject;  and,  with  its  long 
experience  as  the  representative  of  the  Synod  in  the  evangelistic  work 
of  the  Church,  it  is  peculiarly  competent  to  consider  the  various  ques- 
tions likely  to  arise.  Therefore,  in  making  agreements  for  co-operation 
with  the  missions,  the  Synod  should  act  through  the  Board  of  Missions. 
The  arrangements  agreed  upon  may  bo  arrangements  to  be  carried  out 
by  the  Board  of  Missions  itself  together  with  one  or  more  of  the  missions; 
but  other  arrangements  also  may  be  agreed  upon.  In  any  case  such  ar- 
rangements will  bring  the  several  missions  and  the  Board  of  Missions 
into  closer  relations;  and  if  the  definition  propo-sed  be  adopted  by  the 
Synod,  it  may  be  advisable  to  increase  the  membership  of  the  Board. 

The  following  definition  will  be  presented  at  the  next  meeting  of  the 
Synod  for  adoption: — 

A  co-operating  mission  is  one  which  recognizes  the  right  of  the  Church 
of  Christ  in  Japan  to  the  general  care  of  all  evangelistic  work  done 
by  the  mission  as  a  mission  within  the  Church  or  in  connection  with  it; 
and  which  carries  on  such  work  under  an  arrangement  based  upon  the 
foregoing  principle,  and  concurred  in  by  the  Synod  acting  through  the 
Board  of  Missions. 

Inasmuch  as  the  conditions  to  be  met  by  the  several  missions  are  not 
all  alike;  and  as  each  mission  therefore  has  its  own  particular  circum- 
stances to  consider,  the  following  resolution  also  will  be  presented  for 
adoption : — 

The  several  missions  hitherto  known  as  the  Missions  Co-operating 
with  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  are  cordially  invited  to  formulate 
plans  for  co-operation  in  accord  with  the  foregoing  resolution,  and  to 
confer  with  the  Board  of  Missions  regarding  them. 

The  financial  independence  of  the  churches  and  co-operation  with  the 
missions  are  matters  deeply  affecting  the  welfare  of  the  Church  of  Christ 
in  Japan  and  the  furtherance  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  throughout  the 
empire.  That  there  are  difficulties  to  be  met  is  evident  to  all.  Difficulties 
which  can  not  be  overcome  without  much  thought  and  tact  and  painstak- 
ing; but  the  ends  to  be  accomplished  are  well  worth  whatever  they  may 
cost.  May  he  who  teaches  the  hearts  of  his  faithful  people  by  sending 
to  them  the  light  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  grant  us  by  his  Spirit  to  have  a 
right  judgment  in  all  things. 

WILLIAM   IMBRIE,   KAJINOSUKE  IBUKA,    MASAHISA   UEMURA, 

Kota  Hoshino,  Yasutaro  Ishiwara,  Kwanji  Mori,  Wa  Chiya,  Ko- 
jiro  Kiyama,  Akira  Inagaki,  JojT  Fukuda,  Fumio  Matsunaga, 
Kyujiro  Shimizu,  Kotaro  Hikaru.  Elders:  Yushichi  Kumano,  Shozo 
Akiwa,  Masamoto  Yamamoto,  Kiyo  Homma.  (There  may  be  other 
signatures  also  to  the  communication  in  Japanese.) 


679 


APPENDIX  X 
Report  op  Saharanpur  Conference 

Relation  Between  the  Presbyterian  Church,  U.  S.  A.,  and  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  India 

A  Conference  to  consider  the  relation  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
U.  S.  A.,  and  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  India  was  held  by  the  India 
Council  of  the  Presbyterian  Missions  (U.  S.  A.)  in  India  at  Saharanpur, 
U.  P.,  from  March  30th  to  April  2nd,  1921.  Rev.  J.  C.  R.  Ewing,  D.D., 
Secretary  of  the  Council,  presided. 

The  following  persons  were  present: — 
Lahore   Presbytery  Representatives — Rev.    H.    Golaknath,    Professor   R. 

Siraj-ud-Din,  Rev.  A.  Thakur  Dass. 
Ludhiana  Presbytery  Representatives — Rev.  B.  B.  Roy,  Rev.  P.  K.  Sar- 

kar,  Rev.  P.  C.  Uppal. 
Allahabad  Presbytery  Representatives — N.  K.  Mukerjee,  Esq.,  Rev.  A. 

Ralla  Ram,  Rev.   Sukh  Lai. 
Farrakabad  Presbytery  Rep^-esentatives — K.   P.  Ganguli,  Esq.,  Rev.  C. 

H.  Bandy,  D.D.,  Mr.  Knox. 
Kolhapur    Presbytery   Representatives — Rev.    A.    Padghalmal,    Rev.    S. 

Masoji. 
Co-opted  Members — Rev.  H.  D.  Griswold,  D.D.,  Miss  E.  Morris,  Rev.  A. 

G.  McGaw  and  Miss  M.  P.  Forman. 
Members  of  the  India  Council — Rev.  E.  E.  Fife,  D.D.,  W.  J.  McKee,  Esq., 

Rev.  W.  T.  Mitchell,  Rev.  Ray  C.  Smith,  Rev.  H.  G.  Howard  and 

Rev.  H.  K.  Wright. 
The  following  persons  were  invited,  but  were  unable  to  be  present: 
Rev.  E.  M.  Wilson,  Miss  M.  L.  Gauthey. 

After  the  most  careful  consideration,  by  duly  constituted  Committees, 
of  the  Report  of  the  Post-War  Conference  held  in  Princeton,  N.  J.,  in 
June,  1920,  an  Article  on  the  Church  in  Japan  by  Rev.  A.  J.  Brown,  D.D., 
and  a  Letter  from  Dr.  R.  E.  Speer  addressed  to  certain  members  of  the 
Allahabad  Presbytery,  the  following  basic  principles  were  unanimously 
adopted: — 

Principles  Adopted  by  the  Conference 

1.  That  while  we  have  commonly  used  the  phraseology  "Mission 
and  church"  yet  the  real  question  at  issue  is  the  relation  between  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  India  and  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America. 

2.  We  re-affirm  the  principle  of  independence  of  the  National  Church, 
"an  Indian  Church  not  identified  with  an  American  Church  but  inde- 
pendent, national,  free,  related  to  the  Churches  of  other  lands  as  an 
equal,  working  with  them  to  save  and  unite  mankind."  The  independence 
of  the  Church  need  not  exclude  connection  of  the  missionary  with  the 
Church  Courts  in  India.  When  the  Church  on  the  field  desires  it  the 
ordained  members  of  the  Mission  should  become  members  of  the  Pres- 
bytery in  full  and  regular  standing,  and  the  lay  members  of  the  Mis- 
sion— men  and  women — are  advised  to  become  members  of  the  local 
churches. 

3.  The  Church  has  a  right  to  a  voice  in  all  work  carried  on  within 
the  bounds  of  its  organization  or  closely  related  with  it. 

4.  The  Church  as  a  Church  should  be  self-sustained  and  governed 
and  the  Missions  as  Missions  have  a  vital  work  to  do  in  co-operation 
with  the  Church.  The  supreme  and  controlling  aim  of  Foreign  Missions 
is  to  make  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  known   to  all  men   as  their   Divine 

680 


Saviour  and  to  persuade  them  to  become  His  disciples;  to  gather  these 
disciples  into  Christian  churches  which  shall  be  self-propagating,  self- 
supporting  and  self-governing;  to  co-operate  so  long  as  necessary  with 
those  churches  in  the  evangelizing  of  their  countrymen  and  in  bringing 
to  bear  on  all  human  life  the  spirit  and  principles  of  Christ. 

5.  We  believe  that  the  aims  and  development  of  the  Indian  Church 
will  best  be  realized  when  the  Church  and  Mission  are  united  in  the 
closest  co-operation,  and  when  such  co-operation  is  the  dominating  prin- 
ciple in  all  forms  of  their  work. 

While  advocating  mutual  co-operation  between  the  Church  and  the 
Mission  we  yet  believe  that  the  best  results  of  Mission  work  in  India 
will  be  attained  when  right  lines  of  distinction  are  observed  between 
the  functions  of  the  Indian  Church  and  those  of  the  Foreign  Mission; 
the  Mission  contributing  to  the  establishment  of  Indian  churches  and 
looking  forward  to  passing  on  into  unoccupied  regions  when  its  work 
is  done. 

While  there  has  been  a  measure  of  co-operation  in  the  past  we  recog- 
nize that  it  is  a  living  movement  in  which  we  are  engaged,  and  our 
present  effort  is  to  formulate  the  terms  of  co-operation  under  which 
such  living  and  sympathetic  adjustments  can  be  made  as  will  meet  the 
changed  condition  the  future  will  be  sure  to  necessitate. 

6.  Holding  this  view  it  would  seem  to  us  that  the  solution  of  the 
present  problem  is  to  be  found  not  in  disparaging  the  Indian  Church  nor 
in  dividing  its  strength  nor  in  diminishing  its  responsibilities,  but  in 
just  the  opposite  course,  by  increasing  its  authority,  by  expecting  more 
of  it,  by  making  it  the  great  agency  of  evangelization.  Instead  of  trans- 
ferring a  few  strong  Indian  leaders  from  the  Indian  Church  to  become 
members  of  a  Foreign  Mission  in  order  that  they  might  share  in  the 
administration  of  money  from  America,  we  would  transfer  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  money  to  the  Indian  Church  for  work  which  the  Church 
is  prepared  to  take  over  or  to  some  such  joint  co-operative  body  as  pro- 
posed by  the  Church  in  Japan.  Along  with  the  taking  over  of  joint 
authority  over  the  resources  of  the  American  Church  there  rests  upon 
the  Indian  Church  a  peculiar  responsibility  to  take  a  great  forward 
step  in  her  benevolences.  In  recognition  of  this  principle  there  should 
be  some  ratio  between  the  gifts  of  the  Church  for  missionary  work  and 
the  share  she  takes  in  the  administration  of  funds  from  America. 

Wherever  such  funds  are  made  over  by  the  Board  it  should  be  on  the 
basis  of  an  adequate  organization  for  budgeting,  administering  and  ac- 
counting for  this  money,  and  definite  provision  by  the  body  to  which  the 
funds  are  committed  for  a  continuous  and  steady  growth  in  self-support 
by  the  Church. 

Personal  and  voluntary  evangelism  and  service  in  the  interest  of  the 
Church  and  the  systematic  giving  of  money  or  time,  as  the  equivalent 
of  money,  should  be  from  the  beginning  inculcated  (encouraged)  in 
believers,  and  any  financial  or  other  aid  given  through  the  Mission  should 
be  carefully  set  forth  as  provisional  and  gradually  rendered  unnecessary 
by  the  ever-increasing  contributions  by  the  Church.  We  commend  to  the 
Church  the  study  of  indigenous  methods  of  giving. 

7.  The  transfer  of  functions  and  activities  from  the  Mission  to  the 
Church  should  provide  in  some  way  for  the  full  participation  of  women 
in  the  administration  of  work  to  which  they  contribute  equally  with  men. 

681 


A    nlan   to   secura   more   effective   co-operation   between   the   Church    in 
America,  working  through  the  Missions,  and  the  Church  in  India. 
Subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Presbyteries,  Missions  and  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions,  it  was  decided: — 

/.     The  Presbyterial  Committees. 

1.  That  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  through  the  India  Council 
be  requested  to  overture  each  Presbytery  to  constitute  a  Committee  to 
which  shall  be  entrusted  the  evangelistic  work  now  carried  on  by  the 
Mission,  educational  work  carried  on  in  and  for  the  villages,  and  zenana 
work. 

That  this  Committee  shall  be  elected  by  the  Presbytery  and  shall  be 
composed  of  foreign  missionaries  so  chosen  as  to  secure  representation 
for  each  district;  and  Indians,  one- third  of  the  total  to  be  women,  mis- 
sionary or  Indian,  elected  by  the  Presbytery  on  nomination  by  the 
Women's  Presbyterial  Society. 

That  representation  shall  be  based  upon  the  amounts  contributed  by 
the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  and  the  Presbytery  respectively.  If  the 
Presbytery  contributes  for  pastoral  and  evangelistic  work  within  the 
bounds  of  the  Presbytery  one-fifth  of  the  total  spent  by  the  Presbytery 
and  the  Board  for  such  work,  this  plan  may  be  adopted,  and  the  Pres- 
bytery shall  have  the  right  to  elect  Indians  as  members  of  the  Committee 
up  to  half  the  total  membership  of  the  Committee.  As  the  contributions 
of  the  Presbytery  increase  a  different  ratio  of  representation  is  to  be 
worked  out. 

That  the  Presbytery  shall  agree  to  elect  Indians  for  membership  in 
this  Committee,  who  are  members  of  the  Church  within  the  bounds  of 
the  Presbytery;  possess  the  educational  qualifications  of  a  Matriculate 
except  by  two-thirds  vote  of  the  Presbytery  or  the  certificate  of  a  recog- 
nized Bible  or  Divinity  School,  and  who  have  had  at  least  five  years' 
experience  in  Mission  or  Church  work. 

That  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  shall  agree  that  only  missionaries 
shall  be  eligible  to  membership  in  this  Committee,  who  have  a  working 
knowledge  of  the  language  and  who  have  had  at  least  five  years'  experi- 
ence in  India. 

2.  Work  and  Funds  to  be  Transferred: — 

(a)  That  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  agree  to  transfer  through 
the  India  Council  or  the  Missions  to  the  Committee  of  Presbytery  all 
evangelistic  work,  Class  IV,  and  educational  work  carried  on,  in  and 
for  the  villages  and  institutions  having  a  distinct  connection  with  evan- 
gelistic work;  all  Indian  workers  ordinarily  required  to  maintain  and 
conduct  that  work;  and  all  funds  now  appropriated  to  that  work. 

(6)  That  the  Presbytery  shall  agree  to  conduct  E very-Member  Cam- 
paigns in  order  to  educate  the  Church  to  give  more  freely  to  the  support 
of  evangelistic  work. 

3.  The  Organization  and  Powers  of  the  Committee: — 

(a)  That  the  Committee  shall  be  authorized  to  organize  itself,  with 
the  understanding  that  the  Treasurer  of  the  Mission  shall  be  the  Secre- 
tary-Treasurer of  the  Committee. 

(6)  That  the  Committee  be  empowered  to  prepare  estimates  for  the 
work  entrusted  to  it,  administer  the  funds  (not  including  the  fixation  of 
salaries)  assigned  by  the  Board  and  the  Presbytery;  appoint,  transfer, 
dismiss  agents  and  employees  (reserving  for  the  latter  the  right  of 
appeal  to  the  Presbytery),  determine  the  policy  of  the  work,  to  recom- 
mend through  the  Intermediary  Board  to  the  Property  Committee  of 
the  Mission  extensive  alterations  or  remodeling  in  existing  buildings 
and  prepare  an  order  of  preference  for  new  property.     The  rules  and 

682 


regulations  concerninji:  the  appointment,  transfer,  dismissal,  pay,  incre- 
ments of  agents  working  under  the  Presbyterial  Committee  shall  be 
the  same  as  those  of  the  Mission  within  whose  bounds  the  work  is  carried 
on.  At  the  end  of  two  years  if  changes  are  desired  they  shall  be  made 
in  consultation  with  the  Mission.  Salaries  of  all  agents  except  of  those 
who  are  members  of  the  Intermediary  Board,  which  shall  be  fixed  by  the 
India  Council,  shall  be  determined  by  the  Intermediary  Board. 

(c)  That  this  Committee  shall  budget  the  traveling  expenses  of  its 
members  at  Intermediate  Railway  Fare  rates. 

4.  Audit,  Review  and  Report: — 

(a)  That  all,  who  administer  funds,  under  the  Presbyterial  Commit- 
tee, shall  submit  their  accounts,  together  with  the  vouchers,  to  an  Audit- 
ing Committee  of  three  to  be  elected  by  the  Presbytery,  one  member  of 
which  shall  be  the  Treasurer  of  the  Committee.  This  Committee  shall 
have  the  authority  to  employ  a  certificated  accountant,  if  deemed  desir- 
able. 

(b)  That  the  Presbyterial  Committee  shall  require  that  all  workers 
submit,  at  regular  intervals,  reports  of  development  and  progress  of 
the  work. 

(c)  That  the  Presbyterial  Committee  shall  encourage  the  transmis- 
sion of  quarterly  letters  to  the  Secretary  of  Specific  Work,  New  York. 

(d)  That  the  Presbytery  shall  present  to  the  Intermediary  Board  a 
copy  of  the  Proceedings  of  its  Committee  and  an  Annual  Report  of  the 
expenditure  of  the  funds  given  it  by  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions, 
together  with  a  report  of  its  Auditing  Committee  on  the  same,  and  de- 
tailed estimates  for  the  next  fiscal  year. 

(e)  That  the  Presbyterial  Committee  shall  transmit  through  the 
Intermediary  Board  to  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  an  Annual  Narra- 
tive Report. 

5.  Women's  Work: — 

That  Women's  Presbyterial  Societies  shall  be  formed,  membership  to 
be  open  to  all  women  missionaries,  Bible-women  and  representatives 
from  each  organized   Church. 

//.  Joint  Committees,  Educational  and  Medical. 

1.  (a)  That  the  Educational  work  be  committed  to  a  Joint  Educa- 
tional Committee  for  each  Mission  area.  High  Schools  and  Anglo- Ver- 
nacular Middle  Schools  shall  be  entitled  to  one  missionary  representa- 
tive each  on  the  Committee.  Colleges  shall  be  entitled  to  two  missionary 
representatives  each.  The  total  number  of  missionary  representatives 
shall  be  at  least  8,  the  Presbyteries  to  elect  an  equal  number  of  men  or 
women,  who  are  representatives  of  the  above-mentioned  institutions, 
their  election  being  based  on  nominations  made  by  the  institutions. 

(b)  That  the  Medical  Work  be  committed  to  a  Joint  Medical  Com- 
mittee for  each  Mission  area.  Each  institution  shall  be  entitled  to  one 
missionary  representative  on  the  Committee.  The  total  number  of 
missionary  representatives  shall  not  exceed  five,  the  Presbytery  to  elect 
an  equal  number,  men  or  women,  who  are  connected  with  Medical  insti- 
tutions, their  election  being  based  on  nominations  made  by  the  institu- 
tions concerned. 

(c)  That  any  member  of  the  Mission  or  any  Mission  agent  or  any 
member  of  the  Presbj-terian  Church  in  India,  willing  to  undertake  to  be 
present  at  the  meetings  of  the  Committee,  shall  be  eligible  for  election 
of  membership  in  these  Joint  Committees.  Members  of  these  Commit- 
tees shall  be  elected  for  a  term  of  three  years. 

683 


2.  Powers  of  these  Committees: — 

(a)  That  these  Joint  Committees  shall,  subject  to  the  regulation 
hereinafter  defined,  be  authorized  to  prepare  estimates  for  the  work 
entrusted  to  them,  administer  the  funds  assigned  by  the  Intermediary 
Board,  appoint,  transfer,  dismiss  agents  and  employees;  reserving  for 
them  the  right  of  appeal  to  the  Intermediary  Board,  and  determine  the 
policy  of  the  work.  These  Committees  shall  be  competent  to  recemmend 
through  the  Intermediary  Board  to  the  Property  Committee  of  the  Mis- 
sion extensive  alterations  or  the  remodeling  of  existing  buildings,  and 
prepare  an  order  of  preference  for  new  property.  These  Committees 
shall  budget  the  traveling  expenses  of  their  members  at  Intermediate 
Railway  Fare  rates. 

(b)  That  proposals  regarding  the  location  of  missionaries  shall  ordi- 
narily originate  in  the  Joint  Committees  and  in  the  Presbyterial  Com- 
mitee  and  be  presented  through  the  Intermediary  Board  to  the  Mission. 

3.  Funds  at  the  Disposal  of  these  Committees: — 

That  appropriations  for  Class  V,  except  so  much  as  shall  be  made 
over  to  the  Presbyterial  Committee,  shall  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  Joint 
Educational  Committee.  Class  VI  appropriations  shall  be  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Joint  Medical  Committee. 

///.     Intermediary  Board 

1.  That  there  shall  be  an  Intermediary  Board  contposed  of  nine 
members,  one  of  whom  shall  be  the  Treasurer  of  the  Mission,  who  shall 
be  ex-oificio  Secretary-Treasurer  of  the  Committee,  four  members  to  be 
elected  by  the  Mission,  two  from  Presbytery,  to  be  elected  from  Pres- 
bytery's representatives  on  the  Joint  Committees  (one  from  each  Pres- 
bytery in  areas  where  there  are  two  Presbyteries),  and  one  by  each 
Joint  Committee  from  among  its  members. 

That  the  members  of  the  Committee  shall  be  elected  for  two  years 
(with  due  consideration  for  rotation),  with  the  right  of  re-election  for 
one  term. 

2.  Powers  of  the  Intermediary  Board: — 

That  the  Board  shall  act  as  a  Finance  Committee  to  receive,  modify, 
and  transmit  estimates  through  the  India  Council  to  the  Board,  to  allo- 
cate sums  to  the  Joint  Committees,  to  arrange  for  the  audit  of  accounts, 
and  other  financial  work;  to  hear  cases  of  appeal  from  the  Joint  Com- 
mittees, to  review  the  proceedings  of  the  Joint  Committees  with  a  view 
to  co-ordinating  all  branches  of  the  work.  If  the  Intermediary  Board 
disapproves  of  any  action  of  a  Joint  Committee  it  shall  re-commit  that 
action  to  that  Committee  with  explanation,  after  which  it  must  receive 
a  two-thirds  vote  of  the  Committee  concerned  to  be  adopted. 

The  Board  shall  receive  from  Presbytery  (see  I — 4,  d.  e,  above)  the 
reports  of  and  estimates  for  work  carried  on  by  the  Presbyterial  Com- 
mittee. It  is  understood  that  this  Board  shall  exercise  the  greatest  care 
to  safeguard  the  ecclesiastical  rights  of  Presbytery. 

J.  C.  R.  EwiNG,  Chairman. 

K.  P.  Ganguli, 

H.  K.  Wright,  Secretaries. 


APPENDIX  XI 

A  Plan  For  Co-operation  Between  the  Mission  and  the 

Presbyteries  Adopted  by  the  North  India  Mission  at 

Its  Annual  Meeting,  Allahabad,   October,  1921 

After  consideration  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Saharanpur  Conference 

on  the  Relation  of  Church  and  Mission,  the  North  India  Mission  expresses 

its  full  sympathy  in  general  with  the  Statement  of  Principles  outlined 

684 


by  the  Conference  and  trusts  that  the  following  plan  as  a  modification 
of  the  Saharanpur  plan  and  in  accord  with  the  principles  laid  down  will 
be  acceptable  to  all  parties  concerned  and  adopts  it  tentatively  subject 
to  the  assent  and  co-operation  of  the  Presbyteries: 

The  work  of  the  Mission  shall  be  conducted  by  a  System  of  Joint 
Committees  responsible  to  the  Mission  and  the  Presbyteries. 

/.     Composition  of  the  Joint  Connnitteen. 

1.  The  Joint  Evangelistic  Committee.  This  committee  shall  be  com- 
posed of  all  voting  members  of  the  Mission  engaged  in  evangelistic 
work,  and  others  in  charge  of  evangelistic  work  directly  responsible 
to  the  Joint  Committee.  On  nomination  by  this  committee  other  voting 
members  of  the  Mission,  may  be  appointed  as  additional  members  for 
a  term  of  two  years.  Each  Presbytery  is  asked  to  elect  three  members 
to  this  committee  whose  educational  qualifications  shall  be  graduate  of 
a  recognized  theological  school  or  University  Matriculate,  the  Presby- 
tery being  competent  to  make  exceptions  by  a  two-thirds  vote.  The  term 
of  office  shall  be  for  three  years,  one  to  be  elected  each  year,  and  eligible 
to  re-election.  Presbytery  (on  nomination  of  the  Woman's  Presbyterial 
Society)  is  asked  to  elect  one  woman  as  a  member  of  this  committee  for 
a  term  of  two  years.  Elected  members  must  be  members  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  India  and  except  by  two-thirds  vote  of  the  Presby- 
tery (except  in  the  case  of  women)  must  be  ministers  or  elders  in  the 
Church.  Elected  members  must  undertake  to  attend  the  meetings  of 
the  committee. 

2.  The  Joint  Educational  Committee.  All  voting  members  of  the 
mission  engaged  in  educational  work  except  that  under  the  control  of  the 
Evangelistic  Joint  Committee,  are  members  of  this  committee.  On  nom- 
ination of  this  committee  the  Mission  may  appoint  voting  members 
of  the  Mission  as  additional  members  of  this  committee  for  a  term  of  two 
years.  Headmasters  and  headmistresses  of  the  B.A.  or  higher  grade 
shall  be  members  of  this  committee  and  by  a  two-thirds  vote  the  com- 
mittee may  co-opt  headmasters  and  headmistresses  of  lower  grade  for 
a  two-year  term.  Each  Presbytery  is  asked  to  elect  two  members  (one 
each  year  for  a  term  of  two  years)  of  at  least  F.  A.  qualifications.  Such 
elected  members  must  be  members  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  India, 
and  except  by  a  two-thirds  vote  must  (except  in  the  case  of  women)  be 
ministers  or  elders  of  the  church.  Elected  members  must  undertake  to 
attend  the  meetings. 

3.  The  Joint  Medical  Committee.  All  missionary  doctors  and  trained 
nurses  who  are  voting  members  of  the  Mission  and  engaged  in  Medical 
work  are  members  of  this  committee.  The  Mission  shall  elect  three 
additional  voting  missionary  members  for  a  term  of  two  years.  Each 
presbytery  is  asked  to  elect  two  (one  each  year  for  a  two-years'  term) 
of  recognized  medical  or  nurses'  training  to  this  committee,  or  by  a  two- 
thirds  vote  may  elect  one  of  the  two  from  among  those  not  medically 
trained. 

4.  As  Presbyteries  increase  in  their  financial  support  of  Church  and 
evangelistic  work  and  as  their  membership  has  an  increasingly  large 
proportion  of  those  not  employed  out  of  foreign  funds,  the  Presbyterial 
membership  of  these  committees  may  be  increased. 

//.     The  Powers  of  the  Joint  Committees. 

1.  The  Joint  Committees  shall  have  power  to  organize  themselves 
with  the  understanding  that  the  Secretary-Treasurer  of  the  Mission  is 
the  Secretary-Treasurer  of  the  ^oint  Committee  (but  without  a  vote 
on  any  committee  except  the  one  of  which  he  may  be  a  member),  the 

685 


records  and  accounts  of  the  committees  being  an  integral  part  of  the 
records  and  accounts  of  the  Mission. 

2.  The  Joint  Committees  are  expected  to  survey  the  whole  need  of 
the  field  of  work  allotted  to  them,  to  consider  how  much  of  this  work 
should  be  done  without  financial  payment,  to  prepare  estimates  for  the 
work  for  which  financial  provision  should  be  made,  to  determine  how 
much  of  the  money  needed  should  be  provided  in  India  and  how  much 
it  is  right  to  ask  from  America,  to  adminster  the  funds  which  may  be 
available  and  to  direct  the  work  for  which  they  are  supplied  (not  in- 
cluding the  fixing  of  salaries  and  grades).  They  shall  appoint,  transfer 
and  dismiss  agents,  make  recommendations  on  policy  and  methods  of 
work  to  the  Presbytery  and  the  Mission,  recommend  to  the  Mission  alter- 
ations in  existing  buildings  and  an  order  of  preference  for  new  property 
and  advance  work,  including  new  missionaries.  The  committees  in  ad- 
ministering funds  must  do  so  by  a  two-thirds  vote,  as  is  required  of  the 
Mission  by  the  Board. 

3.  These  committees  shall  require  all  workers  and  institutions  under 
their  control  to  submit  annual  reports  of  the  development  and  progress 
of  the  work  and  in  their  turn  shall  submit  to  the  Mission  and  the  Pres- 
bytery a  report  of  their  proceedings,  the  work  done  and  the  use  of  the 
funds,  either  body  being  competent  to  express  its  opinion  as  to  how  the 
work  may  be  improved  and  mistakes  corrected.  All  the  reports  prepared 
by  the  committees  shall  be  sent  up  to  the  India  Council  with  the  Mission's 
and  the  Presbytery's  judgment  on  them,  Council  having  veto  power  by 
a  two-thirds  vote  over  the  use  of  funds. 

4.  To  the  Joint  Committee  on  Evangelistic  work  shall  be  committed 
the  funds  designated  by  the  Mission  for  Class  IV  and  such  school  work 
as  is  carried  on  in  and  for  the  villages  and  institutions  having  close  con- 
nection with  evangelistic  work  and  such  parts  of  class  VII  as  have  to 
do  with  district  work.  Where  any  question  shall  arise  regarding  such 
allocation  the  Mission  shall  decide. 

To  the  Educational  Joint  Committee  shall  be  committed  the  funds 
which  the  Mission  shall  allot  to  Class  V  (except  such  as  are  designated 
for  the  Evangelistic  Committee)  and  such  class  VII  items  as  belong  to 
schools. 

To  the  Medical  Joint  Committee  shall  be  committed  the  funds  that 
the  Mission  shall  assign  to  Class  VI  and  such  part  of  Class  VII  as  is 
connected  with  medical  work. 

Any  powers,  funds,  or  work  not  specifically  handed  over  to  these  com- 
mittees shall  remain  with  the  Mission  as  heretofore. 

Two  Indian  members  representing  each  Joint  Committee  will  be  in- 
vited to  be  present  in  the  Mission  meeting  when  the  reports  of  the  Joint 
Committees  are  being  considered  and  while  the  allocation  of  funds  to 
the  various  Joint  Committees  is  being  made. 

Each  committee  may  appoint  its  own  auditing  or  finance  committee  to 
whom  all  who  administer  funds  must  present  their  accounts  with  vouch- 
ers for  audit  and  sanction.  The  Secretary-Treasurer  shall  be  a  member 
of  each  of  these  committees.  These  auditing  committees  shall  have  power 
to  disallow  expenditures  not  in  accord  with  the  appropriations  and  rules, 
but  subject  to  appeal  to  the  Joint  Committees.  Where  no  such  auditing 
committee  is  appointed  the  Finance  Committee  of  the  Mission  shall  ar- 
range for  the  audit. 

686 


APPENDIX  XII 
Indian  Church  and  India's  Crisis 

(A  papex-  read  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Kolhapur  Mission,  by 
Shivaramji  Masoji) 

I  am  asked  to  speak  tonight  on  Indian  Church  and  India's  Crisis,  a 
most  difficult  and  complicated  subject,  and  as  the  Indian  Church  is 
divided  into  numerous  denominations  and  cannot  and  should  not  enter 
into  the  political  movement  as  a  church,  therefore  I  would  rather  prefer 
the  use  of  the  word  Indian  Christian  Community  instead.  By  the  grace 
of  God  this  community  is  steadily  growing  in  numbers  and  there  are 
more  than  forty  millions  of  Indian  Christians  at  present  and  is  naturally 
more  or  less  affected  by  the  National  movements  of  the  present  time  and 
wish  to  join  hands  with  their  Hindu  and  Mohammedan  countrymen  in 
all  constitutional  and  loyal  agitations  about  securing  Swaraj  or  self- 
government  for  India.  But  the  Indian  Christians  find  themselves  in  a 
very  difficult  and  delicate  position,  which  prevents  them  from  taking 
active  part  in  this  movement,  for  various  reasons,  many  of  which  arise 
from  the  misconception  of  their  countrymen  about  their  religion  and 
attitude. 

The  chief  misconception  is  that  Christianity  is  a  religion  that  has 
originated  from  Europe  and  therefore  it  is  foreign  and  one  of  the  traits 
of  the  present  day  movement  towards  Nationalism  is  to  discard  every- 
thing foreign,  and  as  the  Indian  Christian  has  adopted  this  foreign  faith 
therefore  he  is  regarded  as  a  traitor  to  the  Hindu  religion  and  to  his 
mother  land,  and  looked  upon  with  suspicion  and  distrust.  Finding  it- 
self in  such  an  anamolus  position  the  Indian  Christian  community  is 
puzzled  and  do  not  know  what  to  do.  The  Indian  Christian  loves  his 
country.  His  heart  burns  with  patriotism  and  he  is  willing  to  suffer 
any  hardship  for  its  welfare.  But  he  is  prevented  from  taking  an  active 
part  on  account  of  his  association  with  the  Europeans.  When  a  man 
becomes  a  Mohammedan  his  former  racial  difference  disappears  and  he 
becomes  one  with  his  co-religionists.  But  it  is  not  so  with  the  Indian 
Christian.  Christianity  is  regarded  as  the  religion  of  the  white  people, 
who  do  not  allow  the  people  of  other  races  who  adopt  their  religion  to 
mix  with  themselves  and  lose  their  former  racial  difference.  Besides 
Christianity  is  the  religion  of  the  present  day  rulers  of  India  and  there- 
fore the  non-Christians  think  that  the  leaning  and  sympathy  of  the 
Indian  Christian  Community  is  towards  their  rulers  and  not  towards 
their  Countrymen,  who  are  struggling  to  secure  freedom  of  their  coun- 
try from  the  yoke  of  the  foreigner. 

Such  being  the  case  the  Indian  Christian  Community  is  not  allowed 
to  mix  freely  and  study  and  help  to  solve  the  political  and  social  prob- 
lems with  themselves  by  their  countrymen.  This  is  one  of  the  chief 
reasons  why  Indian  Christians  appear  to  be  indifferent  about  the  great 
movements  which  are  shaking  the  whole  land. 

The  second  reason  which  prevents  the  Indian  Christian  Community 
from  taking  an  active  part  is  the  difference  of  opinion  about  the  meth- 
ods adopted  by  the  leaders  of  the  extremist  party  who  call  themselves 
Nationalists.  The  Indian  Christians  are  not  the  only  ones  who  keep 
themselves  aloof  from  them.  Quite  a  large  number  of  Hindu  and  Mo- 
hammedan educated  men  have  separated  themselves  from  this  movement 
because  they  do  not  approve  many  of  the  rash  and  extreme  measures 
adopted  and  practiced  by  their  co-religionists. 

687 


Mahatama  Gandhi,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  never  tried  to  approach  the 
Christian  Community  and  enlist  its  help  and  sympathy.  Some  Indian 
Christians  volunteered  their  services  in  the  cause  of  temperance  but 
they  were  refused  by  the  leaders  and  told  to  organize  themselves  sep- 
erately.  For  these  and  several  other  reasons  the  Indian  Christians 
are  left  out  and  they  are  forced  to  have  an  organization  of  their  own, 
and  accordingly  some  of  the  Christian  leaders  have  formed  the  All  India 
Christian  Conference.  It  was  organized  in  1919  and  had  its  first  meet- 
ing at  Katuck.  The  second  meeting  was  held  at  Calcutta  during  the 
Christmas  holidays  of  1920  when  the  following  resolutions  were  passed : — 

1.  That  the  one  whole  and  undivided  Indian  Christian  Community  will 
the  better  place  her  services  at  the  feet  of  her  mother  land  in  the  begin- 
ning of  her  responsible  political  life  if  the  Catholics  and  the  Protestants 
of  India  combine  their  activities  and  co-ordinate  their  aims  and  through 
their  respective  delegates  in  an  All  India  Political  Conference. 

2.  That  this  Conference  is  strongly  of  opinion  that  Indian  Chris- 
tians should  take  an  active  part  in  all  healthy  political  movements  of 
the  country  and  earnestly  urges  upon  the  Community  to  support  all  that 
is  good  for  the  country  and  oppose  that  which  may  be  harmful  to  the 
country  and  to  the  government  of  the  land. 

This  explains  the  attitude  and  desire  of  the  Indian  Christians  and  if 
the  leaders  will  organize  political  associations  in  different  parts  of  the 
country  and  educate  their  people,  then  they  can  make  their  voice  heard 
and  their  influence  felt.  In  order  to  accomplish  this  I  would  suggest 
the  following  means: — 

1.  The  Indian  Christian  Community  should  have  a  paper  of  its  own. 
It  should  be  conducted  by  Indians  with  their  own  money.  Political  ques- 
tions should  be  freely  discussed  and  Christian  public  opinion  educated 
and  formed  and  a  united  action  taken  irrespective  of  Church  denom- 
inations. This  will  require  men  and  money  and  hard  work  and  great 
self-sacrifice. 

2.  Political  associations  should  be  formed  in  all  provinces  and  these 
in  turn  should  send  their  representatives  to  the  All  India  Christian 
Conference  which  will  meet  annually. 

3.  Indian  Christian  delegates  must  be  sent  to  the  Indian  National 
Congress.  Our  views  need  not  necessarily  be  the  same  as  that  of  other 
parties  of  the  political  movements.  But  the  spirit  of  unity  in  action 
with  the  other  members  or  classes  of  the  Indian  Empire  is  mani- 
fested. This  is  the  only  means  by  which  Indian  Christians  can  ventilate 
their  national  sentiments. 

4.  A  Publicity  Bureau  will  be  of  great  help  in  educating  the  Indian 
Christians  about  the  leading  problems  of  the  day.  Leaflets  and  tracts 
in  different  vernaculars  should  be  published  and  scattered  broadcast. 
Capable  Christian  leaders  should  visit  different  centers  and  deliver  lec- 
tures and  arouse  interest  in  the  hearts  of  their  people,  and  make  them 
feel  that  it  is  high  time  for  them  to  take  part  in  the  political  life  of 
India.     Indians  first,  Christians  and  Hindus  afterwards. 

Thus  far  I  have  confined  myself  to  the  political  crisis  alone  and  now 
I  wish  to  consider  with  you  briefly  the  future  prospects  in  case  the  ex- 
tremist party  succeeds  in  securing  Home  Rule  for  India. 

When  we  study  the  history  of  political  movement  in  Egypt  we  find 
that  the  Christians  and  Mohammedans  have  joined  hands  and  the  Copts 
are  the  leading  spirit  in  the  movement.  The  Mohammedans  bitterly  per- 
secuted the  Copts  in  old  days  but  at  present  they  have  set  aside  their 
religious  bigotry  and  hatred  and  united  themselves   with  the  Christians 

688 


in  their  struggrle  for  freedom  of  their  country.  The  same  is  the  case 
in  India.  There  is  Hindu-Moslem  unity  and  Mahatama  Gandhi  is  their 
acknowledged  common  leader.  Why  should  it  not  be  the  same  with 
the  Christian   Community   in   India? 

In  Korea  we  hear  that  Christian  leaders  are  the  chief  sufferers  at 
the  hands  of  the  Japanese  government,  in  the  political  crisis  in  that 
land.  If  Indian  Christians  will  feel  their  responsibility  and  take  active 
part,  they  will  have  to  suffer  also.  If  the  non-Christian  population 
succeeds  in  achieving  its  aim  and  gains  Swaraj  without  the  help  and  sup- 
port of  Indian  Christians  then  there  is  danger  of  bitter  treatment  and 
persecution  ahead.  Religious  hatred  will  prompt  them  to  exterminate 
the  followers  of  foreign  religion.  Like  the  Armenians  the  Indian  Chris- 
tians will  have  to  suffer.  If  disorder  prevails  we  can  well  imagine  what 
will  happen  to  us.  The  riots  in  the  Punjab  and  the  Malabars  show  what 
kind  of  treatment  the  Christians  will  receive  from  the  hands  of  their 
fellow  countrymen. 

Though  the  outlook  seems  dark  from  the  human  point  of  view,  yer 
we  Christians  should  look  to  our  Lord  and  Master  Jesus  Christ  and  re- 
main faithful  to  Him  and  prepare  our  hearts  for  the  future  sufferings 
if  He  allows  them  in  His  providence.  He  will  carry  his  people  safely 
through  the  baptism  of  fire  and  blood  and  purify  His  Church  for  better 
service,  as  He  did  in  China  in  the  Boxer  revolt.  He  protected  the 
Syrian  Church  for  centuries  in  a  most  orthodox  Kative  State,  without 
any  outward  support  of  any  European  power. 

Since  the  advent  of  Christianity  in  this  land  Christ  is  working  for 
her  salvation,  and  the  present  movement  is  only  the  indirect  result  of  the 
teaching  of  Christianity.  Christ  has  said  that  you  will  know  the  truth 
and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free.  The  people  of  this  land  are  begin- 
ning to  know  the  truth  and  it  is  freeing  them  from  their  religious,  social 
and  political  bondage.  We  believe  that  He  alone  is  the  hope  of  our 
dear  land  and  through  Him  only  India  will  be  saved.  He  has  placed 
us  the  Indian  Christians  as  shining  lights.  Let  us  so  live  and  work  that 
our  lights  shall  shine  brightly  and  show  the  dangerous  rocks  of  immor- 
ality, impurity  and  disloyalty  and  help  our  fellow  countrymen  in  steer- 
ing their  ship  safely.  He  has  called  us  to  be  the  salt  of  our  mother 
land.  Let  us  come  in  close  touch  with  the  lives  of  our  fellow  citizens 
and  let  them  not  rot.  We  cannot  afford  to  keep  ourselves  aloof.  We 
cannot  afford  to  be  self-seeking  and  selfish.  We  must  struggle  in  prayer 
for  the  safety  of  our  land,  for  our  rulers  and  for  our  countrymen  and 
in  the  power  of  His  Spirit  with  faith  and  love  try  to  serve  them.  I 
believe  that  it  is  only  through  the  service  of  love  in  return  for  their 
hatred  that  we  Christians  can  win  the  hearts  of  our  countrymen  and 
bring  them  to  the  feet  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour. 

■I  shall  briefly   state  why  we   Indian   Christians   do   not  approve   the 
policy  of  non-co-operation. 

1.  We  disapprove  it  because  it  is  a  policy  of  negation.  The  number  of 
nons  in  the  definition  of  the  policy  is  enough  to  get  it  condemned  by 
all  reasonable  men.  Negation  has  never  carried  man  far  in  any  walk 
of  life  and  is  not  going  to  do  now.  What  is  needed  is  law  of  love,  jus- 
tice and  humanity.  We  believe  not  only  in  a  National  India  and  a  .self- 
governed  India  but  also  in  a  regenerated  India.  India  must  be  born 
again  in  order  to  work  out  her  ovm  salvation.  If  some  force  is  needed 
to  work  this  out,  that  soul-force  cannot  be  put  into  her  or  her  masses 
by  a  mere  policy  of  negation.  The  highest  conception  of  the  fires  of 
purification,  which  it  is  supposed  that  the  new  policy  will  light  up,  can- 

689 

23 — India  and  Persia 


not  be  realized  by  negative  methods  but  can  only  be  realized  by  a  posi- 
tive policy  of  re-construction. 

2.  We  disapprove  it  because  it  is  a  policy  of  destruction.  It  is  urged 
that  the  kind  of  non-co-operation  advised  is  non-violent,  but  less  than 
two  months'  propaganda  with  regard  to  the  most  elementary  stages  of 
it  has  shown  clearly  that  it  cannot  but  be  destructive.  The  leader  of 
non-co-operation  says  that  he  is  passionately  desirous  of  destroying  all 
government  aided  institutions. 

Granted  that  the  system  of  education  is  such  that  educational  insti- 
tutions in  India  are  manufacturing  slaves  and  creating  the  mentality  of 
slavery,  yet  these  very  institutions  have  produced  a  Gandhi  and  a 
Mahomed  Ali.  Apart  from  the  vested  interests,  cherished  traditions, 
sentiments  and  even  institutions  will  be  razed  to  the  ground.  India  is 
too  poor  to  be  able  to  afford  the  loss  of  the  least  of  her  possessions.  It  is 
because  with  the  tares  wheat  may  be  destroyed,  that  wisdom  through 
history  points  to  reformation  rather  than  to  revolution. 

3.  We  disapprove  the  policy  of  non-co-operation  because  it  is  a  policy 
of  matter- force. 

We  have  heard  enough  of  the  soul-force  that  is  to  compel  the  evil  to 
yield  and  that  is  bound  to  make  the  good  surge  up.  The  example  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  put  forward  to  show  what  non-co-operation  can 
accomplish  and  His  teachings  are  quoted  in  support  of  it.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  object  of  Christ's  mission  on  earth  was  to  rekindle  the 
soul-force  in  man  but  this  was  done  on  the  basis  of  brotherhood  of  man 
and  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  Non-co-operation  is  not  based  on  these 
great  principles  which  are  the  fountains  of  love.  It  is  rather  based  on 
the  principles  of  hatred,  for  we  must  hate  the  British  if  we  are  to  non- 
co-operate  with  them.  Christ  who  shared  His  bread  with  the  one  who 
was  to  betray  him,  on  the  night  of  his  betrayal,  could  not  possibly  teach 
such  non-co-operation.  Love  is  the  great  soul-force  in  man  and  no  policy 
based  on  hatred  could  possibly  rekindle  the  soul-force  in  man. 

The  great  teacher  who  asked  us  to  turn  the  other  cheek  and  to  go 
the  second  mile  taught  us  acts  of  co-operation.  Not  in  the  spirit  of  ven- 
geance but  of  love,  of  the  yearning  love  which  tries  to  win  the  souls  of 
others.  The  highest  soul-force  is  the  force  which  wins  the  souls  of 
others  even  of  our  enemies.  If  the  British  have  done  us  wrong  let  us 
in  the  spirit  of  Christ  win  their  souls  back  to  sanity,  humanity,  justice 
and  love. 


APPENDIX  XIII 
God,  the  Crown  and  the  Nation 
From  Nur  Afshan,  Nov.  25,  1921 

We  Christians  came  into  existence  in  India  under  the  old  Government. 
Because  of  our  acceptance  of  the  Christian  faith  our  own  nation,  in 
whose  bosom  we  had  been  nourished,  thrust  us  outside  of  its  protection; 
they  refused  to  let  us  hold  to  our  new  faith  and  remain  in  our  families. 
Surrendering  our  lives  to  Jesus  Christ  was  a  crime  for  which  we  were 
turned  out  of  our  homes. 

On  the  other  hand,  as  regards  the  people  whose  religion  we  adopted, 
the  people  to  whom,  after  forsaking  the  religion  of  our  fathers  and  our 
nation  we  came  to  seek  shelter,  the  people  of  whom  we  hoped  that  they 
would  at  least  receive  us  as  brothers,  because  of  our  common  faith;  that 
they  would  make  good  to  us  the  loss  we  had  suffered  by  our  separation 
from  our  own  nation;  this  people  we  discovered  shunned  us  even  more 

690 


than  did  our  own  fellow  countrymen;  notwithstanding  our  acceptatlcfi 
of  the  Christian  religion,  they  refused  to  give  us  their  confidence  and 
trust;  but  regarding  us  as  worthy  of  loathing  and  contempt,  they  closed 
to  us  the  doors  of  their  own  nationhood  in  a  manner  for  which  there  is 
no  parallel  in  history. 

Now  our  state  is  that  of  the  dhobi's  dog,  who  finds  a  home  neither  in 
the  dhobi's  house  nor  at  the  Ghat  (the  river  bank  where  the  dhobi  washes 
the  clothes).  Because  of  our  acceptance  of  Christ  our  nation  has  ad- 
judged us  guilty  of  a  crime,  and  turned  us  out  of  our  homes,  while  the 
Christian  nations,  classing  us  among  the  nations  that  have  sold  their 
nationality,  refused  to  admit  us  into  their  fold.  We  were  not  allowed 
to  have  a  share  in  their  churches  or  their  burial  grounds.  Like  forlorn 
beggars,  wheresoever  we  could  find  a  place  there  we  had  to  lie  down  and 
be  buried.  Who  was  there  to  take  notice  of  our  troubles  and  misfortunes? 
Where  was  the  man  who  could  bind  up  our  wounds  with  the  ointment 
of  comfort?  Who  was  able  to  take  compassion  upon  us  in  our  distress 
and  wretchedness?  May  God  i-«ward  the  missionaries  who  in  this  time 
of  our  affliction  gave  us  shelter  in  their  own  compounds.  Though  re- 
garding us  as  foreigners,  they  did  help  us  in  some  measure.  We  fool- 
ishly imagined  they  were  really  doing  great  things  for  us,  and  in  return 
extended  to  them  our  thanks.  But  these  men  also  refused  to  open  the 
door  of  their  nationhood  to  us.  Becoming  Christians,  we  along  with 
them,  became  and  remained  foreigners.  True,  our  fellow-countrymen 
thought  we  had  become  Sahibs,  but  we  ourselves  knew  better  what  we 
had  become. 

Nevertheless  we  were  content  with  what  the  missionaries  were  doing 
for  us,  and  considered  ourselves  fortunate,  and  under  these  conditions 
the  compounds  of  the  missionaries  were  filled  with  us  homeless  Chris- 
tians. Today  the  Christians  in  India  number  more  than  forty  lakhs. 
Now  the  great  misfortune  is  that  this  Christian  population  is  scattered 
over  the  whole  country.  Nowhere  in  this  land  have  they  secured  for 
themselves  a  place  in  which  they  could  come  together,  and  support  one 
another  in  their  joys  and  griefs;  extend  a  helping  hand  one  to  the  other; 
but  we  are  so  scattered  over  the  continent  of  India  that  it  does  not  mat- 
ter to  one  whether  or  not  the  other  has  any  existence. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  the  Government  of  India  has  assumed  a  new 
form.  The  new  Government  scheme  has  come  into  operation.  In  every 
province  the  Christians  are  a  small  minority.  Nowhere  are  they  able  to 
assert  themselves  and  convince  the  Government  that  they  have  an  ex- 
istence. Just  as  the  leaves  of  a  book  are  unloosened  when  the  binding 
is  gone,  so  the  Government  has  set  loose  and  scattered  about  the  privi- 
leges of  the  Christians.  In  every  province  the  Christians  have  been 
placed  under  the  control  of  the  majority,  and  the  minority  has  been 
thrown  into  a  deep  pit,  where  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  for  the  Christian 
community  to  maintain  its  individuality.  Thus  the  new  Government 
scheme,  by  its  power  and  authority,  has  thrown  us  Christians  back  into 
the  cradle  of  the  nation.  Against  this  no  Missionary  Society  lifted  up 
its  voice. 

But  even  this  has  not  been  enough;  for  now  the  Punjab  Government 
by  passing  the  Panchayat  bill  has  fastened  us  still  more  with  the  ropes 
of  our  own  nation's  power  and  authority.  By  giving  to  the  Panchayat 
power  in  criminal  matters  it  has  made  it  still  more  obligatory  for  Indian 
Christians  to  submit  to  and  obey  their  own  nation.  There  is  now  no- 
where a  place  of  refuge  for  us.  We  are  bound  to  submit  to  the  Govern- 
ment and  authority  of  our  nation. 

691 


iSiow  we  have  not  told  this  story  in  order  to  make  any  great  complaint 
against  the  policy  of  the  Mission  or  of  the  Government;  but  we  have 
stirred  up  this  matter  in  order  that  our  Indian  Christians  and  especially 
Punjabi  Christians  may  open  their  eyes  and  consider  their  deplorable 
condition,  that  they  may  realize  themselves,  that  they  may  ponder  over 
and  come  to  conclusions  as  to  what  is  to  their  advantage  or  to  their  dis- 
advantage, on  their  condition,  their  rightful  place,  and  their  needs; 
that  they  may  understand  what  as  Indian  Christians  they  should  do 
and  what  they  can  do  for  themselves. 

Now  in  the  midst  of  these  conditions  our  nation  is  crying  out  aloud, 
saying,  Bring  the  existing  Government  to  an  end,  and  establish  Swaraj 
(home  rule)  in  its  place.  Our  fellow-countrymen  are  insistent  that  we 
Christians  should  unite  with  them.  We  cannot  long  postpone  the  con- 
sideration of  their  demand.  This  demand  of  our  brothers  is  echoing  in 
our  ears.  We  shall  have  to  decide  now  once  for  all  as  to  whether  or  not 
we  shall  unite  with  our  own  people. 

Three  objects  rise  up  before  us  at  this  time.  The  first  of  these  is  God, 
and  our  religion;  the  second  is  the  Crown  or  the  King;  the  third  is  the 
Nation.  We  Indian  Christians  are  faced  by  these  three  things.  God 
has  a  powerful  claim  on  us.  Second  in  order  come  our  duty  to  the  nation, 
and  third  in  order  stands  the  claim  of  the  Crown  or  the  King.  The  de- 
mand of  the  time,  and  still  more  the  demand  of  the  national  leaders  is 
that  of  these  three  claimants  for  our  allegiance,  the  claims  of  one  should 
be  rejected;  that  is  to  say  the  rights  of  the  King  should  be  set  aside. 
Whose  right  then  are  we  prepared  to  reject?  Of  all  our  difficulties  this 
is  one  of  the  greatest,  which  the  All  India  Christian  Conference  should 
try  to  remove  for  us  and  remove  speedily. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  difficulties  in  which  we  Indian  Chris- 
tians have  been  involved  have  not  been  created  for  us  by  the  Govern- 
ment; rather  they  are  the  outcome  of  the  shortsightedness  and  the  in- 
difference of  the  Missionary  Societies.  These  Societies  have  failed  to 
create  anywhere  in  India  a  place  where  we  Christians  might  meet  to- 
gether. The  Bishop  of  Madras,  Dr.  Whitehead,  far  sighted  man  as  he  is, 
has  most  earnestly  been  urging  the  Missionary  Societies  that  they  should 
purchase  land  for  the  Christians,  but  the  missionaries  have  not  paid 
heed  to  a  single  word  he  has  spoken.  We  today  invite  these  missionaries, 
who  laughed  at  the  pleadings  of  the  Bishop,  that  they  open  their  eyes, 
and  contemplate  the  result  of  the  fruit  of  the  centuries  of  labor  done 
by  them,  as  seen  under  the  present  Government;  and  also  consider 
whether  now  there  is  any  room  or  opportunity  for  missionary  work  in 
India. 

Well,  it  is  no  use  weeping  over  the  shortcomings  and  the  weakness  of 
the  methods  of  Missionary  Societies.  After  all  missionaries,  too,  are  hu- 
man beings.  They  had  done  the  best  they  could.  But  now  Nature  and 
Government  and  Missionary  Societies  have  shown  us  the  way  to  the 
home  of  our  mother;  have  handed  us  over  to  our  Indian  brothers,  have 
sent  us  back  to  the  homes  and  the  families  and  the  friends  from  whom 
we  had  been  separated.  Do  not  let  us  regard  this  as  the  result  of  any- 
one's mistakes,  but  rather  recognizing  in  it  God's  providential  ordering, 
let  us  try  to  submit  to  it.  The  decisions  which  at  this  time  should  be 
ir>ade,  let  us  prepare  ourselves  for  them.  It  is  time  for  the  leaders  to 
act.  The  question  we  are  asked  to  consider  is  this:  Whose  right  are 
we  going  to  set  aside?  If  we  can  retain  all  three,  namely  God,  and  the 
Nation  and  the  King,  well  and  good:  then  let  us  set  to  work  and  find 

692 


out  a  way  in  which  this  may  be  done.     If  not,  then  the  time  demands 
that  you  should  reject  one  of  the  three  claims  to  your  allegiance. 


In  the  remaining  portions  of  this  article  the  writer  discusses  the 
question  as  to  what  Christians  should  decide  to  do.  The  conclusion  at 
which  he  arrives  is  that  they  should  throw  in  their  lot  with  the  Moderate 
party,  and  that  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  join  the  Extremists.  1.  Be- 
cause neither  the  Congress  nor  the  Khilafat  party  represents  the  people 
of  India  as  a  whole.  2.  Because  Hindu-Moslem  unity  is  not  a  real  unity. 
It  is  only  on  the  surface  and  is  bound  sooner  or  later  to  come  to  an  end. 
3.  Because  in  the  new  Government  which  the  Extremists  wish  to  establish 
there  would  be  no  place  for  the  Christians  or  for  any  other  minority.  4. 
Because  Christians  are  required  by  their  religion  to  be  loyal  to  the  exist- 
ing Government.  They  can  do  so,  and  yet  remain  true  to  their  national 
aspirations. 

This  article  was  written  with  special  reference  to  the  All  India  Chris- 
tian Conference,  held  during  Christmas  week,  1921,  in  Lahore. 


APPENDIX  XIV 
An  Indian  Christian  Manifesto  on  Church  Union 

In  view  of  a  world-wide  desire  for  a  fuller  realization  of  the  unity 
of  the  different  sections  of  Christendom  and  with  particular  reference  to 
the  negotiations  for  the  organizational  union  of  the  South  Indian  United 
Church  and  the  Church  of  England  in  South  India,  the  following  state- 
ment is  made  as  an  expression  of  Indian  Christian  opinion. 

The  fundamental  unity  of  all  believers  in  Christ  is  a  truth  that  is 
fully  acknowledged  by  and  deeply  rooted  in  the  Indian  Christian  mind, 
and  any  movement  intended  to  give  expression  to  that  unity  cannot  but 
meet  with  the  general  approval  and  support  of  Indian  Christians.  It 
is  also  felt  that  in  the  interests  of  the  further  progress  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God  in  this  land,  a  full  recognition  of  the  unity  and  spiritual  equal- 
ity of  the  diff'erent  denominations  is  highly  necessary. 

It  has  to  be  noted,  however,  that  the  negotiations  that  are  being  car- 
ried on  to  effect  the  union  of  the  Churches  proceed  on  the  basis  that  the 
adoption  of  a  uniform  system  of  Church  Government  is  a  condition 
precedent  to  such  unity.  This  attitude  does  not  faithfully  reflect  the 
Indian  Christian  mind.  The  vast  majority  of  Indian  Christian  laymen 
and  even  clergymen  feel  that  the  existing  denominational  differences 
should  not  be  allowed  to  hinder  in  any  way  a  full  realization  of  Chris- 
tian fellowship,  and  would  gladly  welcome  the  immediate  introduction 
of  intercommunion,  interchange  of  pulpits  and  intercelebration  of  the 
sacraments,   notwithstanding  the  existence  of  these  differences. 

It  is  therefore  desired  that,  in  the  interests  of  the  free  and  natural 
development  of  the  Indian  Church,  larger  schemes  of  organizational 
unity  should  be  deferred  till  independent  Indian  Christian  opinion  makes 
such  a  demand  and  that  for  the  present  attempts  should  be  made  to  in- 
troduce intercommunion,  interchange  of  pulpits  and  intercelebration. 

Bangalore  Conference  Resolutions  on  Church  Union 
Note. — The  first  three  are  resolutions  of  the  last  Conference  re-affirmed. 
(1)      That  this  Conference  of  Indian   Christians,  consisting  of  mem- 
bers belonging  to  the  Anglican,   Wesleyan,   Lutheran,   Baptist,   Presby- 
terian, S.  I.  U.  C.  denominations,  held  at  Bangalore,  is  of  the  opinion 
that  the  several  denominations  of  the  Christian  Church  are  in  all  es- 

693 


sentiai  respects  within  the  one  Church  Catholic,  and  that  in  the  interests 
of  true  Christian  fellowship  and  for  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Christ  in  this  land,  a  recognition  of  the  equal  status  of  the  denominations 
within  the  one  Church  of  Christ,  and  their  ministries  as  of  equal  validity, 
is  necessary. 

(2)  The  such  recognition  (Sic)  should  be  given  effect  to  along  the 
following  lines: 

(a)  Ministers  may  receive  due  authorization  to  minister  fully  and 
freely  in  the  churches  of  other  denominations,  it  being  understood  that 
the  above  authorization  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  reordination  or  as  re- 
pudiation of  the  present  position  of  their  ministers  as  validly  ordained. 
Ministration  would  mean  preaching  (interchange  of  pulpits)  and  ad- 
ministration of  sacraments. 

(b)  All  the  denominations  should  recognize  fully  the  members  of 
one  another  and  admit  them  to  the  Lord's  Table. 

(3)  That  in  the  opinion  of  this  Conference,  further  negotiations  to- 
wards union  of  an  organic  character  should  not  take  place  until  the 
above  two  resolutions  have  been  given  practical  effect  to  and  until  the 
Indian  Churches  have  attained  financial  and  administrative  independ- 
ence, which,  it  is  hoped,  will  conserve  the  best  elements  of  Indian  re- 
ligious experience. 

(4)  That  this  Conference  feels  confident  of  the  general  approval  of 
Resolution  2  by  the  laity  of  the  different  denominations  and  therefore 
calls  upon  them  to  do  all  in  their  power  to  bring  about  intercommunion, 
interchange  of  pulpits  and  intercelebration  of  the  sacraments  without 
any  reference  to  organizational  union. 


694 


Princeton  Theologic 


1   1012  01121   2521 


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